Had a great chat last night about agriculture, corn, and population growth. Basically, the only reason we can have 6 billion people on the planet is because we produced enough food to feed them.
Now we are faced with feeding many more mouths without the 'revolutionary' increase in food yields made possible by synthetic pesticides and oil-based fertilizers. With the cancer epidemic being what it is, and with oil prices continuing to climb, it's time to look past petro-chemical farming.
But that transition is going to be painful, and not everyone sees the situation this way. This article explains the huge gains being made by 'agribusiness' companies, and how they plan to invest 1.5 billion dollars in coming years to continue increasing crop yields.
I know it's political suicide to say it, but what we really need is not 1/3 more food. It's 1/3 less people, especially if all those people are eating meat twice a day and commuting to work.
1 comment:
Political suicide, maybe-- but you ain't running for office.
Letting 2/3 remain might be too generous still.
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