Up until the 1960s, mankind dealt with increased food demand by increasing farmland. However, starting in the ‘60s we began trying to meet demand by increasing yield via fertilizers, irrigation, and better seed. It worked for a while (McLoran notes that between 1975 and 1986 yields for wheat and rice rose 32% and 51% respectively).Simple economics will tell you that if demand increases and the supply falls, prices will rise.
However, in the last two decades, these techniques have stopped producing increased yields due to their deleterious effects: you can’t spray fertilizer and irrigate fields ad infinitum without damaging the land, which reduces yields. McLoran points out that from 1970 to 1990, global average aggregate yield grew by 2.2% a year. It has since declined to only 1.1% a year. And it’s expected to fall even further this decade.
Thus, since the ‘60s we’ve added roughly three billion people to the planet. But we’ve actually seen a decrease in food output.
On a very related note: In these hard times, one sees many articles about how to subsist off of the "value menus" at various fast food restaurants. And yet these articles always admonish readers to avoid high-calorie, high-fat meals.
The jerks who write these articles simply do not get poverty. If you don't have access to a kitchen, and if your food budget is ultra-tight (and a lot of people are in just that situation), the goal is to acquire the greatest number of calories for the fewest pennies. You can worry about fat and vitamins and such later, when times are less desperate. Taco Bell's 89 cent cheesy double-beef burrito (460 calories and lots of protein) is the poor person's pal.
6 comments:
Jack-in-the-Box has a better deal:
2 Tacos for $.99
I also visit the King when regular Whoppers are $.99
Both have lettuce and the Whopper has tomato, taking care of your daily veggie requirements.
Two thoughts:
We are over-stressing the agricultural land to accomodate our burgeoning population. Due to the detrimental effects on the land, as well as the apparent (per your sources) ceiling being hit on output, what other conclusion is there to draw from this evidence except that world food production may have, in fact, "peaked" - much as the apocalyptic advocates have said of oil, not to mention water?
Secondly, in a natural, sustainable ecosystem, maximum population density would be monitored by the "invisible hand" of nature - let's say you're Japan in 1500 AD - you have limited arable land and hence a limited population. Global trade throws this balance into chaos, since a "breadbasket" nation such as the US or Russia can, potentially, supply a significant portion of the world with their most basic food requirements - up to a point. What happens when that economic system breaks down? It could break down from many sources; a worldwide depression, rise in prices, rise in the price of oil (shipping costs / agricultural needs i.e. fertilizer.) We are essentially maxed-out on the human population density of the planet - what comes next? Maybe the question is, when we die "en masse" what will be the cause? Disease? Famine? Pestilence? Nuclear war? One thing is clear: The West Civ model, and paradigm, of scientific advancement above all else has left us spiritually bereft and ecologically leveraged at a ratio that would make AIG blush.
Hell-o, myiq. Were you absent during the Reagan Administration? Don't you know ketchup is a vegetable??
Ironically, that may turn out to be close to true...concentrated tomato products do have a lot of positives..
Now that the Blue Crab is wiped out by the Idiocracy of humans, I just don't care. But the dominoes are set to fall, and water will be the next war.
yes, and shortly, that's why they were practicing with those scary black helicopters over New Orleans a few months ago ... they're already preparing for it
you can’t spray fertilizer and irrigate fields ad infinitum without damaging the land, which reduces yields.
Ironically, studies on organic farming indicate it would yield 130% of even the best non-sustainable practices.
Even considering this, thoough, it's been shown that irrigation will only work for a few thousand years at best before the soil "dies" as it becomes choked with mineral salts, requiring much much more water to wash them out (as an example of this, the Nile floods periodically, which is why that region is still fertile after all this time).
Sergei Rostov
Oh, and speaking of Reagan and ketchup, back in the early 80's (before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's), there was a t-shirt having two boxes labelled A. & B., bearing pictures of him and a bottle of ketchup, and asking, "Which is the vegetable?"
:)
Sergei Rostov
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