As the global population continues to grow, the challenge of feeding the world grows with it. Internationally, the system is already strained and working ineffectively with one third of all food wasted, while an acceptable percentage of people live in food poverty conditions.
Increasingly, there are also signs that mass, intensive farming techniques are beginning to reach their limits, yield sizes are beginning to flatten out, while overuse of fertilisers is associated with soil degradation. Some scientists are now looking for the answer in the molecular structure of plants, aiming to improve the core process of photosynthesis as a mechanism for increasing crop sizes.
In terms of efficiency, the photosynthesis process doesn’t receive a high score, converting only 1% of the solar energy it receives into biomass. A recent paper has suggested a whole range of possibilities for increasing the efficiency of that process including the modification of the plant’s chlorophylls, disrupting vegetation’s proteins to create more even light absorption distribution, analysing the most effective molecular combinations to maximise photosynthesis production and several others.
While the prospect of creating more efficient and more effective plants with better photosynthesis processes is tempting, the research indicates that it will happen at some point. It’s hard not to feel that feeding the growing global population will require a mindset shift, moving away from the concept of maximising efficiencies, and towards the creation of a system where nutrients flow more effectively and much less is wasted. Ellen MacArthur synthesises a number of those points in the video below.
Source: Improving Photosynthesis May Be Our Best Bet To Feed More People
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