If It's Yellow, Let it Mellow

In the last poll, 100% of you (all three respondents) voted "False" to "Things which have always been will always be." The results of this poll bring me to the next futuristic topic of discussion on this first day of October: that things which have always been (water) will not always be.

Here in Kentucky we've been experiencing somewhat of a drought. I find that reading Wendell Berry poems about praying for rain have been helping to bring a few morning showers, but nothing substantial. Now, less rain means fewer muddy footsteps and less mopping for me at the café. But it also means fewer crops for local farmers, and for us--fewer pumpkins, for example. In Lexington water use is restricted. I skim the Herald-Leader every morning and learn about how much water Lexingtonians used the previous day; this weekend, between Friday and Saturday, it was 43.929 million gallons, just from Kentucky American Water.

Water, being such a seemingly "abundant" resource on the planet, is a hard thing to fully understand and will perhaps even be a hard thing to come by. As we all know, scientists and English majors alike, matter can neither be created nor destroyed, so it's not as though water is simply dropping out of the evaporation/ condensation/precipitation water cycle and, literally, off the face of the earth.

I don't know much, but I will tell you what I do know.

Food Production
Every day we drink about 5 liters of water in various forms (tea if you're me, beer if you're Jacob). To produce the food we eat each day requires more than 2,000 liters.

• 90% of all the water we use in the world is used to produce food.
• It takes 25 gallons to produce 1 pound of wheat.
• It takes 5,000 gal to produce 1 pound of BEEF

Now, this is not an article about the evils of eating meat or the perils of thirsty cows or the greatness of vegetarianism. (Or is it?) But think about this: Americans consume 800kg of grain per person per year (that's almost 1800 pounds!). In Italy, the number is around 400kg; Japan is less than 200. Our life expectancy is lower than that of Japan. Red meat connection?

Using Water More Efficiently
The best way to do this is to capture rain before it runs down dirty streets, flows into drains, and hits useless land. It would be awesome if houses had water-catchers, if most drops of rain that fell were used productively, even just to flush the toilet with. In the meantime, if it's yellow let it mellow, and turn the water off while you brush your teeth. Or brush them less frequently.

Farming
Assuming that most won't commit to the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (see: Nate's cause, VHEMT.org), population will only get bigger. The UN has predicted a number around 8.9 billion by 2050. How will everyone eat? Will everyone eat? In order to ensure the latter does occur, we need to develop some serious productivity improvement.

Genetically modified organisms
What if plants could be developed that were more resistant to insects and weeds, thus reducing the need for harmful chemicals? What if nutritious plants could be developed that withstood sub-Saharan conditions? I can't yet support this. Nor can I veto it completely. Controversial (and perhaps also a topic for a future discussion), but something to think about.

Hydroponics
A form of agriculture I'm curious to learn more about. What I do know about hydroponics is basically this: plants are grown with their roots in water--in a liquid that contains a good mix of nutrients. It uses very little water (good) and the minerals going to the roots can be precisely measured by a computer. I don't know enough about it to make any astute observations here. I just thought it was interesting. But diversity is a gorgeous thing, and it's a bad idea to foster the development of monocultures and chemicals.

I'm mostly concerned with Kentucky's pumpkin production.