One crop breeding cycle from starvation

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://news.aces.illinois.edu/news/one-crop-breeding-cycle-starvation

[font face=Serif][font size=5]One crop breeding cycle from starvation[/font]
Published March 29, 2016

[font size=3]

• Global population growth, urbanization, and a changing climate mean staple food crops will need to achieve much higher yields in the near future.
• New research proposes genetic engineering solutions to improve photosynthetic efficiency of food crops, boosting yield under higher temperatures and carbon dioxide levels.
• Because it can take 20 to 30 years of breeding and product development efforts before new crops are available to farmers, those efforts must start now.

URBANA, Ill. – In the race against world hunger, we’re running out of time. By 2050, the global population will have grown and urbanized so much that we will need to produce 87 percent more of the four primary food crops – rice, wheat, soy, and maize – than we do today.

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http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1826/20152578

[daleanime]

1. kick, kick, kick....

[progressoid]

2. Gee, if there were only some way science could help us create more efficient food production.

Like drought tolerant corn or higher yield rice.


Or just stop making so many fucking babies.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Fewer babies may not help all that much

Not if the temperature and CO₂ levels continue to increase.

[GliderGuider]

4. That depends on how many fewer, doesn't it? nt

[OKIsItJustMe]

6. Unless you plan on culling adults…

There’s only so fast the population will decrease.

If, on the other hand, people started eating less meat…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_meat_production
https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/field/field_document/20141203LivestockClimateChangeBaileyFroggattWellesley.pdf

[Nihil]

8. "If, on the other hand, people started eating less meat… "

Of course, the exception could be made for a modest proposal ...

[GliderGuider]

9. Thanks! Somebody had to say it.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. Well, no, nobody had to say it.

I believe it goes without saying…

[GliderGuider]

5. Genetically engineered rubisco sounds like another lap in the Red Queen's race. nt

[LouisvilleDem]

7. The first world won't notice

Almost all of the excessive population growth is occurring in the third world. Many first world nations have populations that are actually shrinking. As a result, as the size of third world populations exceed the world's ability to feed them, their starvation rates will increase to compensate. The effect will be so subtle I doubt the first world will even notice.