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Post by davida on Dec 15, 2011 10:46:54 GMT -5
I heard yesterday that the world will need as much food production in the next 30 years as the cumulative food production in the past 3000 years. I have followed with interest the thread on "Questions about seed companies" that is modern Ag's attempt to maximum profits while attempting to increase food production. The thread on towns feeding themselves and many of you having CSA's are individuals attempts to do what they can for their community. But I also read that that the urban population is expected to increase from 1 billion to 4 billion. Assuming a "Doomsday" (which was covered in another thread) does not happen and the world continues as we presently know it (at least for a few more years), what are your ideas on how to increase food production and help furnish proper nutrition for the world's population?
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Post by 12540dumont on Dec 15, 2011 13:36:11 GMT -5
I'm not worried about the food, I'm worried about the water.
Since the amount of fresh water available for human consumption is constant, as population grows, the supply of fresh water per person declines. As a result, the amount of water available per person is expected to decline by 74 percent between 1950 and 2050. Nearly half a billion people around the world face water shortages today. By 2025, the number is expected to grow to 2.8 billion people. Of these, at least 1 billion people will be living in countries facing absolute water scarcity. Most overpopulated, fast-urbanizing countries of Asia, Latin America and Africa have to survive on largely polluted rivers and wells. Water is a major carrier of disease bearing germs. As many as 2.3 billion people in the world today suffer from diseases linked to water, such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid. Less than 1 percent of the Earth's water is fit and available for human consumption.
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Post by littleminnie on Dec 15, 2011 15:14:07 GMT -5
Did anyone see that show on PBS a couple months ago? The beginning was about how bad things are - how grim the future is. Then it talked about what would have to be done to make it ok. Some of those things were: drastic reduction in births rates especially in third world countries, a drastic reduction in meat consumption, oh and a bunch more things that will never happen. They were optimistic in the second half of the show and had stories of small good things that were happening. Like a person working at reducing birth rates in some town somewhere and encouraging birth control. I will stop here.
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Post by steev on Dec 15, 2011 15:34:16 GMT -5
This is a concern to me because there are rumors of property being bought along the west side of the valley where my farm is; that's where my main water supply comes from. Water is already the choke point for development in that valley and the spectre of monopolization of the best source of water is not unrealistic.
There are reports of tankers being filled with water in the Amazon River, for sale in Europe and the Middle East.
When I was looking for land seven years ago, I was priced out of the county I first searched; I believe there was a lot of price inflation due to people investing in land to lock up water rights. California has always had serious water issues, which can only get worse.
Potable water issues are a factor in my intention to raise grapes, apples, and pears for bottling as juice, as well as booze.
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Post by steev on Dec 15, 2011 15:45:36 GMT -5
The problem of water supply, and therefore food supply, is really a problem of energy. Desalinization plants located out to sea, serving tankers, lessening difficulty of salt dispersal, could be constructed but would be energy-intensive. "Cheap" energy equals "new" water supplies.
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Post by 12540dumont on Dec 15, 2011 21:28:15 GMT -5
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Post by oxbowfarm on Dec 15, 2011 21:50:14 GMT -5
I grew up in Colorado. I love it there, best weather, best scenery, nicest people on earth. But I looked around and saw that there was no way I would be able to afford water. So I went east, the weather is not so great, no mountains, freakishly aggressive drivers, but farming is more realistic because the water falls from the sky.
At least sometimes.
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Post by castanea on Dec 15, 2011 22:14:51 GMT -5
I'm guessing we're not going to have nearly as many people on this planet in 2020 as we do now.....
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Post by steev on Dec 16, 2011 0:44:24 GMT -5
Barring catastrophic militaristic upheaval, I seriously doubt there will be any significant reduction of population that soon. That's not to say that I'm certain we aren't in for some rough travelling; I think we definately are on the verge of some heavy sledding. I think the burden is going to fall heaviest on those who are neither rich nor in touch with Nature. Which is to say I am so glad I am a gardener, an omnivore, and healthy as a hog.
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Post by steev on Dec 16, 2011 1:05:06 GMT -5
BTW, there are small communities in California that have already had their water bought out from under them. This sort of thing is only going to increase in frequency and seriousness, unless it is nipped in the bud. At some point, either it must be recognized that it's wrong for one to control the necessities of life of many, or we're screwed. Certain things just have to be understood as our common property and managed sustainably. Certain behaviors have to be recognized as sociopathic regardless of how "successful" they appear.
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Post by 12540dumont on Dec 16, 2011 16:38:35 GMT -5
Steve, We have a small hovel on a tributary of the Feather River. Now this is a mighty river-a-flowing.
At the last drought, they drained it dry. All that water was and is sold to Southern California. No one asked me. I can't figure out how water in a river can be sold. At the time of the drought we were not able to use any of the trickle flowing by. Some neighbors got down right grumpy as our water rates tripled and started pumping out of the creek.
It costs $65 a month for water there, that's if you don't use ANY. It's scandalous. In an area surrounded by water, the community is under extortion. God knows what would happen if the water went away.
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Post by olddog on Dec 16, 2011 16:59:57 GMT -5
That is funny you said that, as I did hear that all the wildly "successful" people were in fact sociopaths.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Dec 16, 2011 18:47:36 GMT -5
It was my impression that the cities have been stealing water from everybody else in California since we pepper-sprayed Mexico and took over the left coast. Isn't that what "Chinatown" is about? With side order of nose slicing and incest.
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Post by castanea on Dec 16, 2011 21:39:24 GMT -5
Steve, We have a small hovel on a tributary of the Feather River. Now this is a mighty river-a-flowing. At the last drought, they drained it dry. All that water was and is sold to Southern California. No one asked me. I can't figure out how water in a river can be sold. At the time of the drought we were not able to use any of the trickle flowing by. Some neighbors got down right grumpy as our water rates tripled and started pumping out of the creek. It costs $65 a month for water there, that's if you don't use ANY. It's scandalous. In an area surrounded by water, the community is under extortion. God knows what would happen if the water went away. I live within a couple of miles of both the Sacramento and American rivers, both pretty big rivers. My water bill starts at $65 also, just for being alive. After that, it goes up very fast. I could buy a new Mercedes or BMW for what it costs me for water.
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Post by steev on Dec 16, 2011 23:10:15 GMT -5
But can you drink a BMW?
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