Experts warn of global food shortage

Experts warn of global food shortage

www.news.com.au

"The world could run dramatically short of food if we don't attend to the issues that are now emerging - the shortage of water, the lack of arable land, the waste of nutrients and the lack of agricultural research worldwide,"

One of the main issues affecting worldwide food supplies was the increasing wealth in populous countries such as China and India.
"As countries emerge from very low levels of income... the rate of consumption of animal protein rise quite rapidly,"

(visit the link for the full news article)

So the experts advise us all to eat more vegetables?

What about the obscene waste we are guilty of? Whilst some countries starve to death, we waste SO much food.
I have seen the amount of food thrown away at out local big chain supermarket. Huge blue metal bins full to overflowing with food that has reached its "used by" date.

Surely there is an answer to fixing the amount of food wasted?


www.news.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Boycott fast food chains and grow as much food yourself as possible

reply to post by AotearoaSon


While this would indeed be a good possibility for people living in rural areas, I see some issues with the implementation of this plan in urban areas.
Issues like lack of suitable space, lack of resources and lack of skill. I have no doubt that some people will find a way to plant food, but not the broad masses.

I fear we have to face the possibility that we will come to see widespread famine in our lifetime, so that only the really rich can afford good food. The rest of us will have to settle with stuff we wouldn't consider nowadays.

Everybody who is in any way able should get some gardening skills and the tools and seeds and commit a little bit of time and space to pland food. I guess potatoes, carrots and peas or beans would prove to be a valuable supplement.

reply to post by Swordbeast


Do you really think it will happen? That in our lifetime we will see widespread famine in industrialized nations such as the U.S and Australia?

Australia is in the worst drought in the countries history. Already we are seeing food prices rise quite substantially because of this.

The reason I ask if world wide food stortages really will happen, is the talk of ANOTHER global climate shift in the not too distant future, which indicates COLD weather on the way, instead of this global warming we are now experiencing.
Depending on how bad this oncoming cold period is, for countries like Australia at least, a cold change would most likely end the drought, but the northern hemisphere .....?

If there are too many people and not enough resources to sustain the amount of population on the planet there really is only a small number of options you have to work with-

1> Cull the world population to a level that can sustain itself with the resources available, and have a smaller healthier populace.

2> Find somewhere else to live for the excess population, i.e. another planet or the moon or something else.

3> Find new ways of increasing the area available to grow foods, one example I have seen is a multi level farm design that recycles all their own waste to fertilize crops.

if there are any other options please add them here.

we cannot as a planet go blindly and stupidly into the future breeding like rabbits or a plague out of control. there has to be limitations on the human population or else we will all starve at once....even the rich will get their own when the masses raid their homes in search of food.

reply to post by Burginthorn

and

reply to post by Melbourne_Militia


Yes, I do think so. Melbourne_Militia gave some of the reasons why.
I also think that with China and India rising in wealth, there will be more people who have the money to buy better food. This will in time lead to a direct competition with Europe/USA.
The foodprices will rise and with growing concern towards genetically altered food, people will to some degree start to become picky in what they eat.
Another factor will be the fuel prices to transport food from the point of origin to the point of processing, the point of distribution and ultimately the point of consumption. Rural areas will be better off because they don't need to spend money on fuel to get the food. But I see some clouds on the horizon for urban areas...
Best to make sure to rely on local food sources and those who can afford it might want to invest in livestock. A couple of fresh eggs every day may make a difference.

Frankly, I currently lack the data to have an educated opinion on global cooling, however, in the "Fragile Earth" section here on the boards are some threads that seem to point in this direction.
The interested mind might want to look up the relations and implications of the gulf stream and other maritime currents.

I'm pretty confident that nature will put a pretty harsh cap on our population numbers if we don't do ourselves.

The continous rape of mother nature with un-natural fields and farms introducing pesticides and other toxins into our nature, will only lead to more unhealthy food and less production of food.

Only by returning to natural conditions in agriculture, will we be able to produce, not only healthy, but also more produceable fields and farms.

The ecological way of agriculture in combination with correct forestry and natural flow of rivers and waters is the way to go.

Ecological agriculture has proven to be the best producing method in terms of both Quality and Quantatiy, if this is done in a natural environment.

Anybody with the correct understanding of nature, knows the importence of natural riverflow and its capacity to deliver nutrients to its surroundings.

The only reason they have to use un-natural fertilizer, is because they have straigtened out the rivers and waters, making them uncapable of supplying their surroundings with nutrients.
They have cut down all the trees surrounding, or between the fields and the waters, and the trees following the rivers, and thereby removed the shade, witch is needed to cool down the upper earth temparature, so that the heat from below and the trees themselfs, can raise the groundwater level upwards, and thereby supplying the fields with the nutrients it needs.

Correct forestry in combination with the rivers being brought back to their natural state, and placement of the field in the correct locations, would help agriculture more than anything.

We have to understand and work with nature instead of working against her.

Theese facts have been known for over 100 years and still farmers keep spreeding their toxics all over the place, with direct hazardius effect on the groundwater itself!

Seeking the un-natural massproducing fields have only let to fields not producing half of what they could, croops in need to be sprayed with toxics, to even be able to live in their inviroment, poisen of the groundwater, people resorting to genetic enhanced croops, witch turns out to be sterile, people getting sick from eating the un-natural food and drinking the poisen water.
The whole un-natural system is a socalled "bad circle" only leading in the wrong direction.

let me repeat myself: We must understand and work with nature instead of against her!

Another stream to this thought is the decline of a viable energy source. Most of the food in industrialized countries is produced by agribusiness and oil is soon to be in short supply. So clearly there will be incentive for governments to lower their populations. Chem=trails come to mind as well as civilians detention centers ( biometric information from national ID's would help to determine candidates for 'removal') Perhaps some form of soylent green will be produced to sustain the chosen few. What about some disaster like a plague or just some common level 4 pathogen like small pox or ebola. The Party's Over deals with this and uses the number 2 billion to be the ideal number of people on earth. Do you really think governemnts would attempt to relocate drones to another planet? Too costly if you're not top shelf you go in the recycle bin.

yes, I expect big trouble with the worldwide agriculture.. As I understand , the main reason for trouble is the way of considering the agricultural land as an "asset" or investment rather than agricultural land. In my country we have the agricultural land increasing in price about 10 times in less than 5 years - this is not due reach farmers buying land but investors. As long as people will continue to consider agricultural land as "safe currency" (and it is) , we will see more and more trouble, It happened in Romania of 1907 , reach people managed to get most of the agricultural land and we got one of the most massive famine in history + social revolts. People can get very dangerous when hungry , so good luck to us..

wikipedia link here : history to repeat again???????

link not working due special char. used - please try to copy+paste this

wikipedia.org/wiki/1907_Romanian_Peasants'_Revolt

[edit on 17-1-2008 by sty]

[edit on 17-1-2008 by sty]

A few staples to have of course are flour, sugar and powdered milk. I try to keep some extra just in case of big storms ect. But if something like this will happen then I am better off raising a few goats in my yard and a few chickens. As well as try to have a small garden. But we also need to realize like one person told me if we get into the time when there will be a famine then people will kill us for our food. So not sure if we are best hoarding or not. A great way to make an area outside where you can keep food stuff Is make a big hole up close to the house and put a wooden box in it. Put home canned goods in it this way vermin cant get to it. Put a cover over the top of the box and cover with dirt. Then plant flowers over the area. This way you know where it is but no one else does.


Forgot about this if you live in a city or town you can usually keep rabbits and birds as pets so therefore you can have a couple of small chicken in a cage or a few rabbits in a cage.

Hilda

[edit on 17-1-2008 by hildar]

i could use my shed for growing mushrooms ! you get around 4-5 kilos/year for every square meter you harvest . It can be done in multi-level shelfs . I will try with 2-3 meters first, then goin to have 20 square meters of mushrooms if successful with the first.

For those interested in the details of surviving such times, might I direct you to the survival forums.
There is a lot of very interesting stuff, it's just sometimes hidden within a thread with an unsuspecting title.

another interesting point to this discussion is what I saw on a television report last night -

The use of Ethanol and Bio-fuels will impact pretty severely upon the population both the amount of grains available and the increasing costs of these grains as demand of bio-fuels increases across the world, people will be burning it for fuel rather than eating the grains that it could produce. It will rise in price along with everything else and in general, more and more people will be hungry and poor.

reply to post by Melbourne_Militia


I doubt that this will develop into a major problem, the market and offer/demand system will keep this in a realistic frame.
People will stop using their cars when they realize that they have to choose between a nice drive and something to eat.

The Global Food Shortage is due to Global Warming because of the fact that the Global Warming bunch insist on converting corn to fuel.

Where is the logic in this?