We looked purely at technical viability -- ignoring all the social issues that currently cause millions to go hungry and die every year," he says.
Swap the Big Mac for Bugs and Slime
So how do we feed billions of hungry mouths if there is no more sunshine or farming? Swap your Big Mac and fries for bacterial slime and a side of bugs, and you'll be okay.
"We came up with two primary classes of solutions," Pearce says. "We can convert existing fossil fuels to food by growing bacteria on top of it -- then either eat the bacterial slime or feed it to rats and bugs and then eat them." The second (and easier) set of solutions uses partial rotting of woody plant fiber to either grow mushrooms or feed to insects, rats, cows, deer or chickens. "The trees are all dying from the lack of light anyway. If we use dead trees as an input, we can feed beetles or rats and then feed them to something else higher on the food chain," Pearce says. "Or just eat the bugs.