If food was grown in three dimensions in order to grow 100 times per acre wouldn't it end world hunger?

Question

If it was done on a large enough scale? Wouldn't it take up far less ground area then we use today allowing the land to be renaturalized as well? Wouldn't this employ a lot of people who would otherwise be doing things like slash and burn deforestation in the rainforest for farming and provide enough food and profit for prosperiety a middle class and sustainible development as well? Would this make sense to do to make cities more sustainible by having them produce there own food near themselves? Wouldn't this help civilization to reverse it's sprawling out in all directions to feed and supply itself trend that it's been on since it's begginning thats been destroying the wild environment the whole time?

Answer 1

I suggest you grow food in FOUR dimensions.  Add time and you can produce 1000 times per acre. You just have to give it a year or so.

Answer 2

The only problem is $$$.  The average office space here rents for around $50 per sq yard.  Can you produce $50 (plus variable costs) worth of food per sq yard of space?

Answer 3

The idea of vertical farms, or as you have called it, three dimensional farms, is a  think piece right now.  The march 2007 issue of the magazine Plenty discusses high-rise farming.  30 story buildings that take up one square block are envisioned to have the capability of feeding 50,000 people.  Not only would this help to solve the problem regarding the amount of land that is needed to support populations, but it also helps to shift society towards a more sustainable way of life.  The average vegetable is shipped over 1000 miles to get to our plate. (A) An unbelievable amount of fossil fuels are used to transport our food.   The farms proposed in Plenty magazine would be more than just farms, they would be ways for "dealing wtih municipal waste, recycling water and using methane digestion to help a city be more sustainable". Vertical farms would be extremely beneficial for metropolitan areas.

When applying this idea to third world nations at this point in time, it is not feasible.  The vertical farms would be extremely expensive and require more technology than labour.  The developed world is more technologically dependent while the developing world uses more manual labour.  By using this type of farming system globally, the amount of farmers would decrease.  The jobs that would be produced would relate to the technology that would be needed to develop and create the idea; not the actual farmers who maintain the structure.  

The problem is not that there is not enough food, but the allocation of what is produced.  Everyday in America, more food is thrown away than what is sent to the entire continent of Africa annually for aide.

Another issue is subsidizing. Our crops are subsidized by our government, and this 'cheap' produce is sent to third world countries that are on tight IMF structural adjustments and not allowed to support their own farmers.  For example, it is cheaper to buy Chiquita bananas in Jamaica than bananas that are locally produced (B).  Also, while the developed nations overproduce food, the market prices drop, feeding into a vicious cycle of more government subsidies by the rich while small farmers in developing countries are unable to survive.

Answer 4

Excellent idea.  It's  called hydroponic farming.  it can be done but it takes capital investment to do it.  Let's go for it.

Answer 5

Umm, duuh, yeerrr, but how would you DO it???

Answer 6

Slash and burn, what are you still in the third grade studing about native american farming.  There are more "forest" in the US and in the Rain Forrest region today than there was 60 years ago.  South America (I.E. the rain forest) is were the bulk of the worlds coffee comes from, Can you live without Starbucks?

Our eyes cannot see things in three demensions, how can we grow things in such a way.  If you every noticed, plants grow up (towards the sun), not out (sideways) or down (except rooted plants like potatoes).

And, last I checked, there wasn't a food shotage.  You know, if the people living in areas were food doesn't/can't grow would MOVE! that would help curve world hunger.  

Time is money, if this was possible, you would still have to pay for it.  Those that do go hungery do so because they cannot afford food (or spend their money on other things).  So, with there still being a cost involved how would this end world hunger?

Answer 7

We can feed everyone in the world now however when we help third world countries they start breeding like rabbits until they have out paced our help.

Answer 8

Permaculture is a way of agriculture that thinks in 3 dimensions instead of horizontally like conventional farming

we use the trees as poles for all kinds of vines and by diversity in species try compact as many things in to a cubic space as possible .

and so end up with different levels of plants ,just like in a jungle

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ORGANIC FOOD

to grow food really organically you have to put tons of compost and work with much more labor ,and big trucks

it is a lot more work ,but the plants & produce are better ,and the soil becomes what is called sustainable ,it gets better with time and farmers can continue to use the same land for many years

the chinampas of Mexico and the terazes of the incas are agricultural projects that continue to be productive after a thousand years ,this is called sustainability.

and they are agricultures that work with strickly organic methods

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CHEMICALLY GROWN

when a farmer uses chemicals he only needs a pickup truck becaues the chemicals come in kilos ,not tons like the composts,and he uses much less labor ,so it is much cheaper to produce ,

but the chemicals impregnate the fruits and vegetables people can get very sick.

apart from that ,the soil become poisoned which goes on to contaminate the ground waters which get purified for drinking water but the PH levels in the water rises which affects sexual devellopment in the fetuses of pregnant mothers ,not to speak of skin,eye and stomach complaints ,or have deformed babies if they get to much of it ,

apart from that the fertilizers in the end kill the micro organisms that make the soil and by the end of the day the soil is dead ,and turns into a dessert when the ground waters are overpumped and dry up .

real organically grown food it more expensive ,but it is much healthier and socially responsible ,

100% SAFE VEGETABLES

the only way ,and this we teach now all over the world ,is to grow you own food .

and you would be suprised at how much you can grow in your back yard

even in 10 square meters ,some people even grow a few tomatoes in flower pots in apartments

this may sound crazy ,but if everybody did it it would be a heck opf a lot tomatoes that can come from an apartment building

PERMACULTURE

Permaculture is a world recognised earth friendly movement but tends to include people that practice the concept and is active in all fields

Permaculture means permanent agriculture

a concept put forward by Bill Mollisson in the 60`s

which is a complete hand book for environmental design.

the Permaculture designers manual by Bill Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.

and is the best all round book you can get.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail]) Source(s) some other writers that are on the internet are

david Holmgren

Larry Santoyo

Kirk Hanson

Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,

One-Straw Revolution

The Road Back to Nature

The Natural Way of Farming

http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...

Simon Henderson

and Bill Molisson.

a representitive of the concept in USA is

Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]

[e-mail]

http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....

http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo...

I am a permaculture consultant in Guerrero in Mexico

http://spaces.msn.com/byderule

Answer 9

maybe...

Answer 10

Good idea, But you'll have to figure out a way to make it practical. Youre gonna need to provide nutrients and light in a 3d array, and do it cheaply so that third world countries can do it. Good luck!

Answer 11

Whuh?  Hunger, in the sense of famines in Africa or wherever, have nothing to do with global production, or the efficiency of modern agriculture.  We already have enough food.  It is about distribution.  And the distribution issues have to do with socio-political factors in most of the developing world.  Which is a politically correct way of saying people starve because they live in *&%-backwards countries run by wack-job dictators and warlords.  

FYI, urban agriculture, is already a phenomenon that has resulted from the informal economies that have evolved in the sprawl of megacitities and shanty-towns in the developing world.

If you want to understand the issue better, start by reading about something called the Harris-Todaro labor model.  This is a pretty important concept to understand in developmental ecomomics, with respect to urbanization and agriculture in developing countries