Farming Land

It seems to me that starting from now we will have to re-evaluate some of our horticultural, agricultural and pastoral practices. For example, should we continue to irrigate large areas of wine-grapes, if the water and land could be better utilised to grow vegetables instead?

There is also a need for far greater research into our indigenous plants and whether there might be species that have commercial prospects and be better alternatives. One example might be to really investigate our native citrus because many species are endemic to arid areas. This might make some of them suitable to use as root-stock for our traditional oranges, lemons, mandarins etc., or they may even provide useful genetic traits that could be incorporated via GM, or traditional breeding.

Every year millions are spent on breeding and testing new varieties of wheat, barley and other grains, but I wonder how much has ever been invested in researching and selectively breeding/domesticating our native grasses.

Another way to address the future is to make far better use of water and space. Rather than simply pumping water from a river to irrigate a fruit, vegetable or other crop, how about an aquaponics set-up where fish are grown first, before the water and nutrients are used to grow plants?

Perhaps we need to change how we picture our food being grown? Instead of the traditional picture of rows of vegetables growing in paddocks, a lot more produce we currently consume could be grown indoors. The downside is the cost of infrastructure (building and ongoing maintenance/running costs), but there are many upsides that offset the drawbacks. Good farming land is becoming scarce and more expensive. It's also under threat from development, particularly in the tradtional market-garden areas that tend the be closer to urban centres. Indoor plant set-ups can be built practically anywhere.

Water is going to be more scarce, but indoor growing uses far less because it is better targeted in delivery and also because indoor environments can be climate controlled to minimise transpiration and evaporation losses. Indoor set-ups can make far better use of space in many instances because crops can be grown vertically above one another as well as horizontally across the space.

Thanks to the massive investments being made in recreational and medicinal cannabis production in the USA, massive amounts are being spent on R&D on indoor growing. LED lighting is very power efficient compared with older lighting technology, and the same applies to temperature and humidity control equipment.

Indoor environments are not subject to floods, droughts and other weather events.

Nutrients can be used far more effectively and run-off problems contained. It's also far easier to control pests and prevent diseases, so pesticide use can be greatly reduced.

While indoor growing requires energy, much of that could be provided by renewables. There are also cost savings due to less/zero use of fossil fuels like petrol and diesel.

Indoor growing can also take place in our larger towns and cities, which cuts transport costs to markets and ports.

Just a few ideas of things we should consider. I'm sure there are other ideas that might be partial solutions to the problems we face and will only get worse without a drastic change in our thinking and practices.