7-Jan-11 News -- Food riots begin again as food prices spike

[John]

7-Jan-11 News -- Food riots begin again as food prices reach historic highs

China's military developments catch Americans by surprise

** 7-Jan-11 News -- Food riots begin again as food prices reach historic highs
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 07#e110107




Contents:
"Food riots begin again as food prices reach historic highs"
"Additional links"
China's military developments catch Americans by surprise
Assassination in Pakistan raises concerns about nuclear weapons
Coptic Christians attend Christmas Eve mass
Floods in Australia shut down coal export industry
Little-known strategy for cutting mortgage payments
Women's tears turn men off

[vincecate]

It certainly seems hard to argue that the population is growing faster than the food supply if there are now huge socks of food available and there were not 2 years ago.

Now a different article says there are not huge stocks of food available but in fact very small stocks of food relative to demand:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a2aa510a-1e89 ... z1Auap77q1

However, even if there are small stocks of food it might not be the Malthus effect, if could just be government policies that hurt food production. Two general types are "subsidies for farmers to grow fuel" and "paying farmers not to farm to reduce surpluses". If subsidies for ethanol and vegetable oil as fuel went away, lots more food could be produced on existing farmland. Also, there are huge amounts of land that governments are paying farmers not to farm to fight problems with surpluses. If these subsidies were ended there would also be much more food produced in short order.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set-aside
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_vs._fuel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservati ... ve_Program

Update: Ug, it seems I edited a post I meant to reply too. Oh well.

[gerald]

John:
There may be a new "green revolution" on the horizon to mitigate the food issue.

"According to author Luc Bürgin, "In laboratory experiments the researchers there Dr. Guido Ebner and Heinz Schürch exposed cereal seeds and fish eggs to an 'electrostatic field' – in other words, to a high voltage field, in which no current flows. Unexpectedly primeval organisms grew out of these seeds and eggs: a fern that no botanist was able to identify; primeval corn with up to twelve ears per stalk; wheat that was ready to be harvested in just four to six weeks. And giant trout, extinct in Europe for 130 years, with so-called salmon hooks. It was as if these organisms accessed their own genetic memories on command in the electric field, a phenomenon, which the English biochemist, Rupert Sheldrake, for instance believes is possible."

http://www.thunderbolts.info/tpod/2010/ ... iology.htm

However, even with improved technology for obtaining food, raw materials, etc. we still have the issue of crowding with it's associated problems.

The following is an interesting study, and yes I know we are not rats, but still -- the implications---

http://theneuron.wetpaint.com/page/Crow ... ioral+sink

[ridgel]

The survivors of World War II (GI and Silent generations) were well aware of the horrors of famine and starvation that occurred during the war, and they developed the Green Revolution to make sure that everyone in the world would be fed.

Agricultural productivity has been rising at ~1%/yr in the U.S. since the turn of the 20th century. And it still is. Nothing generational about that.

What the post WWII generation did do was build (sponsored by the Federal Government) large storehouses to make sure that the country had several years of staples like corn, wheat, and dairy. They did the same thing with silver and other industrial metals.

That system of storehouses was dismantled under the Reagan administration. Under the pretense that the "market" would take care of supply and demand. Well of course it will - only being a mathematical equation it doesn't care much which side of the equation takes the hit. The storehouses were a "dampening" mechanism. They weren't going to stop malthus over time, but they could give people time to deal with a disruption. That buffer is gone now. I've seen estimates of as low as 3 months of commodities stored during certain times of the year. We're now one bad harvest, plus a disruption of international trade, away from severe disruption. Of course in the U.S. most of the grain is eaten by livestock. So we may go vegetarian for a while but we probably wont starve.

[Tom Acre]

With the Green Revolution we gave American agricultural know-how and technology to the rest of the world (and remember agriculture is culture). Beginning with Mexico and India, it has worked everywhere with the notable exception of sub-Saharan Africa, for unknown (or at least much debated) reasons. Agriculture is so completely woven into the intricate fabric of our culture and technology, all of its facets simply cannot be totally and simultaneously grasped by an individual; in short it is probably the most complicated industry in the world. It is affect by factors as disparate as the weather, information technology, local land management, road conditions, genetic engineering, the petrochemical industry, consumer perceptions, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. Even a cursory study casts a whole new light on the saying, "you are what you eat".

[tx]

John,

Always appreciate your post.
"As we've said many times, China is preparing to lead a new world war against the United States and the West"

this is something I agree and not agree for a long time. We all know this is not a united world, every country is preparing the war again another, it's the reality. Please don't target China, at least, Chinese soldier never went to the territory beyond Asia, it's western countries fighting every corner of the world during the past two centuries for various good or bad reasons, mostly bad. Think as you are a Chinese, you have US military all around Chinese territory except Russia in the north, how can china not prepare for it? Search "Sunzi, the art of war", you will get more idea how to get prepare and win. the highest stature of war is winning without going to battle. Pentagon knows it, Chinese know it, I hope you know it too.

Best,
tx

[vincecate]

Search "Sunzi, the art of war", you will get more idea how to get prepare and win. the highest stature of war is winning without going to battle. Pentagon knows it, Chinese know it, I hope you know it too.

The USSR fell apart without a world war. The US could have a similar amazing fall. If the world no longer used the dollar as the international currency the US would suddenly not be able to pay for oil. It may fall so far that other countries just ignore it. Also China has anti-ship ballistic missiles that the US has no defense against. So the US aircraft carriers can not be used. This is a big change. UAVs are also a big change from previous wars. EMP attacks are new.

Small machine guns with smokeless powder made advancing far more difficult in WW1 and lead to "trench warfare". In WW2 the aircraft carriers made for a different kind of war. And of course at the end there were Nukes.

Anyway, this war will be very different from previous wars. Not at all clear to me how it would really go. Like Switzerland the US does have lots of guns in the population, so invading US mainland is probably not attractive to anyone. That at least is one good thing.

I am glad I am on a small island in the Caribbean with no targets for more than 2000 miles upwind of me.

http://www.defensereview.com/chinese-an ... s-us-navy/