On Sun, Feb 19, 2012 at 11:19 AM, Robert Lynn <robert.gulliver.l...@gmail.com> wrote: > Photosynthesis is actually a fairly inefficient process. 20GWh of sunlight > on a hectare of land over a year might yield 30MWh of Wheat (8,000kg). > > But if we have cheap power we can make a reasonable proportion of animal > feeds from CO2 and Water using chemical processing (simple > glycerol, triglycerides) with relatively high efficiency and low costs. We > can then breed algae and animals to make better use of > those artificial foods to make oils, meat, possibly eggs and diary products > for us to eat (fish like salmon are already very efficient converters - > 1.1kg feed per kg of fish) while using far less agricultural input. > > This would probably make a lot of well-fed westerners very angry, but would > be a nice way to reduce human population pressures on the world.
When you say the "human population pressure" would be reduced, what do you mean? Do you mean there would be fewer hungry people? Growing plants for food may be energy inefficient, but eating animals strikes me as indulgent and unethical if we could chemical synethsize all our food needs. Harry
