From: Billy Brown (bbrown@transcient.com)
Date: Fri Mar 24 2000 - 14:18:57 MST
Larry Klaes wrote:
> We now have over six billion humans on planet Earth.
> How long before things turn into Soylent Green before
> we have to do something radical to stop the population
> explosion?
Not anytime soon. We already have the technology to feed several orders of
magnitude more people than that, using hydroponics and other such
techniques. Any reasonably prosperous country can easily afford to upgrade
production methods as required by population growth.
Helping third world countries achieve better yields isn't quite that easy,
of course. However, even there we are better off than we were 10, 20 or 30
years ago. There shouldn't be a problem in the next 2-3 decades unless the
anti-GM foods movement manages to get cheap biotech banned on a global
basis. And, of course, 2-3 decades from now puts us in ultratech territory,
and the whole equation looks completely different.
Billy Brown
bbrown@transcient.com
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