Crisis food?

Question

fodd getting emty true?

Answer 1

No, there is no food shortage currently in the U.S.A.

Yes, there is the VERY REAL possibility there could be actual famine in the U.S.A., with people actually starving to death.

I'm in my 40's, and I expect to see actual famine become a problem in the U.S. in my lifetime.

I also KNOW that famine in the U.S.A. could be COMPLETELY PREVENTED, however people are not willing to take action right now.

I've worked/lived in the agriculture sector of the U.S.A. since I was 13 years old.  I know what goes on in modern farming on these titanic sized mono crop farms.  There has been a tremendous push toward the GMO foods, which provide most of our stapples (wheat, rice, corn, soy bean).

In these crops, whichever one, every seed is virtually, or is actually completely identical to the other seeds.  There is NO genetic diversity.  Eventually a disease, like a crop "rust," fungus, nemato, insect, blight, or some form of rot is going to hit a crop.  It has the potential to kill the ENTIRE crop, all across the U.S.A., and Canada in just a few weeks.  

Can you imagine what would happen if the U.S.A. and Canada produced no corn, or wheat, or soy beans?   Take just ONE of those crops out of the world food chain, and the world has BIG problems!  But what if it's a new fungus that manages to hit two of those crops at the same time? (Think about the panic that will cause for a moment)

The U.S.A. is allowing more and more farmland to have suburbs, and strip malls built upon it.  The average U.S. farmer is now in his 60's.....and young people are NOT becoming farmers.  The U.S. is becoming more and more dependant upon food from other countries.

I live in Idaho, in the very heartland of potato country.  70% of the potatos consumed in the U.S.A. are grown right here in my small county (not state, but county!).

Did you know potato planting is a month behind here, because of the extremely cold spring?  It was snowing here (still) just two days ago.  Did you know a nemato problem is hitting the potatoes here, and causing entire fields miles long to completely rot before harvest?  My guess is the evening news thought talking about Brittney Spears was more important.

Did you know most of the powdered milk people use comes from Idaho?  Did you know there is such a shortage of alfalfa hay that people in Idaho are abandoning horses to starve to death, and dairy farmers are trucking cows to auction and selling off half their herd just so they have hay to feed the cows they have left?  Do you know what this is going to do to powdered and canned milk prices, and that less of these products will be available?  Did you know the first cutting of alfalfa should already be on the ground in Idaho, but the hay is less than two inches out of the ground?  Was the evening news too busy talking about Hillary's pantsuits to mention this?

Did you know that in 2000, China planted millions of apple trees?  Did you know that this year, in 2008, China will become the largest producer of apples?  Did you know China will be able to flood the world market with more cheaply produced apples, that have ZERO REGULATION, as to the chemicals used to produce them?  Did you know this is going to drive apple farmers in Washington state out of buisness (Washington was the worlds number one apple producer)?  Did you know in just a few more years the products you buy, like apple juice, and frozen apple pies will be made with apples from China that had ZERO CHEMICAL REGULATIONS?  Did the evening news think it was more important to show you the bennifits of using a push mower, vs. a gas mower, than what is going to be fed to our Nations children soon?

I'm going to stop there....I could give you a LOT more examples about how the U.S.A. is facing a food crissis.

So what should you do?  Start an actual working pantry in your home.  You will be shocked that for about $800-$1000 you can have a working pantry in your home with the food supplies needed to carry two adults through a year.  Of course you have to be able to actually cook from scratch....things like mixing flour, water, yeast and baking your own bread.  You will also be completely amazed at how much money a working pantry will save you.  Once your pantry is up and running, you then ONLY buy things when they are on sale.

You know that flour is now $40 per 50 pound bag?  The flour I'm using in my pantry was purchased at $5 a bag.  

By the way, do you want to know what the difference is between stocking up and hoarding?  I found a great way to describe the difference in one of the books I own.

W. Cleon Skousen, a noted writer and educator, and former Chief of

Police of Salt Lake City, made a profound statement to me regarding the morality of storing food."

"If you buy up food when there is plenty, that's food storage. If

you wait until it's scarce, that's hoarding."

So if you are worried about it, stock up NOW, while there is no food shortage.  Also buy as much of your fresh fruits, vegtables, and meats from small farmers as you possibly can.  The more small farmers you help to keep in business, the less likely a famine is to hit the U.S.A.

~Garnet

Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

Answer 2

Climate change due to global warming – fueling hunger to grow:

Throughout the world everybody is concerned about the present International food prices soaring at unprecedented rates. Below-normal harvests, growing cereal imports by almost every developing country in Asia and Africa is a threat to the humanity. Should we call it as food scarcity? For this kind of food scarcity, should we blame climate change due to global warming?

At the same time International crude oil price is also increasing and touching record highs have become almost everyday affair. The consumption of crude oil, gas and other fossil fuels are also soaring by some of the highly industrialized nations.

Bio-fuels are fuels derived from crop plants, and include biomass directly burnt, and especially bio-diesel from plant seed-oil, and bio-ethanol from fermenting grain, sap, grass, straw or wood. The increasing use of crop land for generation of bio-fuels, in order to meet increased need of fuels by many developed nations, have arisen many questions – whether ‘the present food shortages are due to production of bio-fuel using crop land and climate change due to global warming’. To some extent the answer of the question is ‘yes’. According to many, bio-fuels are exacerbating food shortages in many parts of the world. There have already been riots in over 30 countries, including Haiti. Moreover, this food crisis could worsen in the short term.

The fact remains, more than 10% of land in Sub-Saharan Africa is at risk of being lost for maize, the most important staple food crop, production due to environmental constraints induced by climate change. In Asia countries are losing crops due to occurrence of erratic flood and cyclone, which is again due severe global climatic change, experts say, due to global warming.  Many of the affected countries are already food insecure and poor, with low capacity to finance food imports, and their situation has been worsened substantially by current inadequate and uncoordinated policies toward tackling climate change, namely using crop land to grow bio-fuels with environmental risks and only modest greenhouse gas benefits. The absurd bio-fuel policy by most of the Governments, has contributed to the doubling of staple food prices in the last few years. Food price rise has severely affected the population in developing countries, where about more than 70% of their household earnings spend for food.

There is no ‘shortage’ of food in the world, even though global food stocks are officially at their lowest in nearly 25 years. Instead, it is the spectacular rise in food prices that explains why so many poor populations are being deprived of food. In some cases, the price of basic commodities has almost doubled overnight. Since the world’s poorest populations devote a large proportion of their meager income to food, price hikes lead to hunger and push desperate populations to riot.

Another important point is, developed nations’ thirst for bio-fuels is fuelling deforestation, thereby changing adversely global climatic condition resulting food price hikes. Bio-energy crops do take up valuable land that could be used for growing food, and food security is becoming a burning issue. World grain yield has fallen drastically, bringing reserves to the lowest. Chronic depletion of aquifers in the major bread baskets of the world, drought and soaring temperatures are taking their toll and set to do even more damage to food production. The pressure on land from food and bio-energy crops will certainly speed up deforestation and species extinction and at the same time result in food price increases worldwide, hitting the poorest, hungriest countries the hardest.

Therefore, to protect the earth’s most sensitive forest ecosystems, to stabilize climate and to safeguard food security throughout the world, the efficacy of the present bio-fuel policy implemented by many of the Governments required to be reviewed. New policy is to be formulated to safeguard our forest ecosystems, stabilize climate and to make our earth green without affecting food security of the developing countries.

For further information please refer

http://www.environmentengineering.blogsp...

Answer 3

Of course going ahead there would be a crisis of food for a variety of reasons.

But at the moment we all seem to be same. So why worry?

Answer 4

what is your question? yes, there is an emerging food crisis right now.