Third world countries do not starve for any other reasons than:
- corrupt leadership
- religious/ethnic/cultural differences amongst themselves
- war
Food scarcity
Third world countries do not starve for any other reasons than:
- corrupt leadership
- religious/ethnic/cultural differences amongst themselves
- war
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I disagree: if you double fertiliser costs, food price double.
What we are seeing now is POO jumping and so fertiliser price jumping/production decreasing
What we saw with the arab spring was nothing vs what we are heading for, and the Ukrainian war just an excuse
How do you think egyptians can get their food in 2022?
No backyard garden nor in any major city in africa middle east, pakistan, Afghanistan?
The green revolution, the initial one was the fertilizer one, and it enabled mankind to feed 10 billions or even more, so plenty of food and wastage overconsumption was possible
Lack of tourism has a huge effect on many countries. Everyone from taxi drivers to restaurants end up feeling it. It takes a large chunk out of the economy. Price of oil, shipping and anything else makes it harder again.
That's on top of the corruption.
wayneL
VIVA LA LIBERTAD, CARAJO!
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We don't have to go back very many decades when our families used to practise the art of conserving food... Pickling, canning, bottling, salting, whatever.
Now we just turn up at a supermarket and expect to buy whatever the hell we want.
In terms of human history, this is actually an anomaly.
My not so very humble opinion, if we want to survive as individual family units, need to get back to those skills.
Now we just turn up at a supermarket and expect to buy whatever the hell we want.
In terms of human history, this is actually an anomaly.
My not so very humble opinion, if we want to survive as individual family units, need to get back to those skills.
Country Lad
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Or just plain dumb decisions
Sri Lanka’s Plunge Into Organic Farming Brings Disaster
The economically troubled country banned chemical fertilizers without preparing farmers, prompting a surge in food prices and worries about shortages.
Dona Ferentes
Abrió la caja, vio al gatito, y sonrió
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the impact of higher prices hits the poorest hardest.
(Over the past five years, the two countries together have accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the world’s wheat exports, 17 per cent of corn, 32 per cent of barley (a crucial source of animal feed), and 75 per cent of sunflower seed oil, an important cooking oil.)
The war has helped push cereal prices up 17 per cent over the past month, while the cost of vegetable oil jumped 23 per cent.
The surge in food costs has a bigger impact in less affluent countries. In advanced economies, food typically accounts for less than 20 per cent of consumer spending. In developing countries, a much higher proportion of the household budget is spent on food.
Surge in food costs
Soaring prices for cooking oils, cereals and meats meant that food commodities cost a third more than the same time last year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has disrupted the supply of key commodities, including wheat, corn, barley and sunflower oil.
(Over the past five years, the two countries together have accounted for nearly 30 per cent of the world’s wheat exports, 17 per cent of corn, 32 per cent of barley (a crucial source of animal feed), and 75 per cent of sunflower seed oil, an important cooking oil.)
The war has helped push cereal prices up 17 per cent over the past month, while the cost of vegetable oil jumped 23 per cent.
The surge in food costs has a bigger impact in less affluent countries. In advanced economies, food typically accounts for less than 20 per cent of consumer spending. In developing countries, a much higher proportion of the household budget is spent on food.
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In the poorest of areas, most farmers are subsistence farmers, who lack the scale, mechanisation , soil analysis etc that we westerners take for granted.
They till by hand, plough with horses, donkeys or oxen, harvest by hand and sometimes cart to market with donkeys, horses and oxemn.
The cost of Urea , diesel etc are not of any great concern to them, as they generally consume most of what they produce themselves, with whats left over used as a bartering commodity locally.
Mick
I am talking about starvation in the third world. Not third world food production.
Starvation in the third world is not correlated to food production. That's why starvation is even more of an obscene crime.
I no longer donate to charities in that space because so little of it if any will end up helping a hungry person eat for all the reasons mentioned.
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Starvation not correlated to Food production?
Thats an interesting take on things, that you might need to expand on to get anyone to accept that view.
Having lived and worked in Africa, Fiji, Vanuatu and Irian Jaya, I spent a lot of time up close and personal to third world poor.
And I would agree that donating to Charities is often a waste of resources, but for probably all the wrong reasons.
Mick
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Mike, i can guarantee you that all subsistence farmers and smallscale farmer use fertiliser but for the most remote parts of amazon and borneo, all SE asia ,africa and latin america uses fertiliser..do you think the peru farmers rioting now have tractors and harvester.
People can not seem to understand that: we as the 8 billions on earth are eating oil..not directly but thru fertilizers, and mechanisation in advance countries
Green Revolution - Wikipedia
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And yes we can eat solar energy too, creating fertilisers from green H2 etc...but we do not currently..so we starve..we as mankind if petrol lacks..or is too expensive which ends up the same for poorer peopleMike, i can guarantee you that all subsistence farmers and smallscale farmer use fertiliser but for the most remote parts of amazon and borneo, all SE asia ,africa and latin america uses fertiliser..do you think the peru farmers rioting now have tractors and harvester.
People can not seem to understand that: we as the 8 billions on earth are eating oil..not directly but thru fertilizers, and mechanisation in advance countries
Green Revolution - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
@mullokintyre
Yeah it comes as a shock, people think drought = no crops = starvation. Sounds reasonable enough and definitely is a contributor but it assumes food is consumed where it is grown....it isn't except rare special cases.
Even in good seasons with bumper crops food can rot in the field and people starve because the workforce has been mutually wiped out with machetes with opposing sides literally hacking each other's arms off over ancient ethnic differences while the crops rot.
Take Rhodesia/Zimbabwe as yet another example. The literal food bowl of Africa, extremely productive farms where not unusual for an entire family of farmers hacked to death in their homes with machetes....long story short the food bowl of Africa can't even feed itself and had to start printing godzillion dollar notes to buy a loaf of bread.
It's complicated but generally people don't starve because the world doesn't produce enough food.
Look at Australia, you can live a life of relative luxury on the various welfare handouts and not do a day's work but we have people in Australia that go hungry all the time even with good access to welfare and free food.
Having said all that could be some big problems ahead with fertiliser shortages.
Yeah it comes as a shock, people think drought = no crops = starvation. Sounds reasonable enough and definitely is a contributor but it assumes food is consumed where it is grown....it isn't except rare special cases.
Even in good seasons with bumper crops food can rot in the field and people starve because the workforce has been mutually wiped out with machetes with opposing sides literally hacking each other's arms off over ancient ethnic differences while the crops rot.
Take Rhodesia/Zimbabwe as yet another example. The literal food bowl of Africa, extremely productive farms where not unusual for an entire family of farmers hacked to death in their homes with machetes....long story short the food bowl of Africa can't even feed itself and had to start printing godzillion dollar notes to buy a loaf of bread.
It's complicated but generally people don't starve because the world doesn't produce enough food.
Look at Australia, you can live a life of relative luxury on the various welfare handouts and not do a day's work but we have people in Australia that go hungry all the time even with good access to welfare and free food.
Having said all that could be some big problems ahead with fertiliser shortages.
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Ultimately modern food production is effectively an elaborate and inefficient process that converts energy in the manner the term is most widely used, that is fossil fuels and electricity, into a form humans can eat.
Whether we like it or not though it's a reality that humans aren't really powered by traditional agriculture or hunting and gathering now that there's 7.7 billion and rising. We're rather more dependent on machines than most would like to admit.
Modern farming is the most efficient and effective system humans have ever invented. The entire system from production to distribution onto the shelves is the most amazing machine we have.
The problem is most of the population are completely oblivious and ignorant to how food gets on to the shelf at Woolies.
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Effective definitively but it is not a Greta green dream of soil, vees and sun feeding the world, more oil intensive conversion of fertilisers inyo edible starches, quiet optimised as well with genetic selection, chemical sciences and mechanical engineering
Garpal Gumnut
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We have certainly come a long way since we tamed the dog and horse.Ultimately modern food production is effectively an elaborate and inefficient process that converts energy in the manner the term is most widely used, that is fossil fuels and electricity, into a form humans can eat.
Whether we like it or not though it's a reality that humans aren't really powered by traditional agriculture or hunting and gathering now that there's 7.7 billion and rising. We're rather more dependent on machines than most would like to admit.
So we are three.
1. Man
2. Horse
3 Hound
gg
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Apologies for typo,quite..not quiet etc .
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The most efficient use of human labour to feed humans certainly. Can't argue with that.
In terms of efficiency of other things however, it's not so good.
The energy content of food eaten by the average adult at 8.7MJ per day is equivalent to 0.225 litres of diesel fuel.
Now how much fuel did we use to run the farm machinery, pump water, make fertilizers, transport the food to processing plants and then supermarkets, drive to and from the shop and so on?
It's hard to put a figure on it but I think it's fair to say that rather a lot of energy is being put into the whole process relative to what ends up on the plate. It's efficient in terms of labour, not so good in terms of physics.