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A comment on In the Netherlands, a group of scientists is working on feeding 11 billion. Parent comment

Re:In the Netherlands, a group of scientists is working on f... by sarbaz on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @03:08PM (#20943614)
>I think this is only true for narrow definitions of efficient

The definition I was going for is this: 2% of the US is currently employed in the agriculture sector. The US is also a very large exporter of agricultural products. So each ag worker produces over 50x more food than they consume. I think that's pretty amazing.

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Re:In the Netherlands, a group of scientists is working on f... by cryptoz on Wednesday September 11, 2019 @03:16PM (#20943684)
I don't think it's amazing to reach large local maxima for production efficiency when the major risks are ignored and we know about problems piling up that could dramatically reduce that efficiency in the future.

I think targeting that definition of 'efficient' is a mistake, as it doesn't represent the true, whole-system consequences. The efficiency metric you quote just completely ignores the pollution from the industry, which is a part of the system you're studying.

Passing the sound barrier wouldn't have been so amazing if the plane blew up just after.

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