Future of Agriculture

What do you think agriculture is moving towards? What new technologies are being made and used? This is not to be confused with alternate fuels from agriculture. This thread is for the new technologies in farming. Please post back and share your ideas. Thanks.

Rather than live chickens on a farm we'll have genetically engineered "chickens" in jars lined up in huge warehouses representing some sort of protein for consumption. Itll be flavored much like tofu and grown in a solution of warm water and mold.

Grain will still be grain. Not much will change with that.

Milk will be made much the same way as the "chickens." No more cows to milk because their spyrokeets rot our brains and their farts heat the Earth .6 degrees every 112 years. Having a cow or a car will cost you in our new totalitarian government. As will heating your home. We'll all be forced into more economical, environmentally sound blocks of flats soviet style.

All of our fruits and vegatables will come from the 2nd and 3rd worlds. Consequently farmers from America will be fleeing to work in Mexico after all of the regional farms are bought up by the government in the name of land conservation. The farmers will be taxed out of existance and have a nearly impossible time keeping up with foreign competition that isnt kept in check by tariffs.

Itll be global, expensive, and oppressive. As will everything be.

Well I see the future of farming being very unique.

I think that there will always be farm farms around, but they will start
catering more to the local population, and less to a(n) inter/national
market.

As people become more environmentall conscious, they will start
growing some of their own food.
Most people won't grow enough to be able to survive that way, but
they'll grow some things none the less.

I see as space exploration/colonization starts to be developed, the
furtherment of hydropnic and aeroponics technology, which will have
uses on Earth as well as the environments they were designed for.

I think that as the technology/science is furthered and understood
more, less people will be oppsed to GE foods, and subsequently many
new developments in that field will be devloped.

Thermal sat images used to monitor growth of a field, automated harvesters, threshers and combines, and lasers.

If global warming is as severe as some say, then I would look for technology that allows a smooth transplant of agriculture about 1000 miles southward, for us Northern Hemispherers.

OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION!!!

Jose Luis Pena is having amazing results with OTEC.

Skilluminati Research summary

Wired Magazine article/profile

Originally posted by Thirtyseven
OCEAN THERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION!!!

Jose Luis Pena is having amazing results with OTEC.

Skilluminati Research summary

Wired Magazine article/profile

Speaking as a farmer, I don't see where the claims in the article are valid. First, most plants don't grow at all in salt water. Second, cooling the roots of a plant slows plant growth.

i see fish being factory farmed off of old oil derricks or new installations like such. or they can join how cow chicken and pork meat will be grown in a lab with nutrients put in and bad things taken out as well as the flavor optionally tweaked.

I personally am very excited about these things because i for one would like to eat as little as possible and get the most nutrition i need, some people love to eat food i hate it only see it as mandatory to survival.

I also see drinks like todays ensure and boost the meal replacment drinks becoming much more advanced and common. Hopefully anyway

Originally posted by MBF
Speaking as a farmer, I don't see where the claims in the article are valid. First, most plants don't grow at all in salt water. Second, cooling the roots of a plant slows plant growth.

Re-read the article, at no point does it talk about growing crops in salt water.

As for the 2nd part, the facts would not appear to be on your side. If it works, then it worked. Right?

Originally posted by Thirtyseven

Originally posted by MBF
Speaking as a farmer, I don't see where the claims in the article are valid. First, most plants don't grow at all in salt water. Second, cooling the roots of a plant slows plant growth.

Re-read the article, at no point does it talk about growing crops in salt water.

The writer of the article is not clear as to whether he intends to grow in salt water, he says "by running ocean water along the roots of the plants". Ocean water is salt water. If he said, running a tube containing ocean water, that would show that he did not intend to grow in salt water.

As for the 2nd part, the facts would not appear to be on your side. If it works, then it worked. Right?

The facts are on my side. I deal with this problem every year. Cool roots and the plants grow slow or even die. Just because the writer claims something doesn't mean it is true. Remember, he is trying to sell his idea. I am not saying that this idea does not have merit in other areas, because it does. He is just wrong about the plants.

1. The water is being run under the roots of the plants via pipes, the images make that a little more clear.

2. The cold water isn't constant, it's alternated, at intervals, just like a cold shower warms you up. Stay in a cold shower all day, die of hypothermia.

I think there will be a revolution in bio-engineering algae to manufacture specific proteins. Their life cycle will be only a few weeks, and various protiens can be cultured in huge vats in greenhouses in desert areas, where land is only several hundred $ an acre. The only water not recycled will be shipped out in the protiens themselves, which will be largely freeze-dried for ease of shipping and to add longevity.

After about a decade, vendors will quit even trying to make food taste "like something." It'll just have poetic, almost haiku-seeming names to evoke a lovely image that will attract people, rather than reminding them it's not actually chicken or steak or eggs.

"Azure delight"

"Beige Bonanza"

"Holistic Harvest"

"Benevolent Bliss Sauce"

Most people will serve it like fondue; people will always love mucking with the temperature and consistency of food.

The joke about it "tasting like chicken" will get so old that the line will become a label for people who make tired and humorless puns.

.

hi, just found some info regarding vertical farming. i say its quite interesting.

TreeHugger
Vertical Farm



would the advent of these high-rise farms mean that future farmers might have to learn how to basejump? and use hang-gliders as well, in order to move from one level of the "farm" to another -- or to transfer to another farm a couple of blocks away.

I must agree with MBF. Food grains and fiber plants must have the correct soil temp. to grow properly. That is why we don't plant corn in December.

This past Fall it cooled down early and the grain sorghum didn't mature.

Roper

Originally posted by Roper
I must agree with MBF. Food grains and fiber plants must have the correct soil temp. to grow properly. That is why we don't plant corn in December.

This past Fall it cooled down early and the grain sorghum didn't mature.

Roper

If you really want to see a problem then let cotton or peanuts get a little cool. Cotton just quits doing anything below 50. Corn and sorghum can stand a lot cooler weather.

I expect in a last ditch effort to create more suitable farmland, certain experimental methods will be used to convert currently unsuitable land.

I expect this land to be in Africa. The Africans probably won't like this very much. Although I don't think they will be an issue by then.

What Scares me is the way they are engineering better vegetables or fruits.

Example: they engineer apples or oranges in order to produce a fruit with no seeds ... for customer convenience and also to avoid getting the seeds so you can grow your own...

so in the future where are we going to get seeds? fix one thing to break another...

Storing Seeds up in the artic does not sound crazy nowdays does it?

[edit on 2/11/2007 by a1ex]