The world is closer to a food crisis than most people realise - Polidicks

[quote]In the early spring this year, US farmers were on their way to planting some 96m acres in corn, the most in 75 years. A warm early spring got the crop off to a great start. Analysts were predicting the largest corn harvest on record. The United States is the leading producer and exporter of corn, the world's feedgrain. At home, corn accounts for four-fifths of the US grain harvest. Internationally, the US corn crop exceeds China's rice and wheat harvests combined. Among the big three grains – corn, wheat, and rice – corn is now the leader, with production well above that of wheat and nearly double that of rice. The corn plant is as sensitive as it is productive. Thirsty and fast-growing, it is vulnerable to both extreme heat and drought. At elevated temperatures, the corn plant, which is normally so productive, goes into thermal shock. As spring turned into summer, the thermometer began to rise across the corn belt. In St Louis, Missouri, in the southern corn belt, the temperature in late June and early July climbed to 100F or higher 10 days in a row. For the past several weeks, the corn belt has been blanketed with dehydrating heat. Weekly drought maps published by the University of Nebraska show the drought-stricken area spreading across more and more of the country until, by mid-July, it engulfed virtually the entire corn belt. Soil moisture readings in the corn belt are now among the lowest ever recorded. While temperature, rainfall, and drought serve as indirect indicators of crop growing conditions, each week the US Department of Agriculture releases a report on the actual state of the corn crop. This year the early reports were promising. On 21 May, 77% of the US corn crop was rated as good to excellent. The following week the share of the crop in this category dropped to 72%. Over the next eight weeks, it dropped to 26%, one of the lowest ratings on record. The other 74% is rated very poor to fair. And the crop is still deteriorating. Over a span of weeks, we have seen how the more extreme weather events that come with climate change can affect food security. Since the beginning of June, corn prices have increased by nearly one half, reaching an all-time high on 19 July. Although the world was hoping for a good US harvest to replenish dangerously low grain stocks, this is no longer on the cards. World carryover stocks of grain will fall further at the end of this crop year, making the food situation even more precarious. Food prices, already elevated, will follow the price of corn upward, quite possibly to record highs. Not only is the current food situation deteriorating, but so is the global food system itself. We saw early signs of the unraveling in 2008 following an abrupt doubling of world grain prices. As world food prices climbed, exporting countries began restricting grain exports to keep their domestic food prices down. In response, governments of importing countries panicked. Some of them turned to buying or leasing land in other countries on which to produce food for themselves. Welcome to the new geopolitics of food scarcity. As food supplies tighten, we are moving into a new food era, one in which it is every country for itself. The world is in serious trouble on the food front. But there is little evidence that political leaders have yet grasped the magnitude of what is happening. The progress in reducing hunger in recent decades has been reversed. Unless we move quickly to adopt new population, energy, and water policies, the goal of eradicating hunger will remain just that. Time is running out. The world may be much closer to an unmanageable food shortage – replete with soaring food prices, spreading food unrest, and ultimately political instability– than most people realise. • [I]Lester R. Brown is the president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity, due to be published in October[/I][/quote] [url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jul/24/world-food-crisis-closer]Source[/url]

[b]new population[/b] Idiot cull, 2012

"As food supplies tighten, we are moving into a new food era, one in which it is every country for itself." That's scary. I swear, I really do hope this report is untrue, because I remember hearing how fishers are losing jobs due to the low population of fish. Lets hope shit doesn't go bad.

Feels a bit fear-mongering, but it's a scary reality to hear food prices continue to rise and it being harder to harvest them due to the massive changes in the weather. I can only hope for two things: The population stops going up (It wont) The farmers use every bit of open land (without ripping shit out) to compensate I'll leave it to the experts to figure this out. Hopefully there's good news at the end of all this.

Welp, if harvesting is getting harder due to weather, I have one word; biodomes. Build farms in controlled environments with adjustable day-night and weather cycles, so you don't have to depend on natural weather, and you could produce crops all year round. In regards to meat, pour more money into researching cheap and tasty vat-grown meat.

We've been hearing this malthusian debate for the last two hundred years. But food production always finds a way of keeping up. Never before have so many people had such a surplus of food.

maybe usa should stop being so fat then

too many homefires burning, and not enough trees.

I live out in Indiana. We've been hit hard, and I can say that the crops are indeed failing pretty bad. I wouldn't worry too much though. This report should be worrying countries like China, not the USA. In the USA, we produce way more than enough corn to feed the populace. In fact, if all of it were processed into edible corn, we could probably feed the this country and several smaller ones without worry every year. So nobody is going to starve, but things, especially if they involve corn syrup, will go up quite a bit in price. We can only hope the government rations food by that point, but knowing them they will just let private industry take over.

[QUOTE=_Chewgum;36933061]maybe usa should stop being so fat then[/QUOTE] what a nice guy

Exponentials and new technologies are just around the corner. Vertical farms and mass hydroponics and aeroponics are already deployed, waiting to be adopted for mass use. Humanity as a whole never changes until the thing that needs changing is on the cusp and brink of destruction. Only then do we adopt the new strategies that have already been proven to be a more than viable solution. We will be ok, Facepunch. Trust me.

It's time for population control.

Time to start eating insects. As disgusting as I think it sounds, I still have no idea why we aren't.

genetically modify hamburgers (e.g. big macs into larger portions) then amuricans will be happy.

[QUOTE=KingdomBanned;36933770]It's time for population control.[/QUOTE] India and other countries really should follow China's example of 1 baby per family.

[QUOTE=KingdomBanned;36933770]It's time for population control.[/QUOTE] yeah, you're right kill yourself, that might help

[QUOTE=FPChris;36933795]Time to start eating insects. As disgusting as I think it sounds, I still have no idea why we aren't.[/QUOTE] I'd be eating bugs right now, if I could find a source that I was sure was fit for human consumption.

[QUOTE=_Chewgum;36933061]maybe usa should stop being so fat then[/QUOTE] that would be like telling the british to start brushing their teeth

They still have the Svalbard Global Seed Vault

[QUOTE=ironman17;36932735]In regards to meat, pour more money into researching cheap and tasty vat-grown meat.[/QUOTE] Then you'll hear dumb people complaining that "it's not natural/organic"

They're never going to legalize pot now, the last thing we need is more people with the munchies.

[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;36934398]They're never going to legalize pot now, the last thing we need is more people with the munchies.[/QUOTE] Sugar makes you crave food more than pot. It's true. But they haven't fucking published the article on the net. The Norwegian version of Illustrated science had several pages about how sugar is more addictive than cocaine, damages your liver on terms with alcohol and gives you more munchies than cannabis (it doubles your receptors).

[QUOTE=Jackald;36934162]lol [img]http://media.economist.com/images/na/2009w50/Teeth2.jpg[/img] [url]http://www.economist.com/node/15060097?subjectid=7933596&story_id=15060097[/url][/QUOTE] So they start becoming messed up at around 13?

[QUOTE=Jackald;36934162]lol [img]http://media.economist.com/images/na/2009w50/Teeth2.jpg[/img] [url]http://www.economist.com/node/15060097?subjectid=7933596&story_id=15060097[/url][/QUOTE] Well if the dentists look that sketchy, no wonder.

[QUOTE=abananapeel;36935392]So they start becoming messed up at around 13?[/QUOTE] You lose your deciduous teeth at about 13/14 if they're well kept, but if you're losing teeth before 11 then it shows that you're not brushing them well enough. So if you measure this at 12 you get a good point to measure the decay of teeth and any repair work that has been done to them.

[QUOTE=abananapeel;36935392]So they start becoming messed up at around 13?[/QUOTE] Probably because their dentist looks like that. Oh, you meant their teeth.

[QUOTE=FPChris;36933795]Time to start eating insects. As disgusting as I think it sounds, I still have no idea why we aren't.[/QUOTE] Eww, gross. Can't we do something more reasonable like kill every other person Earth?

[QUOTE=Jackald;36933803]I disagree. [img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/56/World-Population-1800-2100.svg/587px-World-Population-1800-2100.svg.png[/img] As the less developed countries receive better healthcare and access to amenities, their birth rates drop. This has been steadily happening over the past few decades, hence the growth rate of the world population is slowly dropping. All we need to do to ensure world population doesn't become unmanageable is to keep improving the living standards off LEDC and NIC countries.[/QUOTE] I don't know why you got 3 dumbs. You are totally spot on, if lacking a little bit of info.

I was just talking about this to a friend the other day. I live in Kansas, so I'm seeing this first hand. It's sad seeing flat, dead fields where corn should have been. We've only had ONE rain this year--usually it's raining constantly in spring-summer. I'm talking constant flood watches in the area, a LOT of rain. And now people get to see what really happens when climate changes--it doesn't just get hot. First plants die, then animals, then people. It's not a situation most people alive today are prepared for. And yet there are people around me who still deny the existence of global warming. One person even tried to tell me that we're turning into a "tropical climate." Tropical? Tropical climates get huge amounts of rain and humidity. Granted we didn't have a winter this year, not a single snowflake, so I guess the lack of seasons is in line with "tropical." But no, in Kansas' case, we're becoming a desert. No rain, no winter, temperatures of 100+ F every single day... I think whole communities need to start getting together and working out a solution to what they're going to do about food and water if it becomes too expensive to feed your family, or even becomes unattainable at all. The situation we're facing is very real and from what I've seen first-hand, the dead crops everywhere, we're not ready for it. [editline]25th July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Roof;36932183]"As food supplies tighten, we are moving into a new food era, one in which it is every country for itself." That's scary. I swear, I really do hope this report is untrue, because I remember hearing how fishers are losing jobs due to the low population of fish. Lets hope shit doesn't go bad.[/QUOTE] It's very true. I live here in the mid-west, I've seen it. There's a huge crop disaster and no one seems to be talking about it.

I've been aware of the possibility, in Civ 5 if you play long enough, population's become difficult to feed, my answer was to let them starve until the population and food production's equalized. I should look back at that file.