Trillion person Earth

[mindstalk]

Some calculations I did on rasfw. Comments?

Comments

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

With current agricultural technology, and diet patterns, the Earth can support up to 9 billion people with land-grown food. Of course, sea grown food is currently significant. But the collapse of fisheries makes that unreliable.

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

I think it's been shown that aquaculture is a viable commercial endeavor. I'd imagine most of the shallow seas given over to farmed seaweed, using dredge from under fish-farms as fertilizer.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Industrial-scale aquaculture potentially hits the wall with ecological viability.

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/marine/problems/aquaculture/

[wizwom.livejournal.com]

Well, as I said, sea farming - not domesticated fish farms, but seaweed, plant farming - in shallow seas.

The fish farms, in order to be economically viable ought to be of scecies which are reasonable deep-water species - tuna, salmon, macarel. They should include a "waste catch" under the fish pen, and not be placed in shallom areas (since shallow areas are good for planing seaweed, of course).

I realize this is not the current situation, but it's not a hard situation to envision.