Electro-agriculture versus photosynthesis
Most edible plants produce their food through photosynthesis, a process in which they capture sunlight and use its energy to turn carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil into glucose —- a type of sugar that provides energy to plants. However, a major challenge with photosynthesis is that it is a highly inefficient food production method, converting only about one percent of sunlight into glucose.
“Photosynthesis inherently has a low solar-to-food energy conversion efficiency, typically only about 1%, which limits the productivity of conventional agriculture,” Feng said.