In article <r8ydnd4Ym9aRo5jVnZ2dnUVZ_oesnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
noreplay@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
( Frank) says...
> My dad was a farm boy during the Great Depression, he said there were
plenty
> of food to eat while people in the cities were not as fortunate.
There were a lot fewer people to feed back then. The US population was
only about 175 million, as opposed to over 300 million today. There
were also farms where nothing could be grown. If there is another
prolonged drought in the midwest as severe as the 1930s, much of the
world will go hungry.
There is no grain surplus left. We can hope for the rains to return to
Australia, which will ease the supply situation a bit. The Brazilians
are rapidly clearing new land for food production. High prices are
rejuvenating European agricultural production. However, we have reached
the point where only high input, industrial agriculture will feed the
world's population, and the price of inputs (fuel and fertilizer) have
risen to the point that a drop in prices will mean production will shut
down.
The way the population curve is going, we need to find food for between
3 and 6 billion more people in the next few decades. This with the
ocean fisheries collapsing, and the climate of the earth possibly
****fting. It looks like a tricky time ahead.
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