Originally Posted by
Jaybar
Food production has always been a problem as population increases. We consistently hit a period where population outgrows production, and it's a change in technology that lets us overcome production inefficiencies. Hydroponics have a high yield per acre compared to other conventional methods specifically related to urban farming. The issue with some of these technologies such as hydroponics is fresh water supply. Unfortunately fresh water isn't the easiest thing to come by. Not only is it used for irrigation, it is withdrawn and consumed extensively for thermo-power plants (by increasing rank: Gas, Coal, Nuclear). We may have to decide on where we pour our production in the future: water for food or water for energy.
Thus the American Lawn will have to go extinct in order to preserve enough water to feed crops. Coal plants will need to be converted/dismantled for natural gas (nuclear, while extremely clean and great for air quality, withdraws and consumes an extravagant amount of fresh water). Desalination is a possibility but consumes massive amounts of power...which requires fresh water without a solar/wind farm to generate the power.