AHC/PC/WI: More Major Food Producing Areas

Sycamore

Banned
What about the oceans, with more extensive use of aquaculture? For instance, I remember reading the WI about Alternate Plant Domestications, and there are apparently several edible varieties of kelp which are hardy enough to grow in Arctic and Antarctic waters, which are also nutritious and abundant enough to provide harvests capable of feeding up to 200 people/hectare.
 
What about the oceans, with more extensive use of aquaculture? For instance, I remember reading the WI about Alternate Plant Domestications, and there are apparently several edible varieties of kelp which are hardy enough to grow in Arctic and Antarctic waters, which are also nutritious and abundant enough to provide harvests capable of feeding up to 200 people/hectare.

You could go a step further and pump nutrient rich deep bottom water to the surface. It would be a from of geo engineering because it could cool the planet as well.
 
You could go a step further and pump nutrient rich deep bottom water to the surface. It would be a from of geo engineering because it could cool the planet as well.

As cool as that is, unless you find a ridiculously cheap source of power it would be hideously expensive under current market conditions (on a massive scale).
 
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As cool as that is, unless you find a ridiculously cheap source of power it would be hideously expensive under current market conditions (on a massive scale).

Onshore OTEC wouldn't be all that expensive. Especially when you factor all that you could get from it. Deep bottom water, fresh water, mineral harvesting, aquaculture, and electricity could help round out the cost. Plus hi I'm sure Delta Force would say that nuclear plants could do it to.

It also ties into another interesting concept which is chilled agriculture. Cold sea water is pumped through pipes underneath farm land to cool the soil. It would allow temperate crops to grow in the subtropics.
 
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