Agriculture is a major part of the climate problem and remains one of the hardest human activities to decarbonize. It’s responsible for approximately 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Many experts contend that alternative food sources – like insect farming and seaweed aquaculture – are part of the solution. Additionally, expanding production of climate resilient food crops, including quinoa, kernza, amaranth, and millet, likely also have a role to play.
But according to a new study led by researchers from the University of California – Irvine, another solution to this problem may be to eliminate farms altogether. In the study, which was recently published in the journal Nature Sustainability, the research team explored the potential for wide scale synthetic production of dietary fats through chemical and biological processes. The materials needed for this method are the same as those used naturally by plants: hydrogen (in water) and carbon dioxide (in the air).
The research team highlighted some of the potential benefits of farm-free food, including reduced water use, less pollution, localized food production, and less risk to food production from weather.
Cookies, crackers, chips, and many other grocery products are made with palm oil, a dietary fat that continues to be a major driver of deforestation around the world. However, it remains to be seen how consumers would react if the oil used to bake their cookies came from a food refinery up the road instead of a palm plantation in Indonesia.
According to the researchers, depending on food refineries instead of tropical plantations for dietary fats could mitigate lots of climate-warming emissions while also protecting land and biodiversity.
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UC Irvine-led science team shows how to eat our way out of the climate crisis
Photo, posted July 15, 2008, courtesy of Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio
