Schlagwort-Archive: Monsanto

Stopping Monsanto?

There was a proposal that one has to stop Monsanto. I wrote it may be problematic. I should elaborate on that here we go:

Yes I can. At first we have to get the bases straight. I assume the population will be much higher then today. And there is one thing which you can also count on. The more developed a country the less children. So poverty and population are negative correlated. The more wealthy a society is. the less children it has.

If you don’t agree, that’ll be fine with me. Just check the numbers. Anyway the point is there will be much more men then today. It’s not to be expected that we find new continents like e.g. America in the foreseeable future. So the land is limited. Still there are millions of square kilometers which are not settled.

But they will get settled because, well men need some space. The simple rule is the easier a land can be cultivated the earlier it will get settled. So there are areas on this earth which are well suited for settlement, and there are those which are hardly suitable for settlement. But men has the means to make even deserts flourish. It may be not a good idea agreed, but examples are abundant. See California e.g. Now what is the biggest problem for growing plants. In short it’s getting enough sun and water.

But now see the Sahara, there’s more then enough sun but hardly water. So what can we do about that ? Well Sahara goes directly to the Atlantic or other oceans. The problem with that? Salty water. What can one do about that? Well you can get water out of salt water, that costs a lot of capital and a lot of energy. So the solution for that is as cheap as possible energy. Is there a practical limit on energy on earth? No it is not, as Einstein has pointed out E = m * c-², so any material is just energy, in the end we can not run out of energy

What other solution may we have for salty waters? No assume we would have had plants which can be irrigated with salty water. Does such things exist. Indeed such plants do exist (see the salty greens near the north sea), now if we could make plants like wheat takes salty water resistant, we could cultivate deserts.

Monsanto tries to get get crossings such as that. So maybe salty resistant plants may make the difference for survival or not. You may not like it, but then you have to propose other solutions. I pointed out two way which come to my mind. I can think about other options also but what I don’t know and nobody ever will. What’s the most promising way? I’m afraid we never will know till we try.

If you forbid gen manipulation you may doom mankind to war, poverty and it may mean we’re going to kill children. That is not unprecedented: See the south sea civilizations.

They keys are:

  • cheap energy
  • plenty of water
  • breeding
  • wealth
  • property rights