World's food supply under 'severe threat' from loss of biodiversity - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/feb/21/worlds-food-supply-under-severe-threat-from-loss-of-biodiversity Most countries said the main driver for biodiversity loss was land conversion, as forests were cut down for farm fields, and meadows covered in concrete for cities, factories and roads. Other causes include overexploitation of water supplies, pollution, over-harvesting, the spread of invasive species and climate change. The report signalled a heightened interest by governments in biodiversity, a subject that rarely gets the same attention as climate change. Many states reported economic losses caused by disappearing or shifting ecosystems. Ireland, Norway, Poland and Switzerland noted shrinking bumblebee populations. Egypt was concerned that its fishing industry would suffer because fish were migrating northwards due to rising ocean temperatures. Gambia said communities were being forced to buy expensive industrially-produced products because free wild food sources were becoming scarcer.

we're gonna have to build hive greenhouses, aren't we

No no, the rich will get those. We get the wastelands.

Well I mean, we get to be thankful for them allowing some of their food to trickle down to us. Well it'll come to us inevitably anyway, I'm sure of it!

Knowing some dickhead, they'll reference fucking Rick and Morty and have a floating head asking us to show them what we got and reward the best dancers.

Well, guess we have to eat the rich.

Strange I don't see a mention of GM foods.

most harvested products by definition are gm foods, in and of itself it wouldn't be the issue if there was bigger genetic variety

Most countries said the main driver for biodiversity loss was land conversion, as forests were cut down for farm fields, and meadows covered in concrete for cities, factories and roads. Boy don't I know that, this has been an exponentially expanding problem around here for the past 20+ years. It is so bad that the weather has actually changed, we used to get very violent thunderstorms and lots of rain in the summer, those diminished and disappeared around the late 90s/early 2000s. In the past 5 years I have lost 80% of my motorcycle riding spots to housing developments that remain unoccupied. They're building over everything, forests and farmland. I cringe every time I see a county zoning sign pop up because that means they're going to bulldoze/ruin everything. If you want to see something really depressing, open up google earth and use the historical imagery function to see how things have changed around you in the past 20 years.

StrawberryClock got the simplified answer but for a bigger one: GMOs are the majority crop outside of the EU. Everyone uses them, and they're all based the same strain with the same enhancements so if you were to consider this as a nice image: A big massive forest with lots of different varieties of life, from plant to animal. That gets torn down to make 3 to 4 industrial farm fields all farming the same fucking plant.

Cutting down forests for more farm land is a massive problem

Time to create our own personal spaceships and leave this planet(if you're not retarded)

we'll be kept fed. we're of no use dead

What use when they have everything automated?

And go fucking where? The rich rainforests of Mars? Swamps of Europa? lol Anyways yeah food security is going to be a serious threat. Monocultures are especially vulnerable - Cavendish is most likely going to go the way of the Gros Michel, and there are similar problems for potatoes, grains etc. People need to eat less, but also need to consume a wider variety of foods.

what is a king without any subjects?

This bigtime. Don't think that because we're losing biodiversity that the next best solution is leaving the entire planet. What I can see happening within our lifetimes is a) urban (large, tall greenhouse complexes) or low-light (window-less UV-lit greenhouse) farming, b) ocean/aquatic based farming, c) moderately necessitated veganism. I suppose we'll all see, though. I don't for a second think this will be catastrophic for the human race - it'll just be catastrophic for the non human animals who go extinct faster and faster.

Can't wait.

Since when does Generals Motors make foofs?

The amount of ignorance about colonialism and poverty here is unparalleled

Hasn't this been known for decades? Why does the situation have to be allowed to get critical before action is taken (if at all)?

Better that than our tax dollars feeding a someone who can't form a basic thought.

The latter will lead to the former. We're not isolated from our environment. No amount of technological advancement will change that. I frankly doubt that artificial farming will be cost effective enough to feed 11 billion people.

It won't. But the field of techniques could easily feed 250 million people worldwide, and depending on how far into sci-fi we manage to reach for sustainable cultivated food chains, that number could reach into the billions with a coordinated and concentrated global effort. But even in the near-Star Trek utopian arcology-farming future I'm painting, you can see an immediate problem with the shape the global population curve has to take. It doesn't take a genius to see that this will not be a happy process, no matter how what happens to power the plunge.