By : At 7 kilocalories of food per litre of water, iAVs tomatoes and tilapia are 4,000 to 7,000 times more water-efficient than is high-yield corn grown in Iowa (‘not to mention’ the soil loss, energy, Carbon emissions, herbicides and other pollutants flowing down stream). And, iAVs is 20,000 times more efficient in terms of water consumed per food value produced than is corn grown in SE Missouri – albeit likely destined for combustion in a SUV engine as mandated ethanol-blended gasoline. Effectively, in the US, we’ll burn absolutely anything, including our food and remaining water resources, just to ‘save’ a few cents on fuel as we drive to Walmart and keep the factories in China pumping Carbon from Australian coal into Earth’s atmosphere. Wow!
And why is this important?
The global water situation is dire – far more dire and imminently catastrophic than most people can comprehend. And, it’s getting exponentially worse by the hour.
Globally, two billion (or more) people are currently under severe water stress – and, it’s never going to improve even without the ongoing addition of 230,000 future parched throats and desperate mouths added each and every day (2015).
Globally, industrial agriculture is in deep trouble.
Food production is threatened on every conceivable front.
There’s exponential soil loss, aquifer depletion, extreme droughts and floods, die-offs of bees and other pollinators, mineral (nutrient) constraints, ground and surface water contamination, desertification, increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events, fossil energy depletion/dependence and exponential mass extinction in every critical trophic level (aspect, component) of the biosphere.
All of these constraints and impacts are set against a rapidly rising human population – long ago in overshoot – and mass extinctions of virtually all non-human life. Humans are a (rapacious) subset of the biosphere/ global environment aka ‘web of life’, NOT the reverse … as so-called ‘civilization’ obviously ‘thinks’ (acts). IMO, humans are now the evolutionary/planetary equivalent of full-spectrum cancer. For those who may not have heard/noticed, cancer kills its host … if fact, this is what imparts/conveys its literal existence.
How come I’m 65% water but only 2% interested?Stephen Colbert
Some scientists are saying that it’s already too late to prevent human extinction – that we are on an irreversible downward spiral.
Time will tell – but in the meantime, we’ve still got to eat – and that means that we will need to make the best use of every drop of water that comes our way.
Aquaponics is increasingly touted as being water-efficient but let’s not confuse iAVs with aquaponics when it comes to water. The water efficiency of iAVs is at least 13 times that of UVI raft (DWC) aquaponics – and that doesn’t even account for their failure to factor rainwater into their water use data.
If you’ve made it this far in the article, that suggests you may be interested in the relationship between food production and water use. Feel free to contact us – or comment – if you want to talk about water use efficiency – or any other aspect of iAVs.
-o0o-
“Adapt or perish, now as ever, is nature’s inexorable imperative.” ~ H.G.Wells
UPDATE
Its impossible to worry about anything else without continual access to potable water – everyone, each and everyday.
“The U.N. also [conservatively] estimates that the world will face a 40 percent shortfall in the global water supply by 2030 unless dramatic steps are taken to improve the management of water. Within a decade, 1.8 billion people are projected to be coping with severe water scarcity and two-thirds of the global population could be living with stressed water supplies.”
Personally, I’ll be long dead and gone well before 2030. What about you? Your children? Ah, who cares, I asked Santa (aka VISA) for a new iPhone for Christmas and damn everyone/thing else if that doesn’t happen .. err .. and especially if it does. Simians are indeed suicidal. Denial does not reduce suffering or postpone anyone’s demise, and typically has the precise opposite effect.
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