The Hungry Planet

[serryjw]

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1325467.ece( subscription only, besides summary)
MODS....IMPORTANT post...I tried to not infringe on copyright

quote......
Food supplies are shrinking alarmingly around the globe, plunging the world
into its greatest crisis for more than 30 years. New figures show that this
year's harvest will fail to produce enough to feed everyone on Earth, for
the sixth time in the past seven years. Humanity has so far managed by
eating its way through stockpiles built up in better times - but these have
now fallen below the danger level.
snip.......
The USDA estimates it will be even lower - 1.984 billion tons. This would
mean that it would fall 58 million tons short of what the world's people
are expected to consume this year: 10 years ago, by contrast, farmers grew
64 million tons more than was consumed. The world's food stocks have shrunk
from enough to feed the world for 116 days in 1999 to a predicted 57 days
snip....
Every day, some 16,000 young children die, at least
partly because they do not get enough food. And the new food crisis
threatens to be even worse than the last one. In the seven years running up
to the Rome conference grain production fell below consumption only three
times, compared to six now.
end quote....
Between 1950 and 1990 grain yields more than doubled, but they have
grown much more slowly since. Production rose from around 630 million tons
to 1.78 billion tons, but has only edged up in the past 15 years, to around
2 billion tons.
snip....
As population grows and farmland is used
for building roads and cities - and becomes exhausted by overuse - the
amount available for each person on Earth has fallen by more than half.

There are more than five people on Earth today for every two living in the
middle of the last century. Yet enough is produced worldwide to feed
everyone well, if it is evenly distributed
snip........
It takes 14kg of grain to produce 2kg of beef, and 8kg
of grain for 2kg of pork. More than a third of the world's harvest goes to
fatten animals in this way.
snip....
Cars are a new concern, the worry arising from the present drive to produce
green fuels to fight global warming. A "corn rush" has erupted in the
United States, using the crop to produce the biofuel, ethanol
snip.........
Just a single fill of ethanol for a four-wheel drive SUV, says Brown, uses
enough grain to feed one person for an entire year
snip....
Food supplies are shrinking alarmingly around the globe, plunging the world
into its greatest crisis for more than 30 years.

[Bushwick Bill]

1. More food for thought (pun intended).

http://www.alternet.org/story/41023
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100303_eating_oil.html

[oscar111]

2. RECOMMEND button is at bottom of orig post. Please click it n/t

zzz

[serryjw]

3. Food & Water

or we aren't going to be here. When is someone going to start talking about the energy use to produce these computers, IPODS and BIG screen TV'S??

[oscar111]

4. VEGETARIANISM would free up massive grain amounts

Food First book, years back, gave the summary figure, IIRC, of five pds of grain to make one pd of cow.

This article has diff numbers but the thrust is the same.

Vegetarianism will save many lives.

[serryjw]

6. Tell me how to do it

and you have me. I live in downtown Denver in 550 sq feet ( small footprint!) and no balcony. I do have a Wild Oats one block away. Where do I begin?

[oscar111]

5. Ethanol bad, solar and wind good, it seems from this

my conclusion from the article.