This may be a little off topic but anyway . . . On NHK the other day I saw a documentary about food exports and high-tech agriculture in the Netherlands. Here is a web page about it:
http://www.hollandtrade.com/sector-information/agriculture-and-food/ This is mind-boggling. The Netherlands is an itty bitty country with very high population density, and yet they are the second largest food exporter in the world, after the U.S! They grow massive amounts of food in highly sophisticated sealed greenhouses. These are more like futuristic food factories than what you might think of as greenhouses. They monitor ~100 growth parameters. They increase CO2 concentration. People have to cover up their shoes and wear plastic haz mat style clothing to avoid contaminating the crops. I am big fan food factories. I had no idea they were so far advanced. The Dutch are starting to export not only food but the food-factory technology and support. It is like building licensed automobile factories in other countries. They get back the data which they use to improve the technology. The government has moved the agriculture department into the technology department -- the division of government that develops computer technology, shipbuilding and so on. NHK showed that the Japanese are far behind in this technology. It was pathetic. Embarrassing. The S. Koreans are buying Dutch technology. People think we are running out of agricultural land and water. They are right, but we do not need to. As I pointed out in the book, using current technology plus cold fusion we could grow all of the food in the U.S. in an area the size of greater New York City. Even without cold fusion we could greatly reduce land and water use. See: http://www.verticalfarm.com/ - Jed
