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David Pimentel and Future Hunger

In 1929, A university of California professor invented hydroponics.

David Pimentel (1925 – 2019) was a agricultural professor at Cornell University in the United States. He was an advocate or organic agriculture and worked with Rodale Institute on a 22 year study to show that organic agriculture coiuld save 35% of the fossil fuel used for commercial agriculture.

Pimentel was warning the world that most of the human food supply is dependent upon fossil fuels like oil for gasoline for tractors and transportation and natural gas for the production of fertilizers.

With the earth's oil supply predicted to run our by the year 2050 or 2060, David predicted mass starvation of most of the world's people.

He claimed that all the earth could support in a world without fossil fuel from one half to three billion people.

If the world's population is 9 to 10 billion people by then, most of us will die of starvation.

David Pimentel (1925-2019)

David was predicting the huge future famine of at least 2/3 of the human population.

Just before he died, David published a paper on this prediction, also citing the problems with deforestation, soil erosion and lack of water and fossil fuels. Peggy Bradley met with Dr. Pimental to discuss the problem.

Perennial Wheat

Peggy got into a discussion with David about the possibility of hydroponics being the answer to this situation, with David doubting if it could help. David pointed out that it would have to be a hydroponics that would not depend upon fossil fuels.

What David is predicting about the future is happening to some families right now. Because of a lack of resources they do not have enough food to eat.

This class will be devoted to help you learn how to grow your own food with very limited resources, limited money, limited land, limited water.

We will learn about two types of growing plants, outside and inside. Depending upon where you are on the earth, you may be able to grow your food outside.

Locations of tropical climates, with subtypes: Af—Tropical rainforest climate, Am—Tropical monsoon climate, Aw/As—Tropical savanna climate.

By Beck, H.E., et. al. - "Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution". Nature Scientific Data. DOI:10.1038/sdata.2018.214., CC BY 4.0

If you are located anywhere in the areas with blue on the map. you might be able to grow your food outside through most of the year. If you are located in the white areas, you might want to grow your plants in a structure like Hydroponica.

Revised: 1 May 2021
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