[MisterB]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this but this article was posted on reddit recently highlighting a 'Catastrophic fall in 2009 global food production. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the article. link

[RonMN]

I also can't vouch for EVERYTHING in that article, but I know that quite a bit of it is true (quite a bit of it has been discussed in a few threads). But ya put it all together in 1 article like that & it shows ya how truely screwed we are. Now i'm gonna go back & double check the link about the china grain stockpile that may not actually exist

[Arsenal]

Ugh. Like I need anymore reason to garden and prep.

[lowem]

Um, load up on agricultural ETF's MOO and DBA?

[sparky]

This is rubbish

If you want the good stuff go to mama

http://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/

That's the world most accurate state of food production ,
it's the basis for all price trading on all exchanges

.

[MisterB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('sparky', 'T')his is rubbish

If you want the good stuff go to mama

http://www.usda.gov/oce/commodity/wasde/

That's the world most accurate state of food production ,
it's the basis for all price trading on all exchanges

.

[copious.abundance]

*sigh* Not this again.

Last year someone started a similar thread. There was supposed to be massive crop failures, widespread food shortages, and the whole bit. But here's what actually happened:

World corn supply reached a record.


World soybean supply was its 3rd-highest ever.


And world wheat supply reached a record.

Source for all 3.

Someday doomers might learn. Though I doubt it.

[careinke]

It might be interesting to lay these charts against world population for the same time periods. Or maybe divide the metric tons buy the population and see if it is rising or lowering.

There are three types of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics.

[vtsnowedin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'I')t might be interesting to lay these charts against world population for the same time periods. Or maybe divide the metric tons buy the population and see if it is rising or lowering.

There are three types of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics.

[Leutnant]

hmm...it seems global wheat supply is about the same now as it was in 1998.
That's a worry considering there's an extra billion mouths to feed now.

[Ludi]

The Food Race:

http://www.ishmael.org/Education/Writin ... tate.shtml

[vtsnowedin]

http://beta.irri.org/solutions/images/l ... #310,1,Fig. 1. Trends in world production and real price of rice, 1961-2008

If you add in rice which feeds approxamatly 50% of the worlds population the potental for a crisis is real indeed.

[Stealth]

Here's a take on the issue by the MSM (Spiegel Online).

I think for a mainstream source it is fairly gloomy, though they do of course end with "we can all be saved if we act now and blahblah".

[FireJack]

In regards to what oil finder pointed out. What information lead people to believe we would see mass famines last year and why is it different this year? My understanding is that enormous quantities of food are wasted and more could be grown if nessasary ( ie instead of using a pasture for raising steer's we could grow wheat in it instead). Of course these droughts, overuse of clean water, soil depletion, and a ballooning population will probably set up a famine that will dwarf anything that has come before.

[Ludi]

Famines are almost always political in nature - that is, there is plenty of food available (plenty of food in the world for everyone in the world, at the present moment) but it doesn't get to the people who need it because of political reasons.

[copious.abundance]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'I')t might be interesting to lay these charts against world population for the same time periods.

[Serial_Worrier]

We're gonna see US grain shipments to China to ward off starvation in 2010 no doubts. By then nobody will be saying China is surpassing the US anymore.

[Serial_Worrier]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('OilFinder2', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'I')t might be interesting to lay these charts against world population for the same time periods.

[copious.abundance]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Serial_Worrier', 'O')F2 - are you denying that soil erosion is a huge problem, or that overpopulation is nothing to worry about? Already many areas in Asia are facing horrible droughts with water sources literally drying up. 100s of millions without water...

[sparky]

.

Since I've been following food production and distribution for some years now

Take it from me , unless there is a disastrous northern harvest for wheat and corn there is no problems
the next staples are rice and potatoes .there too no more worries that usual in farming ,an industry much given to worries

fourty years ago there was prediction of famine s , it didn't happen because in Minesota a bloke found a wheat hybrid wich resisted rust , a plant disease , this led to reliably good harvest , Pakistan , India , China have switched to growing wheat while Ukrain , Russia and Kasakstan have vastly improved their production ,
Rice farming has likewise posted impressive results
Cattle poultry and pigs are now routinely fed grain ,

However demand is ever increasing and there is always the chance of some disastrous harvest or the apparition of new diseases ,for example type " Ug 99 " and you will see a little monster which got farmers to worry some more

.