Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production

After reading about the droughts in two major agricultural countries, China and Argentina, I decided to research the extent other food producing nations were also experiencing droughts. This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. 2009 looks to be a humanitarian disaster around much of the world

Full Story....

This piece certainly caught my attention. I haven't visited the source site before, so know nothing about it, however the evidence does appear to speak for itself. I guess there's nothing new or unexpected here, but it may help to see all this information pulled together into one place.

Have a blessed day!

Here's a related story I just surfed through:

China warned Tuesday of a severe impact on the nation's winter wheat crop if there was no rain within the next 15 days to relieve the worst drought in half a century.

"Right now, this is the critical period for the growth of winter crops," E Jingping, a top drought relief official, told a news conference.

"If in 15 days there is no precipitation, the situation in the winter wheat zone will be more severe and the next stage for drought-relief operations will be abnormally difficult."

Full Story....

The next part of the report may be of interest to more people than just those concerned about food production (or the lack of it)....

China has been firing thousands of shells and rockets packed with cloud-seeding chemicals in a desperate bid to spark rain across the northern Chinese wheat-growing heartland.

Of course, discussion about activities such as this (real or alleged) are nothing new to the ATS boards, but it's always "comforting" to find a confirmed instance of attempts to alter the weather....

Have a VERY blessed day!

reply to post by illimey


There is little doubt that things look bad.

You may also find some of the information in this thread interesting.

The signs are everywhere.

reply to post by loam


Thanks for the link to your thread - I appreciate the time and effort you put into researching the information you present. Among other things, the responses your post drew highlight yet again that we cannot simply trust the media to report what is really happening in the world.

Anyway, all this certainly makes me even more certain that regardless of what is actually happening out there, we as indivduals should do our bit by:

a) NOT BEING WASTEFUL!
b) Trying to reduce excessive and unhealthy consumption
c) Living with compassion

We may not be able to travel overseas and directly help those suffering the most, but surely we can ALL interact compassionately with our local communities. Even where I live (one of the richest counties in the USA) there are people these days who can hardly afford to feed their families. Simple, local, acts of kindness can ultimately have a HUGE impact.

Do Kindness!

Just a positive thought for the day!

In the Wheat Fields of Kenya, a Budding Epidemic

Another troubling news story from global agriculture is featured in the Washington Post:

GREAT RIFT VALLEY, Kenya -- A virulent new version of a deadly fungus is ravaging wheat in Kenya's most fertile fields and spreading beyond Africa to threaten one of the world's principal food crops, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

I will keep adding relevant stories to this thread as and when I unearth them.

illimey

edit: Maybe I should include a link!

LINK!!

[edit on 2/19/2009 by illimey]

I just read in another thread on ATS that China was making it snow. It was probably in hopes to help with this very problem since they need water in the worst way to produce enough food.

Originally posted by illimey
In the Wheat Fields of Kenya, a Budding Epidemic

Another troubling news story from global agriculture is featured in the Washington Post:

GREAT RIFT VALLEY, Kenya -- A virulent new version of a deadly fungus is ravaging wheat in Kenya's most fertile fields and spreading beyond Africa to threaten one of the world's principal food crops, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

I'm not sure if you can find it or not but China is having a similar problem with a new fungus, stripe rust, and they expect it to have a major impact on their wheat crops as well. Then look up late blight, many countries are decreasing their production of potatoes because of a new virulent strain of that. Bad bad year for food it looks like. I mean Haiti still has a quarter million homeless and living on donated food after 6 months...

This is long but should be required watching:
www.chrismartenson.com...

reply to post by dodadoom


Thanks very much for that link! I don't have time to watch the "crash course" right now, but had a quick glance at the "about" section of the website. Sounds like a guy who has made some good choices! I'm particularly impressed by the homeschooling choice! Awesome.



Hopefully I'll be able to take a longer look sometime soon.

Thanks again.

well, it looks like there was no better time in the last 50 years for stocking food.. Countries that count on imports to feed their populations are in big trouble (Japan , UK etc) ..

reply to post by dodadoom



Thank you so much for the link, you will keep me bussy for this week-end, it is very good!

Drought sucks life from Argentina's farms

Here's more - this time from South America:

A deflated bag of bones, the carcass of a bull, lies dried out on the banks of a river, baked by the sun. Normally green, the prime pastureland around lies silent and dry. This is San Miguel del Monte, a little over 100km (60 miles) south of Buenos Aires, in the Argentine pampas, the vast grasslands that roll out like an inner sea across thousands of kilometres.

Full Story....

humm, Argentina? this is not at all a surprise to me, because there's a background story which has been brewing for more than a decade.

Argentina's Bitter Harvest - GM crops turned sour


i dedicated an entire thread to the relationship between declining yields and the use of patented (usually GMOs) seed.

GM Crops and the Coming Famine

as far as i can tell, they will blame the weather for their troubles, something which several failed regimes around the world are notorious for, btw. the trouble is that the mechanisms are insiduous and (slightly) lower average yields of GM crops (explanation is given in the 2nd thread) are only a sideshow. industrial agriculture relies on ever larger units and is basically following the path of the former soviet block's planned economy.

one size fits all, seeds sown and crops harvested according to corporate policy, rather than weather and local factors, no feedback if things go wrong - until the soil is eroded or exhausted and decline inevitable.

GM crops facilitate the corporate takeover of our food supply. when that happens, we will be on our own and deep in ****

ONLY Genetically Modified Seeds available in the US

well, from major seed banks, which have all been bought out by now. if this model is allowed to succeed, the world will first suffer the fate of Iraq - Nutritional Slavery - and eventually depopulation.

i can only repeat myself, Codex Alimentarius is in the wings

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

it's already happening

www.abovetopsecret.com...

the catastrophe is the lack of concern about these vitally important issues.

PS:

New study points to GM contamination of Mexican corn

Genes from genetically-engineered corn have been found in traditional crop strains in Mexico, according to a new study likely to reignite a bitter controversy over biotech maize.

A team led by Elena Alvarez-Buylla of the National Autonomous University in Mexico City looked at nearly 2,000 samples from 100 fields in the region from 2001 and 2004, and found that around one percent of the samples had genes that had jumped from GM varieties.

when they reach 10% they will start to sue people for royalties and proceed to take their land. Percy Schmeiser apparently managed to obtain a partial victory, but how many people will put up a fight? in the 3rd world even? how much of a chance at winning do they have in a western court?

[edit on 2009.2.24 by Long Lance]

"A significant humanitarian crisis is inevitable," said Rick Ward, the coordinator of the Durable Rust Resistance in Wheat project at Cornell University. "We are at a stage where the equivalent of Hurricane Katrina is offshore and we are shoring up the dikes as fast as we can."

Ug99

The headline to this story calls this ongoing development a wheat famine "time bomb".

More fuel on the fire...

reply to post by illimey


speaking of fuel,

When will these Moronic Biofuel Programs be stopped? this is nuts, farmers can't make a buck in the market, a shortage is imminent and food is subject to inflation anyway, all the while tax money is used to subsidize a program creating shortage.


media goes all along, doesn't say a peep. people care more about who's quacking on TV and if s/he's lib/con rather than what's for dinner tomorrow....

insanity! skim the relevant encyclopedia entry and you'll find a description of Today in the examples section.

PS: Nuts!

A couple more stories for those of you who are following this thread:

...some 160 villages in northeastern Syria have been abandoned by their residents due to the food shortage. These villagers immigrate to the country's big cities...

Syria: 160 villages abandoned due to famine

Also,

The prolonged drought has hit 33 counties in five of the six prefectures in Tibet, the regional drought relief and flood control headquarters said Saturday. The acreage is 15.3 percent of Tibet's total. Among them, 26,500 hectares were damaged and 793 hectares destroyed. The drought has also killed 13,601 head of cattle.

Drought in Tibet now worst in 30 years

This truly is a GLOBAL concern. No longer can we just think "Africa" when we hear about famine.