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WAGGING THE DOG: Economic Growth Leaves Water Food Supplies and People in the Dust
Jenna Orkin, From the Wilderness
While the world’s population grows by 70 million people a year or over a million people a week as the result of economic growth and the attendant ills of urbanization, fuel costs, pollution and those bi-polar symptoms of climate change, drought and floods—our food supply contracts. Poor planning and corruption add fuel of an undesirable kind to the fire.
Citing the venerable Lester Brown, NOW Magazine’s Wayne Roberts maintains that a 57 days’ supply of food stands between us and famine, the lowest level since 1973 when a similar shortage drove wheat prices up 6-fold1 The idea of such a biblical cataclysm is not mere fantasy. For “reasons ranging from climate to bad economics, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its crop report last month said the current world grain harvest of 1.984 trillion tonnes dropped by 24 million tons [sic] from the 2005 harvest….”Water tables are now falling and wells are going dry in countries that contain half the world’s people, including the big three grain producers – China, India, and the United States,’ reports the London-based Earth Policy Institute.”
(16 Oct 2006)
Climate change forces farming innovation
Amy Lorentzen, Yahoo! News
DES MOINES, Iowa – Gary Larsen, a 63-year-old grandfather who raises corn and soybeans is among the growing number of farmers concerned with the potential effects of global warming. “We don’t know how the world could actually turn out, but doing absolutely nothing and sticking your head in the sand is not an option,” said Larsen, who lives near Elk Horn, Iowa.
…Others in the industry are using improved soil management methods to reduce greenhouse gases. That includes no-till farming, where farmers plant crops without using machines to plow or turn over the soil. That method cuts down on energy use and traps organic material that breaks down to fertilize the soil. The method also keeps carbon in the ground instead of releasing it to build up in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
In addition to aiding the environment, such energy conservation also helps farmers’ bottom line.
Farmers also are planting crops that require less fertilizer and herbicide applications, using alternative fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, capturing methane gas released from livestock operations for energy production, and harnessing wind power.
And many are beginning to sort out water supply problems as warm, dry areas expand. That includes examining water rights before shortages happen, and studying dwindling mountain snowpacks that supply many farmers with water from spring melting. Faced with fiercer storms that cause rain to hit the ground and run off rather than be absorbed, researchers are exploring ways to capture the precipitation.
(21 Oct 2006)
Farming in the Age of Expensive Oil
Jean Paul Courtens, Satya Centre
…cheap oil is what allowed for the development of industrial-scale food production, processing and distribution. It is controlled by very few corporations that have used their influence in Washington to keep the prices of commodities at rock bottom by letting taxpayers infuse billions of dollars to allow for overproduction.
Cheap oil allowed farmers to buy low cost fertilizer, pesticides, and insecticides while the farm bill allowed them to produce below cost. The low cost of production of commodities in the United States is astounding, but this has come at a price.
You already know about the pollution of our environment by agriculture, from nitrites and atrazine in drinking water to the depletion of the ozone layer through the production of greenhouse gases.
But there are many other fatalities of industrial agriculture – one of them is the dwindling of farmers with a knowledge base of low-input farming.
(12 Oct 2006)
Forget oil, look at food prices
Tumi Makgetla, Mail & Guardian
Oil has been such an economic bogeyman in recent times, hogging the headlines, that not noticed is as severe a threat — food inflation.
Food staple maize has been trading internationally at record highs, driven by the world’s move to energy diversification to produce bio-fuels as an alternative to fossil fuels.
In South Africa maize prices soared this year with maize trading at R1 300 per ton on Monday, up from R500 per ton last year, according to futures company Farmwise.
(22 Oct 2006)
