Today’s crops crisscross the globe: Mexico’s tomatoes end up on your plate, our wheat heads to Africa. As a result, the challenge of growing twice as much food by 2050 to feed nine billion people—with less and less land—is everyone’s problem. But scientists are hard at work fomenting a second green revolution. Here’s how nitrogen-spewing microbes, underground soil sensors and fruit-picking robots will help keep food on our tables.
1. Farm the Desert
70%: Amount of the world’s freshwater used for agriculture
Solution Greenhouses built near coasts turn plentiful seawater into freshwater for crops, without expensive desalinization plants.
Potential Farmers could grow cash crops like lettuce and tomatoes in the desert.
ETA Three pilot projects are under way, and researchers are scouting sites for a larger full-scale project.
On frequent trips to Morocco, British lighting designer Charlie Paton was struck by the juxtaposition of sea and vast, sweeping desert. “You’re on the edge of the Sahara but so close to the ocean,” he says. After selling his lighting company, Paton set about designing something that brings the two together: the Seawater Greenhouse, a low-energy means of growing food in desert regions using abundant nearby saltwater. Three pilot greenhouses in Tenerife, the Canary Islands; Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates; and Oman use prevailing winds, fans and simple evaporators to convert seawater into fresh, and in the process create a humid environment in which just about any plant can grow.
The greenhouses, which will cost as little as $5 a square foot to build, get water from the sea, either by gravity or a pump. The water trickles down honeycomb-shaped lattices on the front wall and evaporates, cooling and humidifying the air inside. The air warms as it travels across the greenhouse—hotter air can hold more moisture—before reaching a second evaporator, which supersaturates it. From there, the air moves immediately into a condenser, which pulls out freshwater and sends it to an underground storage tank for watering the plants.
Paton is now scouting locations for the Sahara Forest Project, which will add a “concentrating solar power” plant to the greenhouse concept. Extra freshwater could then be used to run the facility (the sun heats water in pipes to make steam, which drives generators) and to clean the huge arrays of mirrors.
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I like... what about the molten salt, (desal residue ),energy option as opposed to the 'extra freshwater' to produce steam, energy option?
Once again ,how do you implement the infrastructure required, when the global fertilizer companies stand to lose out on massive short term profits with a more efficient system? They keep the price artificially low in order to 'de-incentivise 'demand for a long term,economically and environmentally better system.Put a REAL price on existing fertilizers and water resources and then let the best system win on a now level playing field.
Why are ALL my comments appearing in EVERY article?Anyhoo, the expression 'cracking the code',in relation to the above article on genetic manipulation of crops (to allow them to grow with less water for example) ,really struck a chord with me.It conjured up an image of 'cracking a safe',( lining up all the correct tumblers and codes to allow access to the goodies.) In the case of genetics ,the goodies are things like drought resistant rice varieties etc. However, an area of concern could be that ,like safe codes ,genetic codes are hard to crack for a reason.They contain highly valued items with the potential to do much good ,but once we unlock these genetic mechanisms,by there very nature, it becomes almost impossible to return things to the way they were.It therefore behoves us to be very sure of what we do and don't unlock.I would like to see genetic science to be treated with the same level of caution and respect as nuclear science.