Another advantage to indoor farming is that you can breed smaller, shorter plants with less stover and more usable crop.
One reason Norman Borlaug saved so many lives was that his semi-dwarf wheat spent less time and energy growing stalks than traditional crops, and thus produced more edible parts. Without a need to resist weather, insects, and extremes in temperature, we could develop crops with spindly stems, little to no bran, and leaves that just sprawl on the growing medium.
White Leghorn hybrid chickens in an indoor factory farm lay an order of magnitude more eggs than a Southeast Asian Red Junglefowl. We might optimize crops the same way.
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Food
Date: 2022-06-27 11:01 pm (UTC)One reason Norman Borlaug saved so many lives was that his semi-dwarf wheat spent less time and energy growing stalks than traditional crops, and thus produced more edible parts. Without a need to resist weather, insects, and extremes in temperature, we could develop crops with spindly stems, little to no bran, and leaves that just sprawl on the growing medium.
White Leghorn hybrid chickens in an indoor factory farm lay an order of magnitude more eggs than a Southeast Asian Red Junglefowl. We might optimize crops the same way.