Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Saline Agriculture As the Future of Food

Posted by timothy on from the rice-goes-with-shrimp-and-mango dept.

Damien1972 writes "To confront rising salinization, authors writing in the journal Science recommend increased spending on saline agriculture, which proposes growing salt-water crops to feed the world. Jelte Rozema and Timothy Flowers believe that salt-loving plants known as halophytes could become important crops, especially in areas where the salt content of the water is about half that of ocean water."

5 of 153 comments (clear)

  1. Bioremediation by ZirbMonkey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I love to hear about innovations like this. However it can be taken a step further.

    Not only can we make crops resistant to salty conditions, we can breed them to fix the soil and remove that salt. Bioremediation works on all sorts of poisoned soils, removing all sorts of poisons.

    Hell, we could have pre-salted potato chips!

    1. Re:Bioremediation by SwordsmanLuke · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I used to live in Idaho, literally up the street from a potato processing plant. After I found out what kind of potatoes Pringles were made from, it took me three years to be willing to eat them again. :)

      --
      Any plan which depends on a fundamental change in human behavior is doomed from the start.
  2. Re:Just curious... by bockelboy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Zimbabwe, physically, is actually one of the best places to grow corn in Africa. They were once a breadbasket of the region.

    Of course now, the entire economy has completely collapsed, so much of the country is starving.

    That aside, it's a decent place to grow some corn.

  3. Dont fight it, use it by sirusv · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Locatated in the upper south east of South Australia my father has been very sucussful in converting once barron salt pans in to usable pasture with Puccinellia. This grass originates from the west coast of Turkey and it is claimed that it is the most salt tolerant of all the commercially available grasses. James has always had an environmental eye in how he approached farming. I have heard him say 'don't fight it, use it' on more than one occasion. Field studies into the use of Puccinellia at his property have shown that the results were spectacular. Puccinellia has now become an intergral part of the farm providing highly productive and useful pasture component.

  4. Seasteading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This topic interests me in the context of "seasteading" especially. It would be helpful to have a suitable crop for growing in the ocean rather than on platforms on the ocean. Kelp/seaweed would be suitable, if it could be grown in the shallows near a platform in deep water. From what I understand, there was such an experiment, done by dangling a frame below a floating platform. Unfortunately, the vibrations of the cables damaged the plants.