Re: John Savard Re: Watch the Funny Man!
".....But what about growing food? Increasing land area through artificially-lighted multi-storey greenhouses will be much more expensive than just using arable land that is just sitting there. At seven billion people in the world, and assuming we want them all to have a decent diet (i.e. the same as enjoyed in North America or western Europe), we've already crashed into a limit....." There is a common misconception that many parts of the Third World are incapable of producing enough food to support their populations in comfort. That idea is complete male bovine manure - people tend historically to group where the land provides, not the areas that don't. What is usually the problem is the politics of the region, not its possible productivity.
An example very unpopular with trendy metrosexuals is pre-'liberation' Rhodesia, known as the breadbasket of Africa, where the knowledge from white farmers meant not only an excess production of foodstuffs but also of cash crops such as tobacco. Fast-forward to Zimbabwe and Uganda and the break up of the white-owned farms for 'traditional, black farming' (ruining prime grazing and crop lands by running goats on them) and Zimbabwe has been reduced to a net importer of food. So-called 'revolutionary economics' haven't helped Zimbabwe or Uganda much either.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
