From: Ken Clements (Ken@Innovation-On-Demand.com)
Date: Sat Mar 16 2002 - 19:25:02 MST
"Robert J. Bradbury" wrote:
>
> There are some energy losses because plants would have to expend
> energy to pump out excessive amounts of salt. But it isn't a show
> stopper. ...
>
Just ask Macrocystis:
http://www.sanctuaries.nos.noaa.gov/pgallery/pgchannel/living/living_9.html
>
>
> Its just that most of the food crops have been bred to utilize
> fresh water. No reason we can't fix that with a little genetic
> engineering.
>
>
Absolutely. This is a big area of agricultural research. See:
http://www.gla.ac.uk/ibls/BMB/pjd/salinity.html
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/9606/18/t_t/saltwater.farms/
http://www.gci.ch/DigitalForum/digiforum/articles/article2001/massawa.html
Irrigation causes increases in soil salinity, which then requires more
irrigation. Making crops resistant to salt is one of the biggest ways to have
more water, and, in effect, make more land.
When this progression gets far enough, it will be possible to come up with an
entire GM farm that floats out in the ocean (like the kelp in the Sargasso
Sea) and produces whatever crop you want. You would not have to plow it, or
water it, and you would be able to load the product right onto the grain
ships.
-Ken
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