Andre:

Thanks for tackling my question.

But what if those nutrients you describe come from something we are not already eating -- like seaweed or algae. Something that has not or cannot be over-farmed -- at least until we've had a chance to tap into the energy conversion cycle at a deeper, more fundamental level.

As energy is all around us, it is essentially a question of finer as opposed to grosser access. There may be ways of buying time, while pushing the process in the right direction. Given science, we cannot rule out the possibility of progressing towards a solution, as opposed to regressing to more primitive living conditions.

I am neither a cornocopian nor a believer in technology as a substitute for fuel, but we can never rule out the possibility of the kind of fortuitous breakthrough that the discovery of oil, itself, represented.

If we can come up with the R&D $, we can at least take a stab a this. Another six months of high fuel and food prices, and a lot of people -- even some influential ones -- will begin to wake up.