It's 2050: Can We Feed Nine Billion People Sustainably?

[SpasticGramps]

Food is the ultimate resource aside from water and air.

What does Hobbes or Lockes "State Of Nature" look like without food?

Shit out of luck, if you ask me. The world is sooo much uglier than those of us who can eat at Burger King know.

 

[9Lives]

NASA and a Russian company will be mining the moon by 2020 for helium 3 just 1 ton will power a city of 10 million for 1 year no shit but still it will not fix the problem there will all ways be staving people and 3rd world country the fact is we need 3rd world country the 3rd world people they are a good source of human genetics if they get sick they just die we can go to a doctor take drugs and keep on having kids with the same fucked up sickness we have its inbreeding we are just getting sick and sick and the drugs company are love it.

I love life don't you.

Yes Helium 3 is in abundant on the moon or atleat it is thought to be..Will not help shit if they can't get fusion plants to work. And they always say the technology is 30 years away...

Nuclear fusion will solve all our problems..

 

[9Lives]

Many of you totally exclude economic feasibility from your arguments..Like i said. If resources we're not a problem we would not be in this mess..

 

[Grat3fulh3ad]

equilibrium |ˌēkwəˈlibrēəm; ˌekwə-|
noun ( pl. -libria |-ˈlibrēə|)
a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced : the maintenance of social equilibrium.
• a state of physical balance : I stumbled over a rock and recovered my equilibrium.
• a calm state of mind : his intensity could unsettle his equilibrium.
• Chemistry a state in which a process and its reverse are occurring at equal rates so that no overall change is taking place : ice is in equilibrium with water.
• Economics a situation in which supply and demand are matched and prices stable.

 

[iSmokeTrees]

If resources we're not a problem we would not be in this mess..

If everything in life were free, nobody would be in debt.

Don't be silly.

 

[blinx420]

No way in hell will this earth make it as it stands even now the goverment has no intentions of changing the way we live they've already made it clear they wont budge on green house gases neither does china want to compromise and am pretty sure most of us wouldn't want to change the comfy way we live for future generations that's the main problem so yeah this world is pretty much doomed.

Right now is our only chance for major change before it's too late and nothing is being done about it that alone should tell you the path were headed in.

 

[9Lives]

If everything in life were free, nobody would be in debt.

Don't be silly.

That was kind of my point...Silly!

 

[bombadil.360]

I was doing some reading a few weeks ago about Cuba and the fall of the Soviet Union, they highly subsidized Cuba with cheap oil/highly mechanized farming/chemical fertilizers. When they stopped doing this there was widespread starvation until Cubans returned to a more labor intensive and less technology reliant way of doing things (ie no vast fields of monocultured crop which require pesticides to fight off insects, oxen instead of tractors, use of beneficial bacterial and manure instead of expensive fertilizers etc).
I believe something like this is needed but until a crises hits and the store shelves go bare I highly doubt that much more than concerned discussions will go on.

forget Cuba, they are not an example to follow at all in any way shape or form.

people starve in Cuba everyday, there is simply no true production in the island, you cannot be a entrepreneur and plant your own "victory garden", you go to jail if you do that, plain and simple.

 

[cork144]

and eat camels

yes lets have men in raincoats run about and slit those cammels throats for our desire to eat meat when we do not even need it.

http://www.theync.com/media.php?name=5241-graphic-and-disturbing-footage-from-inside-of-a-camel

 

[Craven_au]

Australia will save u all we are the biggest seller of coal in the world we supply all of China something like 50+ power stations and i don't know how many steel companies a round the world. If we can raise the co2 to 1000ppm crops will grow faster and better and all that wasted ice will flood the world killing billions no more food problems. I invite u all to come down to our new tropical paradise and throw a shrimp on the barb . no need to thank me.

Coal in Australia is mined in every state and territory of the country. It is used to generate electricity and is exported. 75% of the coal mined in Australia is exported, mostly to eastern Asia. In 2000/01, 258.5 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 193.6 million tonnes exported. Coal also provides about 85% of Australia's electricity production.[1] In fiscal year 2008/09, 820 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 261 million tonnes exported.[2] Australia is the world's leading coal exporter.[3]

 

[whiterabbit9]

 

[bombadil.360]

holy shit, australia is fucked!

 

[Cool Moe]

biochar and terra preta is the answer, we all need to do our part and maximize the organic outdoors

 

[Tennessee]

you all just don't get it

this is hell .

theres no other place in the universe like it .

and for all the good and bad that is possible by God , humans are the perpetrators of pure evil and suffering .

drop the bomb . exterminate them all .

Akasha will show us everything in The End . And you will then understand the true sadness of a world filled with good but inevitably ruled by weakness and cruelty.

 

[Daiwa13]

Yea

 

[Craven_au]

Save the world and nuke OZ

Coal in Australia is mined in every state and territory of the country. It is used to generate electricity and is exported. 75% of the coal mined in Australia is exported, mostly to eastern Asia. In 2000/01, 258.5 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 193.6 million tonnes exported. Coal also provides about 85% of Australia's electricity production.[1] In fiscal year 2008/09, 820 million tonnes of coal was mined, and 261 million tonnes exported.[2] Australia is the world's leading coal exporter.[3]

 

[Trichgnomes]

This may have been true 15 years ago, but after the LBO's and mergers of all the supermarkets in the 1980's and 90's, shrinkage (what you call "lost" fresh produce) is nowhere near those levels anymore. Produce (in my case table grapes) are prepackaged (we do it in the field) for the markets in bags or tubs (warehouse stores) and sold and delivered within days if not hours (sometime we arrange air freight delivery to the UK or Asia). If anything is underweight or arrives in less then pristine condition, it is rejected and the farmer (me) takes a huge loss. The markets can no longer accept produce in less then near perfect condition for 2 reasons. 1) they have huge debt service due to the LBO's as previously cited and 2) they make almost 50% of their profits in the fresh produce asile. If it doesn't cut the mustard so to speak, they reject it and ship it back to the farmer (farmer pays for the return truck ride or it is sold by the market to cover their cost on the first truck when delivered). I'd be shocked if shrinkage is more then 5% today overall, less on many fresh products.

this is why I laugh when I read certain points of view wherein folks romantically think they are all farmers at heart and they are going to buy some acres and show us how it's done.

And the farmers markets? Most of these are fake. I can't tell you how many I have been to in So. Cal where I see my culls that we sell out the back door of our plant show up in Santa Monica (and many other places) where the guy in the little truck has his story down pat about how he grew these grapes on his family farm using only organic methods. I see my label on the box, recognize him from several days ago as the guy who bought 100 boxes of our rejects from my cold storage that we could not sell to the supermarket due to quality reasons, yet he is selling them as organic to the fools in the city for 2x what he paid me for them all the while telling the dopey buyers how he labored over the vineyard all spring (LOL).

god bless those folks. They help me get rid my culls and make a living at it as well.

I do not doubt what you say, as I know of plenty of places that sell produce that is not their own and sure that shit goes on. But saying most Farmer's Markets are fake is hubris. Have you been to "most" of the farmer's markets? Can you please clarify if that means the most in your state, country, the world, etc. I'd be interested to see your sources.
There are a shit ton of farmer's markets in my area (not So. Cal, bro), and not a one of them is fake. They are full of real farmers with real farms, and I know because I've been to most of them. There are CSAs, farmer's markets, co-ops, and lots of ways to get local food while being sure it isn't some bullshit like mentioned above.

And as far as the food waste goes, you failed to mention the food that gets wasted once it gets purchased by the grocery store. The figures are astronomical. I do not have a source to cite at the moment, but will look for it, it is most definitely well over your alleged 5% max. Not all stores compost food that can't sell, and even if they could, it is an obvious sign of a poor distribution system by having a surplus in supermarkets. Ever heard of Food Not Bombs? I have plenty of friends that have been sustaining themselves for years eating food that was deemed "unable to sell," yet these people are perfectly healthy, and continue to clean up this corporate mess (not really, sadly, as I doubt they are making a dent).

 

[greenhead]

drop the bomb . exterminate them all .

Nah, just dropping it on the bad ones will suffice. There's a few good peeps around.

 

[Tennessee]

The good people is the gift of eternity and each of our experiences with these people shed light on the possibility of a brighter future for our overall specie

. sadly , good people are there to bare the consequences en environ and en memory of the actions of the disgusting souls that has been given the chance to be apart of our unique existence.

significant cultural changes in our ability to not tolerate amorality is neccessary to ensure a future worth existing

 

[Grat3fulh3ad]

yes lets have men in raincoats run about and slit those cammels throats for our desire to eat meat when we do not even need it.

roflmao...

Wow... you know nothing of the plague of camels overrunning Oz???

that doesn't surprise me...

There are soo foookin many camels they are planing on shooting them and letting them rot where they fall... It'd be pretty goddamn stupid to waste all that meat... Why do you make ignorant comments like I had a stupid idea?
I guess you just don't know any better...

perhaps you should get informed before being so snide...