This ½ acre has everything you need to survive | Hard Reset MEGASODE
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- Опубліковано 27 тра 2024
- How will we feed 8 billion people? New tech is making it possible.
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How much cropland does it take to sustain your life? The answer is about a half acre - that’s roughly the amount of active cropland per person across the entire planet. As the global population grows, this area will shrink.
So what are some sustainable ways to make the most of this finite space? In this mega-episode of “Hard Reset,” Nick explores that question by meeting with some of the people building a sustainable future for farming - not only in terms of food production but also the materials that are woven into modern life.
Nick explores what it will take to scale up the lab-grown meat industry, how laser-wielding robots are making farmers’ lives easier, the surprising benefits of mushroom leather, the economics of vertical farming, and much more. Solutions like these are working toward a future where farming uses less space, reduces human labor, and wastes fewer resources.
0:00 What is the active cropland needed per person?
2:26 What is a MEGASODE?
2:38 Part 1: The Farm
2:59 Why is farming more than just food?
3:33 How much cropland do we each require?
3:46 How do we feed a growing population?
4:11 How will we solve the problems of limited space, labor, and resources?
4:17 Part 2: The Space
4:25 How can we produce more with less?
5:08 Why farm vertically?
7:07 Why use LEDs?
9:09 What is the world’s cropland used for?
10:27 Why are we eating so much meat?
12:59 Can we replace meat with cell-cultured meat?
17:49 Part 3: Time
18:26 Can robots replace human functions?
19:52 What are punnets?
20:31 What kinds of crops can these robots harvest?
20:58 What is Carbon Robotic’s laser weeder?
22:22 How does the laser weeder work?
23:23 How do lasers work?
26:06 Part 4: Inputs and Outputs
26:13 Why do we need topsoil?
26:58 What are the advantages of laser weeding?
28:00 How do we make the most of the water we have?
29:00 What is mycelium?
30:42 Can mushroom leather rival the real thing?
31:54 How can we manipulate mycelium cells?
33:49 Why do some people require more than a 1/2 acre?
34:50 How can we make healthy meals available in food desserts?
36:00 How are farming and selling food related?
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Read more of our stories on farming:
Farmers can fight invasive insects with AI and a robotic arm
►www.freethink.com/robots-ai/s...
3 ways autonomous farming is driving a new era of agriculture
►www.freethink.com/hard-tech/a...
Agricultural photosynthesis lets us grow plants in total darkness
►www.freethink.com/science/art...
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Dive deeper into the tech featured in our first ever MEGASODE:
Vertical farms could take over the world ► ua-cam.com/video/J4SaSfnHK3I/v-deo.html
This $23 chicken nugget was grown in a lab ► ua-cam.com/video/qq0XkT_-wjw/v-deo.html
The farming robots that will feed our world ► ua-cam.com/video/hBkhUClyJvs/v-deo.html
Laser “death ray” kills weeds 80x faster than humans ► ua-cam.com/video/72ol-5SOGqY/v-deo.html
Inside the lab growing leather from mushrooms ► ua-cam.com/video/CBZgZEKD5ik/v-deo.html
HMMMM let me think about this. A cauliflower is about $4 a pound and I can get a pound of chicken breast for about $1.79 per pound. Hmmmm sounds more expensive to me.....
none of these are feasible without a cheap source of energy. and we want it to be clean... so nuclear is the only future.
Actually some of the best farming methods require very little equipment, and it's making farmers who incorporate these methods a lot of money and it saves them time. Less is more.
No-till farming. There are now a lot of farmers across the US where the main input to their soil is compost and the investments they make is into having a steady supply of compost. The plant density is much greater using no-till(minimal soil disturbance) and the equipment other than dealing with a lot of mulch and compost is simple, with a couple of exceptions but those exceptions tend to be the movement of no-till out onto hundreds of acres.
No-till is a regenerative type of farming, you are growing the soil. It allows you to take an area that as long as it has access to water, and it's a minimally acceptable soil (so no rocky soil), a farmer can over a few years turn it into a very healthy farm.
So, how do we use less fertilizer? No-till regenerative farming, where people are showing they can make a living farming 1/2 to 1 acre. It also opens up much more land for farming because no a back yard can be very productive.
Also, humans are different species, all of which are extinct other than Homo Sapiens, but yes, the development of agriculture is only about 10,000 years old.
New technologies have one disadvantage, they always require the supply of parts and service from the outside, and this is not always available. Many years ago, US food production was driven to absurdity - the result - the world's highest rate of soil erosion and most of the food purchased in China. Such ideas impress young smartphone users. For now, the only sensible solution is Permaculture, get to work and stop destroying nature.
eat ze bugs yourself sir
This video missed the opportunity to introduce people with the works of real visionary in the agricultural industry like Allan savory, Joel Salatin, Geoff lowton or Gregg Judy. These are real farmers trying to change the agricultural system, doing their own experiments, trial and errors over the last few decades. Inspiring thousands of other farmers to start regenerative farming. Sure, a 100 million dollars factory farm with shiny led and shooting lasers gets more views but the stories of these visionaries are more important now than ever.
I completely agree, but I think there's a good reason for the oversight. The video's perspective is one of maximizing control and minimizing all manner of interaction with the natural environment, which fits in very nicely with the wider paradigm of "progress" that dominates Western culture. By contrast, regenerative approaches aim to maximize ecological interactions and encourage the growth of complex systems that far exceed our ability to directly control them. In other words, these approaches are trying to maximize nature and minimize (direct) control, which runs counter to everything the West stands for.
I think that was intentional. Some lean the right way like Joel Salatin. Some lean the opposite. It's abundantly clear which direction this guy leans.
@@kernfelwell said. Control. Centralized planning. Failing to recognize the complexity of nature and humans' (even/especially the "experts") inability to comprehend the inevitable unintended consequences.
It's interesting to watch stuff like this after your eyes are opened. To see the programming that is behind it, intentional or not.
They mix truths in with their agenda so that it sounds good, but in reality has very problematic seeds mixed in and ready to grow when the opportunity is right.
#NonAggressionPrinciple #VOLUNTARYISM
And complex natural ecology with lack of control won't scale and be economical. But I do agree with these models. Monocultures are not sustainable. We won't build enough vertical farms to feed everyone in the next decade or two but while we try, can as many farms as possible try to enhance their methods as mentioned? Society is wealthy enough to pay for more expensive but sustainable food. Can't simply raise food prices though. Gotta subsidize. Move meat subsidies and voila. Tax payers dollars being used smartly and fairly since the masses can buy the now affordable sustainable food and the wealthy can pay more for their huge meat diets.
I farm wheat, soybeans, and pinto beans in North Dakota with my father our farm is slightly under 800 acres and am a director for the North Dakota Soybean Council.
I appreciate your video just wanted to leave a couple critiques/comments/questions - tone is hard to perceive over text but leaving a disclaimer this intended for a healthy discourse.
If you look at historical USDA data for amount of farmland in production, average yields of each crop, total production (can be found with a google search) it shows that over the last 100 years the average yield is more than double or even 4-5x higher today than it was, which explains why the total amount of acres farmed is lower now than before. It isn’t due to loss of available farmland.
This past February I went on a trade mission to Cambodia to represent ND soybean farmers at an animal feed conference and visit some of the aquaculture farms we are sponsoring through an organization called WISHH and our CAST program. I know everyone’s heart and intentions come from a good place but America is the world leading ag exporter. The message of this video is about feeding the world, but These vertical farms aren’t going to stop Brazil from tearing down part of the Amazon to increase their farmland for soybean production. What all of us, myself included, forget is that our standard of living in America is a lot higher compared to the rest of world. It’s awesome that in America we have the opportunity to do these types of things that you featured in your video, that’s what makes our country so great. but realistically the work to end world hunger needs to be done in helping other countries further mature and develop economically along with building relationships to create a trusted and strong global economy.
Pretty sure the standard of living is much higher in Europe,Australia, New Sealand, Japan and Korea than in the US
@@swunt10 Lol no, they're about the same on the HDI which is really surprising considering the US is a multiracial multiethnic society with all the problems of diversity, although Europe is also seeing a rise in diversity. At least in the US you can get a big home in the suburbs or lots of land in the country to not live like rats cramped in cities.
@@wowmazin4399 American suburbs and the problems they create is one big reason US cities constantly fail any quality of life rankings. "not live like rats cramped.." you have to be stupid to say that and than be forced to stuff yourself into your car and drive for half an hour to get anywhere during rush hour. I would feel cramped if I had to sit in my car in traffic all day long instead of just walking or biking to a nearby shop/school/work.
Most americans use their space wasting suburb plots for absolutely nothing except growing useless grass on their front laws, whatever they are good for..
That's not "freedom" or space, it's like a dystopian nightmare. Owning 1 of those millions of identical government prescribed suburban plots, an ocean of identical copy and paste cardboard houses for miles in every direction and you can only get out if you have a car otherwise you are stuck. That's a nightmare, a fake life in a fake city.
I disagree
Soy is a toxic crop. Sorry not made for human consumption
I wish you had explored agroecology in addition to promoting up and coming technological solutions. Tech has a place, but it doesn't escape the paradigm on it's own.
Agriculture doesn't inherently need to create waste nor be destructive to the environment to create more edible biomass / acre than we currently do; it's just a more complex problem than humans are good at.
Do you have details on what makes agriculture a more complex problem than humans are good at? I would like to read more about this!
@@reivilore Humans are terrible at complex problems across the board, but with effort we can place ourselves as keystone species and design our agricultural practices as an ecosystem.
An agroecosystem will look different in different parts of the world, but most likely incorporates elements of hydrology / water management, biodiversity, microbiology / composting / KNF, permaculture / regenerative / syntropic agriculture, regenerative / herd grazing, food forest / forest gardens / agroforestry, and human ecology.
I do think technology such as drones for harvesting or AI for planning / management will be important for scaling such systems, though I think we are a way off from offering AI the right questions or data.
I don't think we need to construct building to grow plants.
Great video, but vertical farming is yet to prove to be economical anywhere! The lights, the shelves, the automation, the nutrients, everything costs so much that only high value crops like strawberries can be grown!
Hence the economies of scale, automation, and working with high end restaurants a company like plenty is trying leverage. The strategy of making something people will pay a premium for to help fund the development of cheaper processes isn't new, though they'd face a more level playing field even just if things like a true carbon use tax were implemented so their proximity to markets would be more competitive. Or really if they got the same subsidies are other mega agri-corporations got from taxpayers.
I can do it. It's way easier than anyone thinks.
@@ErGardenF12 you can do what? Vertical farming? Are you doing that now or have you done it? What have your experiences been with doing it?
It is already profitable in Netherlands and in areas that lack long enough growing seasons like Alaska, Scandinavia, Greenland, Iceland, (Antarctica) - or lack arable acreage per person like Singapore, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Seychelles, etc.
@@manp1039 I can grow bigger vegetables and fruit with vertical high pressure aeroponics. My system is implemented with specific design to keep the greenhouse cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. I use a very efficient pump/accumulator tank that runs on solar/stored battery. I make my own nutrients from biogas production. On an acre I can have around 180,000 plants and my operational costs are very little. Everything is on timers and if power goes out I'll still have stored energy for days. My plan right now is to put these farms in every state. Our supply will never run out, we'll never never have transportation issues or extreme weather affecting production. I don't deal with bugs or mold either because I still use uv light to control those issues
Wild that permiculture wasnt mentioned at all, theres a lot of research going into how effective it is
Not when you are paid to make the reporting
there are other places to talk about permaculture and it is talked about in those places. I think this video was about some specific technology that is new.. like using lasers with robotics to kill weeds.. growing leather-like material with fungus. Using robotics to pick labor-intensive crop picking produce such as strawberries. Using some of the newer LED systems to grow vertical crops in smaller spaces. I learned some new things in this video. And I would like to learn more about the use of fungus to grow leather-like materials.
While I appreciate the effort put into this megasode, it's heavily representing US-based farming and thinking: large, massive, monocultures. The issues, that are not addressed, are as follows:
Loss of biodiversity. Best example is the banana. Only one variety of bananas, the Cavendish, is mostly used to grow what's eaten. There's already a fungus starting to destroy these banana farms forever. It won't take long to basically have the extinction of the banana soon, if we don't start cultivating new varieties. The same could happen in those large vertical farms if you only grow one variety and some bacteria or fungus makes it into the indoor farm. Then you need to start re-engineering all food. Also, all insects will have issues now, because the diversity on the field becomes less, which leads to loss of birds who rely on those insect populations to survive.
No change in how food is grown outdoors. Seeing how water is only addressed for indoor farming, outdoor farming will still have a ton of issues. That's because there are no trees or bushes anywhere. If you were to integrate them into your farmland, you will get rid of most of the weed, as other plants take the nutrients, that would normally lead to weed growth. The shadow of the trees and bushes will allow for the soil to retain more water as the shadow covers portions of land. The soil blowing away from the field wouldn't become an issue either because a lot of it would hit these bushes and trees and fall to the ground with the next rain. Additional benefits include more produce per plant, more different types of plants ripening at different times and therefore allowing a higher yield and income for the farmer.
Some of these ideas will fail in the long term. Nothing is imitating nature well enough. Nature had millions of years to deliver the perfect production and waste cycle until we came along. How come that so many things grow in forests without us taking care of it? As long as we don't understand the complexity of nature and try to work with nature to resolve these issues, we will make one mistake after another just to go back at some point to where we started thousands of years ago.
Urban gardening must be part of the revolution. If we don't start growing some of the food ourselves, we will suffer from the increasing heat, that could be taken up by the plants as energy to grow instead of getting stored in the concrete walls of our home. Additionally, you reduce the reliance on fresh food from big companies, if you grow it yourself and you could fix a bit of the bio diversity issue by placing different plants in different areas of the city. Even on my little balcony garden high up, I have tiny insect visitors, who seem to like the environment. Of course, I need to fight off some pests now and then, but that would be no problem with bio diversity, where one insect kills another insect, which eventually gets eaten by a mammal or bird.
Exactly, well said 👍
This right here!! 100% correct. I'm in zone 9a, over the past 2 years I've added several fruit trees on my property. We have Farmers Markets for our community. My small group of chickens provide my trees the best soil 👍🐔🌳🌱
I know from experience that a LOT of food is wasted at the end seller (grocer, baker, etc) due to various health and safety laws as well as customers being picky about looks and "freshness". There is also a LOT more available land to grow food if we stop with the "lawn lifestyle" and put vegetable patches there with cover crops in the winter. Each home could supply itself with most of the produce it would ever want from their front yard if they just put in a little effort or hire a gardener. But no, we demand our front yards be nothing but neatly trimmed and heavily sprayed grass. We almost never use the lawn for anything either. HOAs are one problem here as most demand the lawn lifestyle for homeowners who are part of them. This could change, but nobody seems to want it to change. It seems "easier" to spend time to make paper and metal then go out and trade that for not very fresh produce that is almost tasteless because it was bred for transport and shelf life and not flavor.
i and most of my neighbors do not have any yards. we live in apartments.
lets do better feedstock but I'm planning on eating more meat for health purposes. Retaining muscle is one of the most dominant aspects of longevity and health span. Vegans are sad because they are missing some very important nutrients like creatine.
Vertical farming works great for leafy greens. Good luck growing fruit trees or any other food crop that needs a substantial root system not to mention the importance of soil science, complex nutritional/mineral content and low profit margins of operation. It’s a great application for a relatively small set of annual food crops
give it time.. the technology is growing in biotech very quickly.. but we may not even want to grow fruit "trees". We may just want something that is like the fruit that the fruit trees produce... and we may even figure out ways to grow the fruit in different shapes and growing it in vertical farms.. and even grow it with a higher density of the vitamins we want it to have in it for better human health. I am excited to see how things develop in biotech.
How many acres of solar panels are needed to produce 1 acre of crops in a vertical farm?
I just dont see how capturing solar energy with expensive equipment, turning it back into light, and then having plants capture it is more efficient than just having plants capture it straight from the source.
you don't have to use solar panels to produce electricity for a vertical farm. what they said is that light technology is becoming more and more energy efficient, which it is. LEDs are revolutionary. Verestasium recently did a video on them (see: Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED ua-cam.com/video/AF8d72mA41M/v-deo.html )
Controlled environment, better yield, no need for pesticides that destroy the soil ability to grow all year round. Yes your point is valid big fields of solar panels is not ideal but it is not the only was to produce electricity so its biased at best
that 1/2 acre cannot possibly include land used for livestock?
That's correct! We differentiated between cropland and grazing land for this piece. Grazing land is roughly 4X as much.
Muh $20 lab grown chicken mcnuggets
Loved this episode, thank you.
Another thing to consider about the shift in labor in agriculture from simple labor to more complex jobs: this requires more intelligent, better-educated workers. Humans are capable, but one some level, or for some period, you’re going to have a group of people who simply aren’t qualified for the jobs that are available. You’ll have “gentrification” of agricultural labor. We need UBI or some form of it to enable people to survive, or accept that they won’t (which would be pretty inhumane given that we’re trying to implement this technology to save people).
Tbh I'm all for intellectual natural selection
Thanks for the comment! I think you're right - labor disruptions like this have occurred in the past and they are often messy and painful. My hope is that these technologies are phased in slowly enough that we don't see as many of those same problems -but there will inevitably be some. As more and more automation is introduced, I think you're right that we'll need to explore new ideas like UBI more seriously! Glad you enjoyed the piece, it was a lot of fun to make!
no to UBI, going to saying something u won't like, need sterilize the lowest 10% in IQ of every ethic group to push the average IQ up, low IQ peeps just ongoing will have just less of place the more our tech improve its a sad reality.
Vertical farming and salad greens is great and all but how do you vertical farm large crops like corn, all the fruits, etc.
You don't, "vertical farming" is bullshit.
Soil is much more than just a chemistry problem. its nutrient producing microbiome and fungal network communication and resource exchange
Great video, thank you
Beef might need 3 pounds of plant matter to produce one pound of meat, but the human digestive system is not able to get any calories out of this plant matter. So a cow is a refinery system that makes unusable stuff usable. As long as this plant matter isn't grown ok prime land where directly digestive plants could be grown there your argument is just not valid.
It's definitely true that livestock living off grazing land is turning unsuitable vegetation (grass, etc...) into meat we can digest - but in the US, 3/4ths of our cropland is dedicated to growing feed for livestock. That's the VAST majority of our farming activity.
18:00 Whinging about shortage of labor. I've spent enough of my life trying to get a job, any job, even those demeaning and dangerous ones, to call bullshit on that "Americans won't do it" claim from employers. Luckily I did finally get a job, and am desperately trying to keep it because obviously if I can't I may never find another. But even now, fully employed, the sticker shock in the grocery stores has me thinking, hey farmers, just tell me when you "can't hire enough pickers". If you charge us less than half as much as the grocery stores do, I will bring a bunch of my neighbors and we will pick enough groceries for our entire block. Then you don't throw so much away, and you also are less dependent on those cut-throat grocery stores. They probably pay you less than that already.
No way we can replace the Sun with LEDs... factor in the resources to build all those LEDs let alone provide electricity required.
People who can need to plant fruit trees and / or veggies on their property. If more people were self-sufficient, that would help feed a community. I live in a small town, and we have farmers' markets. Fresh eggs, veggies, etc. I have a 2 year old food forest started on my 1/2 acre now. Everyone needs to do their part and GROW SOMETHING! 🥑🫒🍓🫘
We have to reclaim desert land and plant food on that space!
What this video really messed is that population is actually collapsing in almost every developed nation. And undeveloped nations that keep growing will soon take the same path. So that half an acre can soon become an acre. How soon? Probably next 50-100 years.
Orchards CAN be grown vertically. You just need a taller building.
Cooking without meat is an art form. More people should learn how to make veggies taste good!
learn from india. we have a rich history of vegetarian cuisine, and actively invent vegetarian versions of world cuisine.
I wouldn't say it is an art form. For many cultures (with tastier food than North America) it's just a way of life. It's a very dated hedonsitic trope at this point that a big piece of meat is a good meal and a sign of wealth. Those hunks of animal flesh are killng you and the planet, not to mention the life of the animal.
0:50 already a false statement there, corn farmers have greatly increased the amount of bushels pr acre over the years by chosing corn that give bigger ears and perform better in the given climate theyre being grown in, now it is not universally happening across the board, only those who dare to experiment with different varieties get that benefit where as most farmers just grow as usual... but for sure there are still possibilities of gains pr plant and not only just fillin in more plants on the acre.
finally first MEGASODE, it's now here
❤️ we hope you enjoyed it!
Growing meat would be a smidge better if said meat also had at least an immune system
I can hardly wait for the bug burgers & Soylent Green videos. Not all technology is GOOD
The real free think would be to suggest people to homestead and grow their own meat.
And it's not something everyone has to do personally. But enough people doing it in a decentralized way so that people know who they're getting most of their food from that would really be great.
An average American already lives on enough land to produce half of their food supply especially w new available technologies - granted they are allowed to turn their front and back grass lawns into food gardens - Food production - to a large degree- needs to go back to the individual - and out of the corporate hands and regulatory gov. agencies… for starters
figure out how to grow king crab meat and every fast food place will offer it in the menu as king crab nugets.
Surely indoor farming has problems with pests. Just think about the number of pests that live on our house plants!
I find it amazing and amusing that there is this thought in smartpipo's heads that a wildgrowing paddock with a dozen different grasses and 2 dozen field flowers that is used for grazing, being manured is somehow worse than the same field being plowed, sterilized, flooded with nutrients (coz guess what, grazing fields are useless as is for human crop agriculture), and maintained with petrochemical poisons (pesticides and weed killers).
It shows that these people that want to reengineer our entire existence never even grew a single tomato plant in their entire lives.
And on top of that there's no big lamp in their heads blinking "system error" furiously....
Just fascinating....
We're not eating too much meat per year at just 200lbs/yr. That's less than 9 oz. per day lmao.
Brilliantly done! I love how you can take such complex information and make it so simple that everyone can understand it... while injecting a pleasant dose of humor!
Thank you! We're glad you enjoyed it.
fake response
@@thingsofmarketing Trolls consider me fake now. Cool!
Can't vertical grow corn. I don't see wheat or bananas growing vertical. If you can lab grow steaks that taste like steaks, and they cost less, I'll try it.
This is really great, and you've done it at a moment when a lot of people will be interested in these kind of companies again. More please.
People would benefit more from learning natural ways of self-reliance instead of learning about companies.
I am an advocate of vertical farms, for many reasons. Now, if the proposal is to save the planet, I would say that the best solution by far is the transition to a plant-based diet. According to scientific data, this would vacate more than 70% of the planet's arable land. This equates to a lot of space to replant forests, stabilize the climate and save many ecosystems from collapse, including human ones.
Shortage of labor or unwillingness to pay fair wages?
when market wholesale carrots retail for $3/lb and "fair wages" push you and your neighbors' production costs to $4/lb, what are you supposed to do? things aren't so black-and-white
Don’t hate the playa, hate the game
Shortage of labour actually....it doesnt matter if the farmer in north america paid $20, $30, $40 an hour. We still wouldnt farm labour any more.
@@bt3779 for 40 per hour I would jump into a plane rn and travel across the world
There are 2 main problems that most people have when connecting technology with agriculture:
1) With technology we can grow more food as in volume/weight, but the nutritional quality is substantially lower and will affect human health in the long run. Soil and food nutrition density is a vicious cycle that leads to compromised health of the whole global populations. By eating more volume we are stressing the body, this leads to malabsorption and further a less efficient body that extracts far less nutrients from poor nutrient food and soil.
2) The technological boom was not really human ingenuity, it was the massive caloric density of oil. It's the Oil Age that with its high EROIs has financed the whole technological boom from the 20th century, it has lowered food prices, it has accelerated demographic growth. But all this is about to end, it's not a matter of having higher prices of oil, it's about having no more net energy available to the global industrialized world, because there are no more ENERGY ROIs on E&P of oil. So the oil crisis actually started to show up in the 1960s, that's when many studies about depopulation started to popularize their theories, because they were correct.What has kept things working till now is the use of debt-as-money model in the whole world, gold(thus energy too) has been decoupled from currencies and the whole financial system is just an entangled web of promises. So as peak credit manifests, so goes the energy crisis... this means that agriculture as we know it ,either chemical agriculture,aquaponics,vertical, indoor... is NOT viable, because the EROI of the oil and gas industry cannot sustain that in the long term. We will see the material effects of this once the debt bubble implodes globally...it's a mathematical certainty, look at most western countries, especially Europe(a super net importer of energy) is maxed out on debt, both public and private debt... interesting times
Can you please do another video to follow up on the 0.5 acres? I guess with so many people in the world living below 2 USD per day, that this derived figure of total farm land / number of people is not representative of a really skewed reality. I think that point would be very interesting for a video, especially in light of population growth and not leaving people behind.
In the USA, most of the middle is empty. Most space in the USA is empty space. So much farmland in the middle.
_The animated graphics in this video are not only useful, but beautiful and entertaining as well. Expertly done, guys!_
Thank you very much!
Very helpful response. Thank you
I hope I live long enough to see some of these innovations come to fruition.
This “ weed” thing,
My understanding is that we are supposed to keep cover crops, those are beneficial weeds, we can harvest them for our benefit, including feeding livestock on the field and that increases productivity, including soil structure and soil retention.
And the blatant energy loss / calorie, protein production equation, used in this video does not show the true example of how the food chain works, animals like cows and chickens transform plant fibre / protein much more efficiently into proteins that humans can process effectively.
lazer weed killer is interesting solution versus the ever increasing chemicals-liked that was talked about.
Well you could try cutting down food wastage which is about 1/3 of all retaied food. You could also think about how soil and the micro organsams that live in it work to grow food as long as it is not drowned in poisins.
using cancer cells to grow meet and one kg of meet cost 39 dollars in electricity...
The only thing I see useful in this video is the vertical farming. There are many ranchers/farmers that do their job in FAR superior ways to mechanized/ chemical reliant methods and at the same time would also qualify as organic. No-till farming, and it's now making it's way to large scale farming. It's the best solution for the world. No chemicals are used. The inputs are mulch and compost. The product is a healthy soil that's full of organisms that plants need to be fully healthy. And science shows this. Plants store energy in the soil in the form of carbohydrates. They can use this later, but a lot of this is used by the microbiome to provide energy for them to break down elements in the soil including one of the main inputs from the farmer, compost. This in turn produces the different elements the plants need. This is why you can find very healthy ecosystems that humans don't touch. Well, plants we grow for food are no different.
And this gets to animals. Animals are healthy parts of an ecosystem. While you can't have cows going through your crops eating them, they can be on pasture, and rotated so they don't overgraze an area. They fertilize the soil. Their dung also is food for different insects. Now, here's the neat part, farmers that are doing regenerative farming then rotate chickens into where the cows just went through. I don't know if the soil rests for a few days because I haven't researched it enough, but when the chickens come through, they scratch through the cow dung, spreading it out and also eating the insects that started to hatch. This of course is spreading the manure so it's not burning plants but is instead breaking down faster and becoming available fertilizer for the fields much faster. You can also have chickens go through your crops but you have to keep them out of certain plants or they eat it, and they can't be in those fields close to harvest.
Different ranchers have shown large increases in their production per acre using this method. It's a regenerative process. It's producing more and more healthy soil. Once again ranchers can bring inputs into this system which is typically compost, no chemicals. The depth of high quality soil increases. During droughts farmers/ranchers that use these methods need less water because of all the organic material that's gone into the soil which holds water longer.
It's the OPPOSITE of industrial farming, and it works better than any other method when growing plants/raising animals outside.
Rodale institute
How much area is needed to get the energy to power the vertical farms assuming we use solar panels ?that is the area needed by them I think.
So one thing i think of when you say maximize our tiny peice of land is fast fashion. Fast fashion and our clothing from cotton. Maybe do a hard reset on the fashion industry.
What about the amount of solar panels in an area to produce lighting for vertical farming lighting, are they stacked too?
Most food will end up being grown in vertical farms. Think the only thing we grow that is likely to grow in soil are cereals/grains. We would need a complete deployment of nuclear energy or space based solar power and automated maintenance driving energy prices down to damn near zero. Then we can benefit from moving cereals and grains into vertical farms. Would love to have seen a focus on how to get the nutrients for vertical farms that isnt based on getting them from fossil fuels.
Great content, always looking forward for new episodes.
Great sharing about these disruptive and new innovative methods of agriculture and farming, however we need a more robust and ruthless cohesive simulation that mother nature implements in growing agriculture, dairy and livestock produce... That's where we humans need to master as a sustainable solution 😊
What an amazing video! Well explained in a very down to earth way (no pun intended). Vertical is the way to go with regards to agriculture farming. A thing that was mentioned but not really spend much time on was the increased growth cycle of crops in a controlled vertical farming environment. In other terms, not only can you grow more plants in a vertical way, the time from planting till harvest is also (a lot) less though that's highly dependent on what you're growing. Great content!
Glad you enjoyed it! Great point on the growth cycle. 👍
Thanks for the content!
Is is one of the better documentaries i watched in a long time! Maybe there is still hope for humanity...
Thanks for the kind words. There's always hope ❤️
@@freethink if tech progresses to the point that itll be possible to live self sustainably in the arctic circle (and the setup financially viable) Ill go back there with a vertical farm set into the middle of the forest never to be heard of again and take the title of happiest human alive right with me :)
How did he get the 1/2 acre. Usa citizens seem to be currently at 6 acres. Still small but not as dire.
I'm an ignorant, but how do they get that company financed? 🤔
While all these cool new farming gadgets sound great, we need to remember that it's nature that makes our plants grow the best. Little creatures in the soil, called microorganisms, help our plants grow bigger, taste better, and even pull harmful carbon out of the air. Even with all our tech, we can't beat what nature does best. So, as we get excited about new farming tech, let's make sure we don't forget about the hard work these little soil critters are doing for us. After all, there's no gadget that can replace what they do naturally. While advancements in agricultural technology bring promise, it's crucial we don't disregard the importance of ecological diversity and natural processes.
Reliance on monocultures and purely chemical nutrients risks diminishing the nutritional value of our produce over time. Nature has given us the perfect tools for sustainable farming-microorganisms. They play a pivotal role in plant growth, reproduction, flavor development, and crucially, in sequestering carbon in the soils by unlocking the full genetic expression of the plant genes that otherwise can't be unlocked.
The video promoted manure for enhancing the soil, but using composting of food waste would be better for the environment and a fully plant based food system would feed a lot more people. "Much like certified organic farmers, veganic farmers use no synthetic chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides or genetically modified ingredients. Veganic farmers take it to another level by not using any manures or slaughterhouse byproducts. They don't even use organically approved pesticides."- NBC News (repost of an AP story) Jun 21, 2008
Some U.S. farmers are picking up a technique seen more often abroad: veganic farming that uses crop rotations and composted plant matter - or "green manure" - to fertilize crops."-NBC News from an AP story (Title- "'Green manure' keeps these farmers happy.")
"This is a particularly interesting time to expand research on veganic agriculture given changing attitudes toward animal agriculture. In the Global North, recent years have seen unprecedented criticism of the greenhouse gas contributions, resource use, and threats to food safety and security linked to industrial animal agriculture; and an intensified moral reckoning with the production and consumption of animals as food. The COVID-19 pandemic has cast a spotlight on the relationship between animal consumption and public health, as well as the labor conditions in industrial slaughterhouses. There are rapidly growing markets for plant-based milks, eggs, and meats, and expanding research and development for cultured meats. Some industries, such as dairy, are now contracting. All of this raises questions for the future availability of the dominant animal-based fertilizers, and points to an impetus for further research into veganic production methods: the practicality of having well-articulated plant-based agricultural methods ready for mass deployment." -
Agric Human Values. 2021; 38(4): 1139-1159.
Published online 2021 Jun 7. doi: 10.1007/s10460-021-10225-x
PMCID: PMC8184056
PMID: 34121805
Veganic farming in the United States: farmer perceptions, motivations, and experiences
Mona Seymourcorresponding author1 and Alisha Utter2
As found on PubMed from the National Institutes of Health
Each of us who can compost should do so. It greatly reduces methane that would otherwise be produced in landfills.
@@someguy2135 great quotes, such research! We *can* compost at scale, here in Calgary the City added green bins to our garbage collection where we can dispose of compostable waste - they have compost facility that can handle all kinds of things including meat. Then, every Spring they give to compost back to citizens for free, so we can amend the soil in our little community garden.
Regarding landfill methane, I'm sure it isn't perfect, but our city builds methane collection into the landfills as they go - they use it to power some of their facilities.
Finally, the sewage from our city is sold to farmers after being UV treated to nuke E. coli (although, this also kills microorganisms, so not ideal) who spray it on their fields rather than dumping it back into the river.
I agree with @jurgislll that we really do need to think about microorganisms and their vital role in healthy, nutrient dense foods - my understanding is that there are new soil amendments becoming available that promote the microbiome. It is definitely a challenge to integrate since it requires refrigeration to keep all those critters alive until they get delivered to the soil. I had a client who was considering this for their lawn care business, I hope they decide to go ahead with it.
I totally agree. There might be times and places for factory grown food, but our bodies did not evolve to live on this modified fuel, and the "experts" will never be able to fully recreate the complexity of nature that created us, and that we're part of.
@@CondredgeDole Thank you for your kind words. Interesting reply. The fiber in plant based whole foods feed the most beneficial microorganisms in our gut, and those crowd out the detrimental ones. As you probably know, animal products have no fiber. Most meat eaters would benefit from fiber supplements, like Metamucil. "Just 7% of adults meet fiber recommendations, raising risk of chronic diseases. Rockville, Maryland (June 7, 2021) - Only 5% of men and 9% of women are getting the recommended daily amount of dietary fiber, according to a study being presented at NUTRITION 2021 LIVE ONLINE."-Nutrition (Organization) Jun 9, 2021
People have mentioned Alan Savory and the like but not explained a few key points... There is no such thing as a weed !! Only that some plants are undesirable at certain times and locations. By not understanding our eco systems we simplify them and thus Mono Cultures are implemented - killing all other plants that would like to grow along side our desirable crop. Now our Mono crop is the only item on the menu for insects whilst becoming more susceptible to disease .
Nature is diverse and complex, we need to work with it. Technological advances in agriculture are part of the solution to safeguarding our planet. We know many other solutions but the will power is not there yet
eat ze bugz then
We don't need to "rebuild our world"
Just like we don't need to "help our oceans"
We need to reform our mentality, so it can do its thing; which it has for numerous years...
This world is perfectly ok, if we don't ruin it
"Life and death, let's make sure we can afford it."
This is how we've been conditioned. But, there is a cost to stay alive.
19:03 is it not faster, to have more picker, like revolver system of changing tools on milling machines? Could cost not much more, but work much more faster?
the thing is, they dont wanna feed, they wanna sell food
Yep 🎯 and we are inching closer to stricter water usage 💧 Big companies will do everything they can to keep small farms down.
It's all about money 💰
Great video, not sure i missed it in the video, But does this 1/2 acre per person strictly based on LAND, and doesn't take into account the used water 'acreage'. (tech this can be negated if you say 'you don't have to eat fish') just interested if this half acre account for water usage or not.
Up next BRAWNDO "The Thirst Multilator!"
32:21 wow. incredible. great thinktank on that team.
We know very little about soil. So, lots of small experiments and iterating.
I'm allergic to mushrooms. So if clothing is made from mushrooms, would I get a reaction to them?
0:43 What an interesting perspective of landmass compred to size of the earth as a shere and what isn't visible 🤔
Below ground vertical row that elevates 4 🌞 then bad weather or cold retracts n2 ground solar panels provides level of warmth?
The sound track is banger !!! 😎🫠
Great work! Loved it.
All that plastic makes me cringe.
We also need more hybrid farm vehicles. Like solar powered in daytime and biodiesel powered at night, with less need of batteries.
Equipment is already expensive, $250k for tractors being used in my area, I guess what's another $100k on top of that for it to be an EV. This will be passed on to us with more $ for food too. Oh and add to the already strained supply chain for the materials to make these types of vehicles and equipment.
good thing about these indoor farms, they should be ready to go we need them for off Earth food, when we move out to rest of the solar system :D
The price of crating and maintaining vertical farming so high if price goes down some more people will join
This really made my skin crawl
Let's not do this as a goal for the future
Weeds are food, too
20:00 it is today that i learnt that punnets is also a britian specific word.
Americans don't use the word "punnet"? Most surprising thing in this video.
It's not that simple 🤣
this video is so amazing, so beautifull
Tesla's Optimus Bot is going to significantly lower the cost of useful and flexible robots.
Most of the content in the video does target single family need. They require captital to run the operation.
People who have any size yard need to start growing food and collecting rain water. Bad times are coming
Absolutely 💯 %
This video has been brought to you by Billy G.
Home cook by night 😂😂😂
How much solar and wind is area is required to power the leds?
It's a good video,I sit through all of it, it has a great narrative, 10/10
Glad you enjoyed it!
You need to make an episode on aquaponics !!
That's a great idea and we're definitely looking into it!
it is consistent that if we go to see it is America that initiated the devastation and is now committed to repairing the damage done.
but when you say ''we'' know that you are saying it to you as Americans
don't get me wrong at least you are doing something, the Chinese for example just pollute in fact
😂picking strawberries in a greenhouse doesnt seem like back breaking work, seems like it would be relaxing if there wasnt a work load goal where you had to pick fruit like a meth head for 12 hours a day
17:50
This video was good until it went south with ant-meat, real meat. While we might eat a tad bit too much red meat, we eat the right proportion of chicken. We do need to eat more fatty fish.
$3.99 lb for ground beef or 2.35 apples? Apples do not fill you and have 10X the herbiside, fungicide, and pesticide. Beef has enzymes not found in fruits or vegetables. Again...do the math.
Permaculture and local farms.
If you are focused on yield rather than environment concerns such as the decreasing population in pollinators, you incline towards factory-based farming. Open field farming shouldn't be demonized. People seem to forget that crop rotation and paddock resting is a thing as well. On top of this, there are numerous regenerative farming systems in use globally. The problem is that people want pretty food instead of healthy, serviceable food. Farmers are treated as some hand-wringing supervillain that is incapable of understanding that the soil and environment determines whether they can continue growing season to season or not. We also see issues with umbrellas of corporations that many farmers are at the whims of. Many of the issues that we've seen over the years has been big food and seed sellers that have been known to copyright public domain species.
What I will say is that food security is dependent on localized food supply. Any government that stops the sharing of seeds that are safe and serviceable, isn't looking to solve food security. Any food system that ignores beneficial species, such as soil microbes, isn't looking to solve issues with soil health. Any food system that ignores the growing of more plants (the ones that would lock in 'greenhouse gases') isn't looking to address air quality either. Let's not kid ourselves.
His last sentence at 38:55 hits hard.
Can we get a source on the 0.5 acres per person? I think you're wrong. From my research it seems to actually be about 1 or 1.5 acres per person.
I controle the weeds in my garden by eating them... ust saying.
Thanks for the comment! That's definitely a (potentially) viable option for individuals - but hard to implement with large operations that are preparing crops for market.
This farming is fine if you are a rabbit.🤣🤣🤣