high density food production

So I've been thinking about food production on a seastead. Ideally you could have a fully closed system that produces a balanced diet, all of this as small as possible. I've come up with
something, and I'd very much like some comments.


(not pictured: destination of livestock)

The base of the food pyramid consists of a plant that can be used as a substrate for mushroom cultivation. Grass would do, it grows easily and relatively fast in most every climate. In addition to being a substrate for mushrooms, it could also be fed to livestock such as chickens, sheep goats and cows. Other options are kudzu, which grows at an astounding rate and is also edible, suited for both humans and livestock. A third possibility is bamboo. some varieties grow very fast and are edible. Furthermore, bamboo would provide material suited for carpentry or gardening (trellises).

These plants all produce cellulose to be used as a mushroom substrate (cellulose will henceforth encompass all carbohydrates produces for the purpose of serving as a mushroom substrate). Cultivating a combination of these plants is likely a safer bet than maintaining a monoculture which may be affected by a disease or deplete the soil of certain nutrients.

Mushrooms are grown as a bulk food with the production of starch in mind. Ideally fast growing strains of shiitake, oyster mushrooms, honey mushrooms or others that grow well on the available substrate could be isolated. These mushrooms can be eaten fresh, dried for storage, ground up and used as flour or used as animal feed. Certain mushrooms such as the reiki/reishi may also be used for medicinal purposes (asthma treatment).

I am unsure about the best way to dispose of depleted mushroom substrate. Composting seems the most likely destination.

The fruiting of mushrooms produces considerable amounts of carbon dioxide which must vented off. Composting too produces large amouts of carbon dioxide which may be recovered for the production of algae. This exhaust is bubbled into a bioreactor where algae are grown under artificial light. Certain strains of algae can be eaten fresh, dried and/or cooked and should not be disregarded as a source of food or animal fodder. The chosen algae should also produce algae oil which is useful as biofuel or as a source of nutritional fat. After removal of oil, algae may be used as mushroom substrate (research required!), used as animal fodder or composted.

In addition to these sources of bulk food, a small garden should be maintained to provide additional nutrients and tasty ingredients as well as seasoning. Even very small gardens can produce large amounts of produce and herbs. Patti Moreo has achieved wonderful results with her urban garden. The path to freedom project shows what can be achieved on a larger scale.
Additionally, a hrdroponics installation could be maintained and fertillised with "compost tea".

Livestock may prove challenging. Even small animals like chickens require a certain amount of space if health is to be maintained. Aditionally, livestock produces food much less efficiently than plants. Fish are supposedly the most efficient animals. With seasteading in mind, simple fishing would be a great option. However: fish populations may be contaminated or undesireable for human consumption.

Fish can be caught, killed and fed into a maggot bucket to provide chickens with a substantial portion of their nutritional requirements. If fishing is easy enough, this would provide you with a serious source of meat and eggs. Another source of healthy, tasty fish would be to raise them yourself. Worm beds, just like maggot buckets would be a marvelous way to recycle waste meat as well as many other scraps.

This is a work in progress and any comments would be appreciated.

Biotechnological carbon fixation.

Carbon fixation is accomplished almost entirely through fotosynthesis right now. We rely on plants to turn carbon dioxide into carbon hydrates such as suger and starch. The advent of synthetic fuels will require a large supply of these, but already enviromentalist groups and human rights activists are crying about the huge amount of staple foods required to provide with the wee amount of bio ethanol we're currently using. If we ever hope to synthesise kerosene and plastic from ethanol, we'll need a better way of producing these staples.

I don't think it's impossible to do this biotechnologically. We've managed to get bacteria to synthesise insulin, why not sugar? Set up a huge broth filled tank that houses these bacteria, and pump carbon dioxide through the tank. They'd need a supply of light as well, but that could be engeneered easely enough. Maybe large shallow tanks with lights strung over them, stacked on top of eachother. We've been using other microorganisms (yeasts) to turn sugars into alcohol for thousands of years, and we've got the chemical knowledge to use this alcohol to synthesise fuels.

This technology could also help us deal with world hunger, and it would allow small communities to generate a lot of food/energy themselves. It would also turn the agricultural world upside down. Imagine the price of starch plummeting, while fuel for harvestors and combines becomes prohibitively expensive. High density food production will also benefit areas with high population densities if transporting food became more expensive than producing it.

As for something that's happening now: algae oil.
Not exactly micro-organisms, but they get the job done, and the oil they produce is supposed to be great for making biodiesel.

If you've got kids: get them an education in biotechnology or process engeneering, for they will be the farmers of the future.