PITY THE POOR MALTHUSIANS:

There's an opportunity to feed the world by farming fast-growing, low-resource, photosynthesizing algae on marginal coastal lands globally, researchers show in a recent study. 

These nutrient-rich algae, farmed along coastlines in pounds of seawater pumped up from the ocean, could produce enough food to feed 10 billion people in the next 25 years--"while simultaneously reducing our demands for arable land and freshwater," says Charles Greene, lead author on the new Oceanography study and professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Cornell University.

He and his research team relied on GIS models to identify locations across the planet that are close to the sea, and have the right levels of sunlight to propel the growth of single-celled algae, which can grow 10 times faster than regular crops. 

They identified the most suitable locations in southern parts of the planet--which may help shift centers of global food production from the north to the south, the researchers believe. If produced across the identified area, algae alone could generate more than the total planetary protein demand projected for 2050--an amount of roughly 286.5 Mt per year. That's in addition to providing a rich source of minerals and omega-3 fatty acids, among other things. 

Algae could do this using one-tenth of the area required by conventional food sources to produce the same amount of food. Meanwhile, much of that land would be in places, like coastal desert environments, where it doesn't compete with other uses.

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