[HN Gopher] Hacking Photosynthesis
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       Hacking Photosynthesis
        
       Author : prostoalex
       Score  : 15 points
       Date   : 2022-08-24 17:51 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.codonmag.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.codonmag.com)
        
       | googlryas wrote:
       | Here's my stupid idea: It's my understanding that plants only
       | respond to a fairly narrow band of light, somewhere between 400
       | nm and 700 nm wavelengths. All the other solar energy is more or
       | less wasted on them. Could we have a solar panel that collected
       | energy from a wide range of light wavelengths, and then used that
       | energy to create light that is concentrated mostly in the
       | 400-700nm range, thereby possibly giving a > 100% efficiency from
       | the perspective of plant growth.
        
       | tuatoru wrote:
       | > Food production will need to roughly double to fully feed ten
       | billion people, the world's expected population by 2050.
       | 
       | I wish people would quit saying this.
       | 
       | There are 8-ish billion people now. About 3 billion of them have
       | amounts of food well in excess of dietary requirements - nearly
       | double.[1] That's _after_ processing, distribution, and storage
       | losses. About 1 billion don 't have quite enough food, or quite
       | enough variety.
       | 
       | We may need better food distribution and storage, but we don't
       | need more food production.
       | 
       | ----
       | 
       | 1. In normal years. The global harvest this year will be very
       | interesting, due to major droughts in China and Western Europe
       | and the war in Ukraine. The huge heatwave in India earlier may
       | also have lingering effects. Food is "vital to national
       | security", though, so we may never get an accurate picture.
       | 
       | One of the predicted-for-later-on effects of climate change is
       | that it greatly increases the chances of simultaneous harvest
       | failure in two or more of the six major food production regions
       | of the globe. (Failure being reduction by 10% or more from
       | expectation.) From "one in a thousand years" to "one in ten
       | years", or more often.
       | 
       | I wasn't expecting to have a preview of this effect just yet.
        
         | chrisco255 wrote:
         | Indian wheat crops were down less than 3% from previous year.
         | 
         | Still 3 million tons higher than the 5 year average.
         | 
         | Overall foodgrain production is expected to hit an all time
         | high this year (315 million tons).
         | 
         | "Record production is estimated of rice, maize, gram, pulses,
         | rapeseed and mustard, oilseeds and sugarcane," the ministry
         | statement read. [1]
         | 
         | I understand the news makes it seem like the world is falling
         | apart at the seams, but the apocalypse has been cancelled by
         | reality, this year, yet again.
         | 
         | [1]
         | https://indianexpress.com/article/business/commodities/india...
        
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       (page generated 2022-08-26 23:01 UTC)