WORLDWIDE FOOD SHORTAGE

[Recon 173]

Print Story: Food riots to worsen without global action: U.N. on Yahoo! News

It appears that a worldwide food shortage is beginning. It seems some people have already died in clashes over the shortage of food. Heads up!!

[wunhunglo]

I don't really believe that theory, I believe there is more than enough food to feed the whole world, the big problem is in distribution.

As for people dieing in food riots, I know that last week in Cote dÍvoire, some rioters/protesters were shot by police. In TWC it is not unusual for the authorities to deal with protesters in an extreme way, especially when life is so cheap in these places. The riots we're not about the unavaility of food but about the price of it. In CDI this led to the Government actually reducing the taxes on some foodstuffs.

[Coeloptera]

Originally Posted by wunhunglo

I don't really believe that theory, I believe there is more than enough food to feed the whole world, the big problem is in distribution.

Precisely. It's a distribution issue. We actually have a food surplus on Earth right now. Lots of food rots away in warehouses and on cargo ships because it can't get to people when there's no infrastructure to transport it and no government or large enough private organization to oversee the process.

It actually isn't that difficult to produce enough food for the humans we have, even at our current numbers, if we use the land intelligently. Remember, many agrarian societies were able to expand enourmously in our early history without slowing down, like Egypt or Babylon, because the Earth really does have a lot of land that's good for plant growth and proper use can ensure literally millennia of productive use.

You only get dustbowl idiocy because people forget how to take care of it properly.

To give you a good example of why we can produce as much food as we need practically forever if we do it right, look at ants.

Ants outnumber humans not only in population, but also in sheer biomass. There is more raw tonnage of ant on this planet than human. In fact, about 15-20% of all terrestrial animal biomass is composed of ants. Estimates are they evolved about 145 million years ago and they expand limited only by available food sources and environment. They're not hurting at all yet and the planet can easily withstand their depredations. Right now we're nowhere near the point where we've damaged the environment enough to seriously impact food production.

It's just that not all places in the world where humans live are good for growing food, and politics and economics keeps us from sharing.

Of course in the future...

- Coeloptera

"By 2017 the world economy has collapsed. Food, natural resources and oil are in short supply. A police state, divided into paramilitary zones, rules with an iron hand. Television is controlled by the state and a sadistic game show called "The Running Man" has become the most popular program in history. All art, music and communications are censored. No dissent is tolerated and yet a small resistance movement has managed to survive underground. When high-tech gladiators are not enough to suppress the people's yearning for freedom......more direct methods become necessary."


"Yankee-nine-niner. What are your co-ordinates?"

"Zero-two-zero, flight level one-five. We're above release point echo-bravo-one."

"Move in and check it out."

"Roger. Moving in. Food riot in progress. Approximately fifteen-hundred civilians. No weapons evident."

"Proceed with plan alpha. Eliminate anything moving."

"I said the crowd is unarmed! There are lots of women and children down there! All they want is food for God's sake!"

[wunhunglo]

[quote]Of course in the future...[/QUOTE]

It is not in the future, it is Now! I am currently working in Africa and see the inefficiencies & corruption every day! The further the food aid trucks travel the more fuel efficient they become, with some arriving at their destination virtually empty!!Look to Rhodesia/Zimbabwe, it used to feed most of Africa; now through political pandering, mismanagement, corruption and inefficiencies they can hardly feed themselves.
How do we go forward???? I don't know!

[nathangdad]

it has already begun and you can find reports in the international press concerning the maximization of the rice harvest and the levelling of the food supply from the ocean.

As usual, the American media has let us down on a major crisis especially centering on the Asiatic region. Also, Haiti is in trouble with Mexico following as the price of flour rises at a phenominal rate.

Concerned scientists and individuals have warned for years that while global warming is of major concern the world's population explosion
is overwhelming the ability of the world's land and ocean mass to produce food.

I advise the forum readers to do some internet searching on the food crisis. Note - societies do not settle differences peacefully when their citizens are going hungry. That is the immediate worldwide geopolitical crisis overwhelming America's mid-East actions and the Darfur situation.

[ezearln]

wunhunglo isn't it also true that much of Africa has been suffering through a very protracted drought for several years now? Which also has greatly affected food production?
I do not believe our Population explosion as a previous poster noted is out stripping Mother earths ability to feed the human population. I do believe however that before we used science to show we were overharvesting the most desireable fish for food and enacted worldwide harvest treaties to allow those species to recover we were in real danger of permenantly damaging those fisheries. Prime examples of success stories in rehabilitation of several fisheries include Goliath Grouper (formerly called Jewfish), Red Drum (Redfish), Speckled Sea Trout and many others. New advances in aqua culture have also eased the burden on "Wild caught" stock. The introduction of formerly less desireable fish into the market place has also helped such as Tilapia.
Another poster also correctly stated that far too much food is wasted ruined by poor infrastructure leading to excessive loss to spoilage, a case in point is with the former Soviet Union, as many here know the United States had been for many years selling wheat to the USSR. Too many in the U.S. thought it was because the USSR couldn't produce enough wheat to feed her own people which was untrue! In the Ukraine alone wheat production was many fold what was grown in the entire United States. Problem was the unavailabilty of the means and equipment required to bring it to market, poor roads lack of heavy trucks and support for their operation, shoddy rail service etc left millions of tons of grain to rot in piles on the ground, in the field and in silos because they had NO effective way to get it where it needed to go.

[wunhunglo]

Ezearln.

What is it they say about fishing? Give a man a fish and he'll feed his family for a day but Teach a man to fish and..............................he'll sit around in a boat and drink beer all day!

yes, weather conditions do have a negative impact but not to the same extent as political ineptitude & corruption do. Lack of education and farm management skills compound the problems and lead to further desertification. The logistics of food distribution is probably one the biggest problems but people should not be encouraged to rely on food aid but encouraged & trained to support themselves.
So saying, I don't think Africa will ever really change.
I say again, look to Zimbabwe and what happened when they threw out the white farmers and took over the farms. Food production & food export stopped!!

[ArkansasHunter]

My wife and I are stock pileing canned vegtables as they become on sale and I suggest all yall should too.
Arkansas is an agricultural state and our crop lands have been flooded due to all the rain here and up north.
It wouldn't hurt to stock some extra canned goods, dried beans and rice you never know...A.H

[billy]

there isnt a food shortage.
there ARE countries starving their own people on purpose.
food as a weapon.

if all those dictators were assasinated tomorrow those food trucks we keep sending that show up empty would get to the destinations with actual food in them.

[wunhunglo]

Originally Posted by billy

there isnt a food shortage.
there ARE countries starving their own people on purpose.
food as a weapon.

if all those dictators were assasinated tomorrow those food trucks we keep sending that show up empty would get to the destinations with actual food in them.

Never happen Billy! Not in Africa!

[billy]

Originally Posted by wunhunglo

Never happen Billy! Not in Africa!

kill 1 warlord and 3 more pop up!

[wunhunglo]

Right on.

People who have not been here have no comprehension of what it is like. People who know just shrug their shoulders and say, "TIA"! (This Is Africa!)

I was in Angola a couple of years ago with a black guy from Lousianna who commented, "gee, good job my forefathers were slaves"!! He certainly had his eyes opened.

One trip here and you become an optimist, two trips and you're a realist and unfortunately 3 trips & more and you become a racist! TIA!

[ArkansasHunter]

My wife and I are stock pileing canned vegtables as they become on sale and I suggest all yall should too.
Arkansas is an agricultural state and our crop lands have been flooded due to all the rain here and up north.
It wouldn't hurt to stock some extra canned goods, dried beans and rice you never know...A.H

[ezearln]

I think alot of improvement could be accomplished if we spent more on helping the least denominator at the village level. I am not sure about the organization but there is a group that goes to many african nations and drill wells for the villages for both drinking and irrigation. As that problem is addressed they then see to educating the village inhabitants on proper agriculture and animal husbandry to improve their ability to feed themselves. I certainly agree with the need to help these folks I just feel we need to separate the corrupt from the money. We should be helping them grow their own crops and livestock, rather than just sending food which mostly ends up lost, stolen or ruined never reaching those in need.

[wunhunglo]

Originally Posted by ezearln

I think alot of improvement could be accomplished if we spent more on helping the least denominator at the village level. I am not sure about the organization but there is a group that goes to many african nations and drill wells for the villages for both drinking and irrigation. As that problem is addressed they then see to educating the village inhabitants on proper agriculture and animal husbandry to improve their ability to feed themselves. I certainly agree with the need to help these folks I just feel we need to separate the corrupt from the money. We should be helping them grow their own crops and livestock, rather than just sending food which mostly ends up lost, stolen or ruined never reaching those in need.

Exactly! But it is one hell of a challenge! Especially when anything & everything that is not welded down gets stolen, including the well pump handle!!

[ezearln]

wunhuglo I am not sure if you may have seen this in your particular part of "Deepest Darkest Afrika" but I recently saw a program online concerning the Camel Dairy project of which some research and development is actually occurring here in Texas. Seems there is substantial promise for the program to benefit drought and arid starved areas as the camels produce a very palatable and rich milk in quantity even under the harshest of conditions and continue to do so while consuming vegetation no other herbivore would touch and even when deprived of water for substantial periods. That could be a boon for some of these people. As they animals age out they are used for meat. My wife shudders everytime she hears of this she has a real soft spot for camels, don't ask me why I don't know! LOL

[wunhunglo]

They'll have to pay a fortune in kick-backs/backsheesh to get the program implemented in Africa..........Remember the hassles with genetically modified grain?

Probably another great idea, but................????????????????


Maybe I sound a bit negative but it is born out of experience! I used to be just cynical but now I'm a realist.

[Cyrille]

As far back as I can remember It was either in Africa, China, or South America that people were staving. I say let them clean their own house get rid of the curruption as best they can. Hell, we have more than enough with trying to get rid of our own curruption problems. Let's not take on the whole planet's!

[billy]

those soldiers will take any food they grow.
who knows....
maybe they will cut the farmers arms off while they are at it.
it's happened before.....

manmade hell on earth.

[Windwalker]

We are not the World Police. Bring our troops home and secure our Country. Let big businesses who moved jobs to other countries rely on those countries for protection. We have hungry citizens in the United States. Take care of our own first.