• About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
Tuesday, March 2, 2021
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
Forbes
-18 °c
  • Home
    • Home – Layout 1
  • World
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Science
  • Tech
    The value of cabinet-free drive technology  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    The value of cabinet-free drive technology

    How Fast Is Technology Changing College Athletics? Blink, And You’ll Miss It  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    How Fast Is Technology Changing College Athletics? Blink, And You’ll Miss It

    INSIGHT: 5G and hotel security technology in the ’20s  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    INSIGHT: 5G and hotel security technology in the ’20s

    Significance of Release Agents for Die Casting Technology  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Significance of Release Agents for Die Casting Technology

    APPLE IPAD PRO 5G WILL USE MILLIMETER WAVE TECHNOLOGY  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    APPLE IPAD PRO 5G WILL USE MILLIMETER WAVE TECHNOLOGY

    What’s hot and what’s a bot – theme park digital technology predictions for 2020  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    What’s hot and what’s a bot – theme park digital technology predictions for 2020

    Trending Tags

    • Sillicon Valley
    • Climate Change
    • Election Results
    • Flat Earth
    • Golden Globes
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Mr. Robot
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    Asian Wrestling Championships  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Star to broadcast Asian Wrestling Championships

    PSL matches in Pakistan  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Looking forward to exciting PSL matches in Pakistan, says Ronchi

    Effectively using sports education to promote health and wellbeing  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Effectively using sports education to promote health and wellbeing

    Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Investing Millions in Women’s Sports  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Investing Millions in Women’s Sports

    Spotify is buying The Ringer to boost its sports podcast content  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Spotify is buying The Ringer to boost its sports podcast content

    After Huge $170 Million Fine, YouTube Music Puts Limits on ‘Made for Kids’ Content  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    After Huge $170 Million Fine, YouTube Music Puts Limits on ‘Made for Kids’ Content

    What Song Is In The Fast & Furious 9 Trailer?  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    What Song Is In The Fast & Furious 9 Trailer?

    Dance music act Wolfpack on working with Fatman Scoop and updating Gabrielle’s classic hit  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Dance music act Wolfpack on working with Fatman Scoop and updating Gabrielle’s classic hit

    Singer Billie Eilish sweeps top awards at Grammys  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Singer Billie Eilish sweeps top awards at Grammys

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • food
    • Health
    • Travel
    Coronavirus: Test data ‘reassuring for front-line healthcare workers’  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Coronavirus: Test data ‘reassuring for front-line healthcare workers’

    When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, health care must not return to business as usual  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, health care must not return to business as usual

    Piers Morgan called Victoria Beckham a ‘pampered primadonna’ for furloughing her staff instead of paying their wages herself  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Piers Morgan called Victoria Beckham a ‘pampered primadonna’ for furloughing her staff instead of paying their wages herself

    How the Apple Watch went from fashion accessory to fitness must-have  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    How the Apple Watch went from fashion accessory to fitness must-have

    Office Of The Attorney General Helps With COVID-19 Travel Concerns  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Office Of The Attorney General Helps With COVID-19 Travel Concerns

    Cyprus’ Entry and Travel Restrictions Amid Coronavirus  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Cyprus’ Entry and Travel Restrictions Amid Coronavirus

    Health care of tomorrow, today: How artificial intelligence is fighting the current, and future, COVID-19 pandemic  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Health care of tomorrow, today: How artificial intelligence is fighting the current, and future, COVID-19 pandemic

    Using the magic of technology to deliver better health and care  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Using the magic of technology to deliver better health and care

    How one hospital system is using technology to reduce health care providers’ exposure to coronavirus  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    How one hospital system is using technology to reduce health care providers’ exposure to coronavirus

    Alan raises another $54.4 million for its health insurance product  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Alan raises another $54.4 million for its health insurance product

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Mr. Robot
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Climate Change
    • Flat Earth
  • Home
    • Home – Layout 1
  • World
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Science
  • Tech
    The value of cabinet-free drive technology  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    The value of cabinet-free drive technology

    How Fast Is Technology Changing College Athletics? Blink, And You’ll Miss It  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    How Fast Is Technology Changing College Athletics? Blink, And You’ll Miss It

    INSIGHT: 5G and hotel security technology in the ’20s  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    INSIGHT: 5G and hotel security technology in the ’20s

    Significance of Release Agents for Die Casting Technology  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Significance of Release Agents for Die Casting Technology

    APPLE IPAD PRO 5G WILL USE MILLIMETER WAVE TECHNOLOGY  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    APPLE IPAD PRO 5G WILL USE MILLIMETER WAVE TECHNOLOGY

    What’s hot and what’s a bot – theme park digital technology predictions for 2020  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    What’s hot and what’s a bot – theme park digital technology predictions for 2020

    Trending Tags

    • Sillicon Valley
    • Climate Change
    • Election Results
    • Flat Earth
    • Golden Globes
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Mr. Robot
  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    Asian Wrestling Championships  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Star to broadcast Asian Wrestling Championships

    PSL matches in Pakistan  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Looking forward to exciting PSL matches in Pakistan, says Ronchi

    Effectively using sports education to promote health and wellbeing  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Effectively using sports education to promote health and wellbeing

    Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Investing Millions in Women’s Sports  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Dick’s Sporting Goods Is Investing Millions in Women’s Sports

    Spotify is buying The Ringer to boost its sports podcast content  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Spotify is buying The Ringer to boost its sports podcast content

    After Huge $170 Million Fine, YouTube Music Puts Limits on ‘Made for Kids’ Content  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    After Huge $170 Million Fine, YouTube Music Puts Limits on ‘Made for Kids’ Content

    What Song Is In The Fast & Furious 9 Trailer?  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    What Song Is In The Fast & Furious 9 Trailer?

    Dance music act Wolfpack on working with Fatman Scoop and updating Gabrielle’s classic hit  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Dance music act Wolfpack on working with Fatman Scoop and updating Gabrielle’s classic hit

    Singer Billie Eilish sweeps top awards at Grammys  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Singer Billie Eilish sweeps top awards at Grammys

  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • food
    • Health
    • Travel
    Coronavirus: Test data ‘reassuring for front-line healthcare workers’  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Coronavirus: Test data ‘reassuring for front-line healthcare workers’

    When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, health care must not return to business as usual  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    When the Covid-19 pandemic is over, health care must not return to business as usual

    Piers Morgan called Victoria Beckham a ‘pampered primadonna’ for furloughing her staff instead of paying their wages herself  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Piers Morgan called Victoria Beckham a ‘pampered primadonna’ for furloughing her staff instead of paying their wages herself

    How the Apple Watch went from fashion accessory to fitness must-have  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    How the Apple Watch went from fashion accessory to fitness must-have

    Office Of The Attorney General Helps With COVID-19 Travel Concerns  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Office Of The Attorney General Helps With COVID-19 Travel Concerns

    Cyprus’ Entry and Travel Restrictions Amid Coronavirus  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Cyprus’ Entry and Travel Restrictions Amid Coronavirus

    Health care of tomorrow, today: How artificial intelligence is fighting the current, and future, COVID-19 pandemic  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Health care of tomorrow, today: How artificial intelligence is fighting the current, and future, COVID-19 pandemic

    Using the magic of technology to deliver better health and care  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Using the magic of technology to deliver better health and care

    How one hospital system is using technology to reduce health care providers’ exposure to coronavirus  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    How one hospital system is using technology to reduce health care providers’ exposure to coronavirus

    Alan raises another $54.4 million for its health insurance product  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

    Alan raises another $54.4 million for its health insurance product

    Trending Tags

    • Golden Globes
    • Mr. Robot
    • MotoGP 2017
    • Climate Change
    • Flat Earth
No Result
View All Result
Forbes
No Result
View All Result
Home Lifestyle food

Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms?

by Mehwish Khan
11th January 2020
in food
0
Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms?  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty
0
SHARES
6
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

It is being claimed we could save the planet by turning renewable energy and air directly into food and rewilding all the farmland that is no longer needed. Could it really work?

In a TV documentary called Apocalypse Cow, and a Guardian column, environmentalist and journalist George Monbiot says food grown in vats using renewable energy could transform food production.

He highlights a Finnish company called Solar Foods that makes food from air. The process starts by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen then provides energy for bacteria to use to turn carbon dioxide and nitrogen in air into protein-rich organic matter, more efficiently than plants grow using photosynthesis.

“The land efficiency, the company estimates, is roughly 20,000 times greater,” Monbiot writes. “Everyone on Earth could be handsomely fed, and using a tiny fraction of its surface.”

Monbiot is absolutely right about the destructiveness of food production – but his numbers appear off.

The head of Solar Foods, Pasi Vainikka, tells me that the efficiency figure Monbiot cites applies only to the area of land taken up by the factories. If the energy were derived from solar, says Vainikka, then it would be only 10 times more land efficient than farmed soya.

Sadly, this suggests a claim reported by Monbiot in 2018 that all the protein the world now eats could be cultivated in an area smaller than Ohio is rather wide of the mark.
But we do need to do something about the impact of our food and even a small reduction in farmland could make a big difference. Habitat loss is the single biggest killer of wildlife, for instance, and it is largely due to farming.

Farming and land clearance also produces a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. And organic farming is even worse than the conventional kind.

Food production is also inefficient. Almost all the food we eat is derived from photosynthesis. This will be true for lab-grown meat as well, if made with nutrients obtained from plants.

Less than 0.5 per cent of the light energy falling on a field gets turned into food. By contrast, solar panels convert around 17 per cent of the light energy falling on them into electricity.

Solar Foods says it can convert electricity into food – via hydrogen – with an efficiency of 20 per cent. That is several times better than photosynthesis.

It is technically feasible. In fact, a company called Calysta is already producing animal feed from microbes fed on methane – but the methane comes from natural gas.

Solar Foods says its process is economically feasible, too, and that it will be able to beat the price of soya, the cheapest protein widely used for animal feed.
There are other issues though. There are grand plans to use hydrogen for everything from heating homes to powering aeroplanes. But we don’t produce enough hydrogen for this, and 99 per cent of it is made from fossil fuels, so using it won’t reduce emissions.

We don’t have renewable electricity to spare, and half the energy is lost when making hydrogen. So clean hydrogen is a limited resource and should be used wisely.

Putting huge amounts of renewable energy into producing hydrogen to make farm-free food could thus undercut other efforts to limit climate change – the other great threat to wildlife.

However, it would also eliminate greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution from the farms that are replaced, so it might still be a win overall.

The bottom line is that it is still far from clear if farm-free foods can save the planet. But the potential rewards are so immense that we should be pouring vast sums of money into finding out.

In the meantime, we should do all we can to minimise the land needed for farming, such as eating less meat, stopping turning foods like palm oil into biofuels and embracing genetically modified supercrops.

Tags: making food 'from air'planet
Mehwish Khan

Mehwish Khan

Next Post
CTA GIVES PATIENTS, DOCTORS GUIDANCE ON HEALTH-FOCUSED WEARABLES  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

CTA GIVES PATIENTS, DOCTORS GUIDANCE ON HEALTH-FOCUSED WEARABLES

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

How having a son with Down’s syndrome changed rocker’s music  Can we really save the planet by making food ‘from air’ without farms? jeg empty

How having a son with Down’s syndrome changed rocker’s music

1 year ago

Sri Lanka- Promoting sustainable change in the fashion industry

12 months ago

Popular News

    Forbes

    © 2020 Forbese . All Rights Reserved.

    Forbese is a global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship!

    • About
    • Advertise
    • Careers

    Follow Us

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • Politics
    • World
    • Business
    • Science
    • National
    • Entertainment
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    • Sports
    • Fashion
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
    • Tech
    • Health
    • Food

    © 2020 Forbese . All Rights Reserved.

    Login to your account below

    Forgotten Password? Sign Up

    Fill the forms bellow to register

    All fields are required. Log In

    Retrieve your password

    Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

    Log In