Will there be food shortages in the next decade?

[Cannonball]

Good web site there, screener...

[screener]

Hi Cannonball, ya the old goergia straight ain't what it used to be but it's still trying. probably all that can be said for some of us as well.

[Cannonball]

Talk about the wealthy monopoly, an article in the paper today boasted that the U.S. is in a "new golden age". The first "golden Age", they said, ran from the post Civil War railroad land grants to the "Trust busting" activities of Teddy Roosevelt and William Taft, followed by FDR himself. But the anti monopoly laws those guys put through have been phased out and we now have a new brood of unhampered politically powerful super rich.

The article seemed quit proud of this I think, using the label "Golden Age". We might soon have a return of the old "golden age" "sweat shops industry"...

[Andy]

Consumers are set to face a jump in meat prices as farmers pass on the cost of surging feed prices, a report warns.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6965674.stm

[Cannonball]

Well, this seems reasonable.

I think the forest fires that are ravaging the western US can be tied to efforts by well meaning but ill-informed quasi-environmentalists who have worked hard to get cattle off the open range, without repacing them with the old time buffalo, has increased the tall yellow highly inflamable grass to a very dangerous big fire hazard.

Whats even further, meat prices have reached a run away level, because the effort to keep beef stock in the feed lot has forced hay prices to an unprecidented level. All this tractor work to keep cattle in the feed lot has further produced a lot of tractor CO1 and CO2 gasses into our air to meet the feed lot demand.

Of course, feed lot manure, which should have been left on the open range as fertalizer, is, instead, run into the rivers to even further do environmental damage.

Will this ever be straightened out?

They even had a feature about this on News Night last night, not that it really said anything that hasn't been said here, but it shows that it's reaching the mainstream.

[Andrea]

With foot and mouth, and now bluetongue it makes me wonder if we won't suffer from meat shortages before long. After all they're being forced to cull an awful lot of animals.

[UrbanFarmboy]

It may very well happen, but maybe it should happen. Mr. Smith said it best,.

Agent Smith: I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area, and you multiply, and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet, you are a plague, and we are the cure.

[hoon]

Recent years have witnessed a boom in commodities prices, buoyed by rampant demand from rapidly growing economies, China in particular, and lagging supply. Crude oil and base metals have already gone up in price. But 2007 has been the year of rising agricultural prices.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c0e6d98c-7...nclick_check=1

Good quote btw

[ATom]

Empty shelves in Caracas. Food riots in West Bengal and Mexico. Warnings of hunger in Jamaica, Nepal, the Philippines and sub-Saharan Africa. Soaring prices for basic foods are beginning to lead to political instability, with governments being forced to step in to artificially control the cost of bread, maize, rice and dairy products.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen....climatechange