Chapter 18: Greener than Green — The Infinite Resource by Ramez Naam
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FARMING
| 2% |
293M
metric tons |
50
years |
8000
sq. miles |
70% |
14,450 |
of citizens of
industrialized
countries farm |
of rice
consumed
in 2007[1] |
until
food needs
triple |
of dead zone in
Gulf of Mexico
from Midwest
Nitrogen runoff |
of world's
fresh water
consumed by
farm irrigation |
organic farms
in 2008 |
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VITAMIN A
2M - 3M
children |
500K
children |
50K
genes |
2
genes |
under age 5
die
from a lack of
vitamin A |
go blind
from a lack of
vitamin A |
make up
corn |
need modification
to add beta carotene
to corn[2] |
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LIVESTOCK
| 1.3B |
18% |
5B - 6B |
cattle
on the
planet today |
of all
greenhouse gases
come from
cows and sheep[3] |
more
cattle required
to use only
natural fertilizer |
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ORGANIC FARMING
| Pro's | Cons |
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- less energy used by farm equipment
- no pesticide ingestion by humans
-
no pesticide runoff into fresh water supply or oceans
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produces lower crop yields (need more land to grow same amount of food)
- organic corn produces 70% yield of conventional corn
- organic rice produces 59% yield of conventional rice
- organic cabbage produces 43% yield of conventional cabbage
- needs 1 - 2 times as much land to grow same amount of food
- would need to cut down 50% of all existing forests to grow same amount of food if all done organically
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GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMO)
| Pro's | Cons |
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- can add beta carotene to rice and wheat to eliminate ill-effects from lack of vitamin A
- modify C3 photosynthesis crops to use type C4 photosynthesis (less water and plants store 2 times the energy from sun as calories)
- modify crops to produce high yields (save forests)
- modify crops to not need fertilizer (no runoff)
- grow meat without animals (no livestock suffering)
- add Wallaby stomach bacteria to livestock to reduce methane gas emissions into the atmosphere by 80%
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- Monsanto patent issue where seed harvesting/replanting disallowed
- new type of food testing for the FDA
- people afraid of it because they don't understand it
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Footnotes:
- rice is the most consumed food in the world
- humans digest beta carotene to create vitamin A
- more than what is emitted by all of the world's cars combined
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