1292015 Have we reached peak food Shortages loom as global production rates slow - Environment - The Independent

httpwwwindependentcoukenvironmenthave-we-reached-peak-food-shortages-loom-as-global-production-rates-slow-10009185html 123

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The world has entered an era of ldquopeak foodrdquo production with anarray of staples from corn and rice to wheat and chicken slowingin growth ndash with potentially disastrous consequences for feedingthe planet

New research finds that the supply of 21 staples such as eggsmeat vegetables and soybeans is already beginning to run out ofmomentum while the global population continues to soar

Peak chicken was in 2006 while milk and wheat both peaked in2004 and rice peaked way back in 1988 according to newresearch from Yale University Michigan State University and theHelmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany

Have we reached peak food Shortages loom asglobal production rates slow

Staples such as wheat chicken and rice are slowing in growth ndash with direconsequences

TOM BAWDEN

Wednesday 28 January 2015

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What makes the report particularly alarming is that so manycrucial sources of food have peaked in a relatively short period ofhistory the researchers said

ldquoPeople often talk of substitution If we run out of one substancewe just substitute another But if multiple resources are runningout wersquove got a problem Mankind needs to accept thatrenewable raw materials are reaching their yield limitsworldwiderdquo said Jianguo ldquoJackrdquo Liu of Michigan StateUniversity

ldquoThis is a strong reason for integration rather than searchingfor a one-for-one substitution to offset shortagesrdquo he added

Peak production refers to the point at which the growth in acrop animal or other food source begins to slow down ratherthan the point at which production actually declines However itis regarded as a key signal that the momentum is being lost andit is typically only a matter of time before production plateausand in some cases begins to fall ndash although it is unclear howlong the process could take

ldquoJust nine or 10 plants species feed the world But we foundtherersquos a peak for all these resources Even renewable resourceswonrsquot last foreverrdquo said Ralf Seppelt of the Helmholtz Centre

The research published in the journal Ecology and Society findsthat 16 of the 21 foods examined reached peak productionbetween 1988 and 2008

This synchronisation of peak years is all the more worryingbecause it suggests the whole food system is becoming

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Food peak production 1 of 12

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overwhelmed making it extremely difficult to resurrect thefortunes of any one foodstuff let alone all of them the reportsuggested

The simultaneous peaking of the worldrsquos basic foodstuffs islargely down to the competing demands of a mushroomingpopulation which is putting ever-greater strain on the land forhousing agriculture business and infrastructure At the sametime producing more of any one staple requires the use of extraland and water which increases their scarcity and makes itharder to increase food production in the future

Finally increases in production tend to push up pollution whichexacerbates shortages of resources and slows the growth inoutput

The simultaneous peaking of crops and livestock comes against abackdrop of a growing population which is expected to reachnine billion by 2050 requiring the world to produce twice asmuch food by then as it does now according to a separate studyby the California Academy of Sciences The problems caused bythe growing population have been compounded by the growth ofwealthy middle-class populations in countries such as China andIndia which are demanding a meatier diet This is problematicbecause meat and dairy use up a lot more resources than if acomparable level of nutrition were provided by crops growndirect for human consumption

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ldquoThat trajectory [of needing to double food production] is not agiven but more of a warning It means we have to change how weeat and use foodrdquo said Jonathan Foley the director of theCalifornia Academy of Sciences

While the peak production study suggests a doubling of foodoutput could well be impossible Dr Foley points out that since30 to 40 per cent of the food grown globally for humanconsumption never gets eaten eliminating waste would go a longway to feeding the growing population

Among the basic foodstuffs examined only the relativelyundeveloped farmed fish ndash or aquaculture ndash industry has yet toreach peak production

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1292015 Have we reached peak food Shortages loom as global production rates slow - Environment - The Independent

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201 COMMENTS

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EX_MISLTECH 12 minutes ago

A gentleman in Wisconsin uses comopst to heat his greenhousethat is Aquaponics + HydroPonics fish and plants He grows 3 million pounds on 3 acres in 1 yearand if scaled to land the size of West Virginia it would feed allof earth 2 pounds per day Needless to say have the growlocation near people even rooftops in cities

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EX_MISLTECH 10 minutes ago

I do think we have reached peak corporate thieverypeak bad management peak lying peak disinfo peak fear and peak manipulation

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Governmentsworst brokenpromiseWorld News in Pictures 1 of 50

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JOHNF 13 minutes ago

Ditto on everyone saying this is a load of crap For Gods sakeJapan is in such dire straights with population decline they areimplementing costly measures to ensure more births EuropeRussia and others are dying too

REP LY + 1 ndash

PAUL 27 minutes ago

Sensationalism Food is slowing in growth while populationcontinues to soar Complete malarkey Population growth isalso slowing and slowing quite rapidly In fact at current ratespopulation will peak at around 12 billion in 2050 and begindeclining The majority of people alive in the world today willwitness global population decline

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RAYSROCK2014 34 minutes ago

Have we reached peak food

The simple answer is NO When everyone is growing theirown gardens THEN we will be near the peak Just bought anaeroponic Tower Garden last year and it is producing greatquantities of food for our family

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ROWWDY COLT 36 minutes ago

What a load of crappola Between set asides corporate farmsand bad land management it is no wonder there could be ashortage However chicken production is not down it isactually up The whole article is hype

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WALTERCWY 37 minutes ago

Could it be the over regulation could be having an impact onfood production Or is this another the sky is falling reportsimilar to the one back in the 80s that said we would run outof oil by the year 2000

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LUCIFER 51 minutes ago

(Their was some bloke who already told us we were going torun out of food In 1980 (Missed it by that much ))

REP LY + 1 ndash

ROBERT69 53 minutes ago

The REAL problem is not growing more food but 3rd worldpeople breeding like rats amp expecting free food from othercountries surplus food stockpilesEach country must limit its population to its sustainablefoodwater supply capabilities

1292015 Have we reached peak food Shortages loom as global production rates slow - Environment - The Independent

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TOMTOMM_2000 35 minutes ago

Good Point ROBERT however maybe a better wayexplain it would be that the developed world(population that can pay for food) has all they needThe underdeveloped world (population growing thefastest) cant pay for the food they need I can attestbeing somewhat knowledgeable about farmingtechnology (grain + livestock) that farmers can grow asmuch as their is demand (price) to buy Cheers

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PAUL 25 minutes ago

Population growth is slowing in Bangladesh NigeriaPakistan India and Indonesia to name only thelargest of the third world countries

The growth rate of population is declining in over 90of the world with only a few African and MiddleEastern countries as exceptions

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LUCIFER 53 minutes ago

Chicken Little Lives )

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RA44MR2 57 minutes ago

They independent The 70s called they want their crisis backI cant even believe they are bringing this up again Didsomeone find an old news story on the floor somewhere in thebasement and decide it would be a good idea to run it againWe wouldnt be at peak food IF and thats a BIG if we are GMOwill solve a great deal of that if the morons and psuedoscientists would stop trying to play chicken little about makingfood more abundant Grow your own if you dont like GMO andshut up and let us eat it

REP LY + 1 ndash

HAL 58 minutes ago

Even renewable resources wonrsquot last foreverrdquo said RalfSeppelt

Stupid Just stupid

REP LY + 1 ndash

BRUCE FRYKMAN 1 hours ago

How could we be at peak food production when half of our foodcrop goes into our gas tanks as corn liqueur thanks toenvironmental extremists like Al Gore

Have Crisis Will Travel

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Wire eco-terrorist San Francisco

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RA44MR2 56 minutes ago

AGreed stopping ethanol subsidies would go a LONGway to solving the supposed food crisis that isntHowever it does make getting corn a lot harder I knowi used to get corn all the time during the season andwont anymore due to price and quality

REP LY + 0 ndash

LEOLAPORTE 1 hours ago

Noooooooo Not Peak Food I havent even reached peakgluttony yet There are at least another 250-500 pounds ofweight that I can stash on my bulbous rotund body but

Hey Hey Hey its Leo Laporte Theeeeeeee Tech Guy Guru tothe stars and advisor to senile old ladies and redneck truckersalike Come visit me this weekend between 11am and 2pm callme on 1-8888-ASK-LEO tell me what you think about peakfood and about what I need to do to reach peak gluttony

REP LY + -1 ndash

CARLETON 1 hours ago

I buy almost everything except food and clothing from onlineauctions most people arenrsquot aware of the almost unbelievabledeals that they can get from online auction sites the site thathas the best deals is gtgtgtW W w saveslam Com

I checked with the BBB and was told that it is all legit Howthey can sell gift cards laptops cameras and all kinds ofgoodies that we all want for 50-90 off I donrsquot knowI do know that I bought my son an ipad there for less than$100 and my husband a $250 Low gift

cards for 48Why would I even think about shopping anythornlaceelse

REP LY + 0 ndash

RICEMANSTM 2 hours ago

Wellits pretty evident that humanity hasnt reached peakstupid yet

REP LY + 2 ndash

ADRIAN FOX 2 hours ago

One of the greatest dangers is the degrading and even loss ofproductive farming land due to modern farming methodswhich continues to treat soil as if it is some inert medium tosupport roots rather than a living resource

Such small changes can prevent soil erosion increase yields byretaining soil moisture and reduce the reliance on artificial oilbased fertilisers and pesticides The run off of excessivenitrogen and the poisoning of the natural environment also hitsother forms of food production as well as natural species

1292015 Have we reached peak food Shortages loom as global production rates slow - Environment - The Independent

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There is so much good work going on around the world and theevidence is mounting that mixed farming permaculture andsmall units can actually out produce the industrial farmingmethods on which we have become dependent

As food supplies are more and more centralised in thecurrently unsustainable way we will see the return tosustainable practices and much more local food production Acommunity faced with starvation will find major new ways tofeed itself successfully in a sustainable way given that both thetheory and practice is already there

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LEOLAPORTE 1 hours ago

Hey Hey Hey its Leo Laporte here I really needsomeone like you to appear through skype or in personon my Sunday after noon This Week in Tech where wewill be discussing Peak Food Peak Gluttony and whatwe can do to resolve this issue and keep the supply ofsoup coming my way Call me Saturday between 11amand 2pm 1-8888-ASK-LEO to let me know if you areable to appear Would love to have your input into thiscrisis

REP LY + 0 ndash

BRUCE FRYKMAN 50 minutes ago

Nature despises the entire concept of sustainabiltyNothing in nature is sustainable

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PNKEARNS 2 hours ago

Ah weve moved onto the new world crisis peak food

Remember only a few years ago peak oil was coming Thenfracking kicked in and were swimming in fossil fuels Now thatglobal cooling global warming climate change is peteringout we need a new world crisis to give meaning to somepeoples lives

Welcome to the new articles on peak food to be followedwith multiple academic surveys of existing studies (nooriginal work that could disprove peak food) with cries for aUN study panel and the publishing of a UN study and callfor a UN treaty

REP LY + 1 ndash

LEOLAPORTE 60 minutes ago

This is the master plan of those pesky germans Theyneed an excuse to resume extermination of hatedminorities and make the world pure and what otherway than to claim it is required due to a crisis causedby food shortages

Call me 1-8888ASKLEO either direct or through skype11-2pm Saturday and tell me what we need to do to ridourselves of all those minorities I know I wont letthem in the studio They are a danger to the purity of

1292015 Have we reached peak food Shortages loom as global production rates slow - Environment - The Independent

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my minions

REP LY + -1 ndash

BROZ 2 hours ago

Lets burn corn in gas tanks while the world starves

REP LY + 1 ndash

BRUCE FRYKMAN 48 minutes ago

The left wants Africa to starve its more natural andsustainable

REP LY + 0 ndash

MIKE TIERNEY 2 hours ago

Corn used in the production of ethanol in the US took half ofUS production (2012) 96 million acres of corn to produce 13billion gallons of a fuel no one likes and no one wants exceptfor goofy environmentalists and corn farmers It wastesmillions of gallons of fresh water and since the US is swimmingin oil natural gas and coal making ethanol makes no sense IfHalf of the US production of corn went back into the foodsupply I am thinking one large amount of beef tortillaschicken and pork can be added to our food supplies That isjust to start

REP LY + 2 ndash

TIFF_JACK 2 hours ago

Stop wasting corn making on ethanol As long as it is moreprofitable (due to government subsidies) to grow corn for fuelinstead of for food the trend will continue Big Government Ifyou think are problems are bad just wait until you see oursolutions

REP LY + 1 ndash

NEALWV 2 hours ago

Any story or headline that asks a question the answer is alwaysNO Or rather opposite to the meaning If it were true theywouldnt have put the headline up as a question They wouldhave said it has met its peak and showed the data But since weall know we could produce much more they try to scare peopleover to their way of thinking to gain more power for theargument of a one world gov

REP LY + -1 ndash

AS_SALAAM 2 hours ago

As readers of this forum have frequently and scientificallypointed out uncomfortable increases can be proven to notexist There is no man-made population increase populationhas hardly been increasing since 1900 and not at all since 1990Populations have always been increasing especially in the lateCambrian That the year 2014 was the most population-richyear in history is a hoax created by the Church ofOverpopulation who out of sheer malice wishes to create

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panic There is food in abundance so that in the near futureevery single Human Psychopath will be able to eat richyummy healthy delicious red meat five times a day on aregular basis Wonderful times are ahead so dont worry - behappy and buy yourself a present a day It is arrogant toassume that the human being is mighty or even torpid enoughto ruin its food sources when they Bible doesnt even mentionsuch a possibility On the opposite population DECREASE isthe danger Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth andsubdue it So Subduing and polluting is not a problem as onJudgement Day all the Trash will be turned into sweetestnectar

REP LY + -1 ndash

RAY SCHEEL 2 hours ago

How about production has slowed because production hasreached a point of global oversupply

Even those countries with chronic hunger issues couldgenerally self-produce enough food if the roving warlordswould quit stealing and destroying crops along with aid sent totry to feed the general population Growing more food wont fixthose sorts of problem

REP LY + 1 ndash

REDROSEANDY 3 hours ago

The use of Biochar looks likely to increase crop production

Fish in the wild are being over exploited and whole fish speciesface extinction But there is an easy way of preventing theseextinctions An international law should be passed whichensures that the gonads of all fish caught are liquidized and putinto water containers the fish are usually gutted anyway so thiswould not be a great hardship for the fishermen Onceliquidized artificial fertilization takes place and after twentyfour hours the fertilized fish eggs can be released into the seaIt does not matter where the eggs are put back because the fryof each species find their way back to the environment theyoriginally come from

In this way the sea can be repopulated and fishing can evenbecome sustainable

The Japanese were the first country to fish in this way and hadtheir Navy protect the massive shoal until the fish matured Ihave only heard of it being done the once though

REP LY + 0 ndash

ADRIAN FOX 1 hours ago

Not sure how tongue in cheek your proposals are butbiochar requires a lot of biomass to create it in the firstplace In order to use it to increase the productivity ofall agricultural land you would need several rainforests worth of timber to create it

More helpfully you dont need to go down the gonadroute just create a really large number of marinereserves of a decent size around the world Make surethese are properly policed

1292015 Have we reached peak food Shortages loom as global production rates slow - Environment - The Independent

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Unlike nature reserves on dry land which fail in theirpurpose as they isolate and cut off natural populationsand allow the biodiversity everywhere else to declinemassively marine reserves seed millions of small fishand other fry into the oceans which spread and helpbuild stocks everywhere There is plenty of evidence forthis already although the pig-headed fishermen wantto think only of today and not the future so opposethem being established anywhere

As for the Japanese being at the forefront of marineconservation I find that hard to believe of a countrywhich wants to hunt every whale to extinction and isperfectly happy to fish out entire swathes of ocean withtheir factory ships even in areas thousands of milesfrom their home country

REP LY + 0 ndash

JUSTAGUYNAMEDJOE 3 hours ago

Oddly enough during the early days of the Global Warmingscare data indicated that warmer temperatures would lead toincrease growing cycles That is regions with one growingseason could have two Regions with two growing seasonscould end up with three

So the cure for the new imaginary problem is actually the oldimaginary problem

REP LY + 2 ndash

TOTAL MASS RETAIN 3 hours ago

Wow a strawman argument to counter anotherstrawman argument Wonderful use of logical fallacies

Check this outhttpwwwgissnasagovresearchnews20150116

And this

httpsroyalsocietyorgpolicyprojectsclimate-evidence-causes

REP LY + 0 ndash

NEALWV 2 hours ago

Ive heard time and again that the bread basketwould shift from midwest to Siberia if whenthe world warms Seeing as how the Siberianarea is at least 5 times bigger and unpopulatedthere appears to be plenty of space once thecertainty of global warming comes I dontneed your references either I could put upreferences that point out their flaws Seeing ashow neither will look at the others and notbelieve them anyway so why bother You andyour ilk have your global warming and motherEarth as your church and Im not bound tobelieve in it

+ 1 ndash

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ADRIAN FOX 1 hours ago

What a pity then that vegetative growth slows above acertain level of CO2 and we are already seeing declinesin the health of crops and trees

REP LY + 0 ndash

CGRAVES 4 hours ago

This article is a scare tactic from start to finish

The Premise Because foor production is down The worldmust be running out of food

In reality the US largest food producing country on earth isactually subsidizing farmers NOT to grow This article ismerely an effort to lay one more stone in the road to a oneworld utopian scenario where the elitists keep strict controls oncommerce population control natural resources etc How doesthe elite few control the masses Fear By making the publicirrationally afraid of problems that dont exist

REP LY + 2 ndash

NEALWV 2 hours ago

Exactly it falls under the same category as the globalwarming tactic Just another way to take away otherpeoples money as a means of control for their ownpower ambitions

REP LY + -1 ndash

ADRIAN FOX 1 hours ago

I suggest that you look at what is currently happeningin the Central Valley of California the fruit andvegetable basket for most of America The recorddrought is set to continue water supplies are almost atnil and those Americans will be buying in their foodfrom the rest of the world pushing up prices to levelsunaffordable to the poor

REP LY + 0 ndash

TIMOTHY 4 hours ago

What silly nonsense Another scare tactic by the utopian one-worlders The first thing we can do is stop using huge amountsof corn to make ethanol After that many other obviousanswers will appear

REP LY + 0 ndash

STEPHEN WATSON 4 hours ago

Rather than using the corn to feed people you meanOK

REP LY + 0 ndash

MICHAEL PATRICK 4 hours ago

You are right on target Timothy Producing ethanol in

1292015 Have we reached peak food Shortages loom as global production rates slow - Environment - The Independent

httpwwwindependentcoukenvironmenthave-we-reached-peak-food-shortages-loom-as-global-production-rates-slow-10009185html 1423

the USA has been a terrible mistake First it has abarely positive energy balance (it takes almost a gallonof diesel fuel (or equivalent) to produce a gallon ofethanol) Second it has destroyed countless smallengines with its water absorbing properties Third ithas massively increased the cost of all beef dairy porkand chicken products that rely on corn feed I am no expert so I am sure there are many more illaffects of ethanol that can be identifiedIt is time to start eating our corn instead of burning itfor you silly people worried about peak food now

REP LY + 2 ndash

ORACLE2WORLD 5 hours ago

The peak production data is interesting Otherwise I have a bitof fatigue for ominous nebulous future predictions The textto these particular predictions always include world populationbeing too large and we eat meat No species limits itsreproduction - any group that actually believes its own b andstops making children leaves the gene pool That is just Theoryof Evolution 101 I mean people do believe in this theoryregardless of its politically incorrect revelations dont they

My nine local supermarkets within 5 miles are always stockedchock full of my comfort foods and if people in Zimbabwe arestarving it was a political decision for Mugabe to destroy hisfood supply Nothing to do with peak production

(I have two food lions two walmarts a krogers target lowesand 2 harris teeters in my foraging radius - and this is not adensely populated area)

REP LY + 2 ndash

HAODE 5 hours ago

people choosing to live and reproduce bambinos indeserts with little or poor agriculture will go hungry

even animals migrate to food sources and animalsonly come into season when there is ample food tosustain offspring

REP LY + 1 ndash

STEPHEN WATSON 4 hours ago

No species limits its reproduction - any group thatactually believes its own b and stops making childrenleaves the gene pool That is just Theory of Evolution101

Oh dear Imagine you are driving a car and limit yourspeed Are you still moving Yes Now stop your car -are you moving No This is physics 101

Every species limits its populations Its thecombination of population size available land andamount of food you can grow on it

Imagine if you lived on the Isle of Wight and therewere no boats or planes to bring in food or anythingelse (Earth in miniature) Lets say that there is enoughland to comfortably support 2000 people for

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arguments sake What if the population grows to2500 Well people will clearly have to eat less Whatabout 3000 Less still And so on and so on

The other thing you could do is to grow more foodHow Well use more land Eventually though therewould be nowhere for the people to live if we still wantto eat the same amount as before Try growing more onthe same land then - how Add more pesticides andfertiliser Where from - they need fossil fuels and youhave no access to them remember

Something has to give Every species limits itspopulation voluntarily (even if not consciously) or elsenature will do it instead Fossil fuels and globaltransport have allowed far too many people to forget orignore the basics

REP LY + -1 ndash

NKBOZ 2 hours ago

For one thing your analogy is flawed- if youstop your car youre still in motion on a planetrotating at 1000 miles an hour and revolvingat 10000 miles an hour youre just not awareof it

Just as youre apparently unaware of the arableland needs to support a single human beingHuge swaths of arable lands in the US arecurrently out of production for no other reasonto protect the importation of foods from othercountries as well as to prop up prices Therealso vast areas of arable and semi-arable landthat are banned from any kind of productionno matter how limited or green due to thechicken little nature of so manyenvironmental activists who have a betterunderstanding of social media campaigningthan they do of the facts underlying the causesthey campaign forThe logical extrapolation ofthe goals and beliefs of many of these people isa planet devoid of technology if not human lifealtogether They are the latest version ofLuddite extremism

There is no such thing as a species thatvoluntarily (even if not consciously) limits itspopulation Nature does it for them and mandespite those mostly on the far left whobelieve Man overwhelms Nature

When Man can ACTUALLY stop thingsaltogether or accelerate them then Id bepretty concerned but were a very very veryvery very long way from slowing changing thelength of a day or skipping part of a year Nomatter what Man accomplishes for good orbad it is only because Nature allows it andwhen Nature has had enough of Man It will letus know

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DAVE M 5 hours ago

Have we reached peak food No we have not

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VASCO DEGAMA 5 hours ago

maybe we should stop wasting arable land to raise ethanol corn(oh and politicians make GREAT fertilizer)

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ANGELUS 5 hours ago

Time to start eating locusts which are plentiful and apparentlytasty Im very happy to as soon as someone starts selling them

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MR SHIVER 5 hours ago

Tell that to the millions of people who keep having childrenthey cant feed We arent at peak food its peak people

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RAY SCHEEL 2 hours ago

If you are talking about the starvation issues in Africathe reason the countries with the issues shiftoccasionally is based on where the warlords are activeThe populated areas of Africa are perfectly capable ofraising enough food to feed the continent and evenexport some if the warlords would quit stealing anddestroying both what the common folks are producingas well as preventing them from keeping the aidshipped in to replace what had already been destroyedor stolen

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RA44MR2 46 minutes ago

That would require he actually understandsomething beyond what the surface symptomsof a problem are instead of the causes Thatrequires critical thinking skills that seem to begetting fewer and fewer

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DOUBLEDEJAVU 6 hours ago

Let me dig back in my Popular Science magazines to find outwhen we were supposed to run out of food Around 2002 ifmemory serves

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TOTAL MASS RETAIN 3 hours ago

One could also go back to the 1790s and Malthus

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HOLLY 6 hours ago

70 of productive agricultural land is in river Deltas prone toflooding if the current trend in rising sea level continuesMore people in the world today are underfed rather thanoverfed There is no overproduction just differing availabilityLack of water limits production in most areas of the world Thisis getting more criticalThere is a shortage of available phosphates amp potash and couldbe a shortage of Nitrates for fertilisers if energy becomesexpensive againGM crops have yet to demonstrate a sustained increase inyieldsFood is a global commodity but that could change if transporteconomics or politics limit trade Countries in the West will beaffectedShortages are becoming real they are inevitable given currenttechnology they will have a significant impact on the economyand they should be a high priority for policymakers

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SHADOFAX 6 hours ago

Simple solution to peak food Eat government bureau wieniesand stupid journalist tools The world will never run out ofeither of those

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HAROLDS 6 hours ago

What we NEED desperately is an increase of the heating of theearths atmosphere so we can begin to use the WASTEDpotentials of such areas as Siberia Greenland and The GreatNorth of Canada

Course we would probably lose in a hundred years or so a fewneedless cities like NYC LA New Orleans Miami Boston Butthose could be replaced and certainly losing San Franciscowould be no great loss for REAL HUMAN BEINGS

Unfortunately that type of global heating is not occurring

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MR SHIVER 5 hours ago

Global warming is occurring and as it does thepermafrost in those regions you mention melts andreleases methane You wont have land to farm becausethe air will be hazardous if not lethal

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TOTAL MASS RETAIN 3 hours ago

In that scenario much currently arable land in lowlying and low latitude regions will disappear fromproduction due to flooding or desertification But wedefinitely know that this type of warming IShappeninghttpwwwgissnasagovresearchnews20150116

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BILLO39206YAHOOCOM 6 hours ago

Malthus lives And hes still wrong

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TRUTH SEEKER 7 hours ago

Policy in the EU is reducing production Smart The UK is onlyjust 60 self sufficient in food The future is bleak More likeagent orange than soylent greenIt is all about the moneyMaybe Jessie J should formulate policy

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MBARRETTCD13 7 hours ago

Soylent green anyone

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DOR35 8 hours ago

I read once that if the Sudan sorted out its political problemsand introduced more modern farming methods it could feedthe rest of Africa There are huge areas of the world that could provide foodwhich would bring prosperity to poor areasWhat does it take

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DAVIDV 7 hours ago

Dor 35If your so very clever perhaps you could have ago and show everyone how it is done

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WINCHESTER 7 hours ago

Perhaps if you were better educated you wouldknow that before Mugabe took over Rhodesia itwas the bread basket of southern Africa Itexported grain and food stuffs to the rest ofAfrica Now it can hardly feed itself all due toits political system So perhaps dor35 is rightand you sir are the uneducated fool By theway South Africa is a net exporter of foodstuffsto Europe and the rest of Africa

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MRRIGHT 7 hours ago

Pretty sure they were ASKING not telling Butsince you profess to be smarter than the roomwhat is your solution Yeah Thought so

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A_INCHPRACTICE 8 hours ago

So the rate of increase of production has peaked not the actual

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production

If the world population has also peaked then I see noproblem at all But this article was written by a humanitiesgraduate to whom this all-important comparison did not occur

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MOUTON 8 hours ago

As I looked out over my 1 acre lawn this morning to see if thebulbs were coming out I pondered how on earth could wegrow more food to prolong our current obesity crisis I thinkIll go for a stroll through the green belt to think about it -perhaps stop off at a pub for a 4000 calorie lunch

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PAMELA HICKEY 6 hours ago

My entire front yard is now a raised bed gardenProblem solved

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RIPLEYNU 8 hours ago

Its overpopulated stupid How many surveys and quangosdoes it take See David Attenborough yesterday - empowerwomen and the population growth slows Where are womenempowered least In Africa India and the Muslim world Itsdouble indemnity - well either starve or be overtaken by Islam- or both

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HAROLDS 6 hours ago

Balderdash

The earth was probably DESIGNED to hold billionsmore When we end the depravity of human beings andlive as we were designed to properly be the planet willsupport many many billions more

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DAVIDV 6 hours ago

The morehumans you get the more they willovercrowd and fight And farming does not gowell with bullets flying about Farming cropsneeds a lot more than land

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RIPLEYNU 2 hours ago

What a lovely word Balderdash is You speakit well

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RAY SCHEEL 2 hours ago

Every country with starvation issues whereoverpopulation to blame has no central governmentto speak of to protect its citizens from competingwarlords who steal or destroy the home productionalong with any aid that makes it to the villages inquestion

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CLEMY 8 hours ago

Unless we start controlling the worlds population nature willdo it for us

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PAUL SMITH 8 hours ago

A thought provoking article I feel that some discussion ofdevelopment of food technologies may be relevant We haveonly been able to hit these food peaks because of foodtechnology Ingenuity creates more technology and morepeople create more chance of ingenuity I firmly believe thatour ingenuity will win out we will be fine and that ourtechnological advancements will create new higher futurepeaks

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IAINH 7 hours ago

I wish I shared your hope

Bus as I see no such technology on the horizon I cant

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iainh

PAUL SMITH 7 hours ago

Thats kind of the point I dont know aboutany technologies but one of the 7000000000people on the planet will Its not so much hopeas looking back on history If you had said tosomeone 200 years ago that there would be 7billion people on the planet today they wouldhave called you crazy but our ingenuity andtechnology has made it happen

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DAVIDV 7 hours ago

P SMITH---With temparate crops you run up againstlimited hours of sunshineand the last ten years ofweather in the uk have been nothing like so good aswere the eighties --big crops and great harvestweather We are up agaist the law of --diminishingreturns

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DUNCAN CAIRNCROSS 8 hours ago

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Utter nonsenseWe eat meat - and worst red meatWhich displaces up to 30 times its value in vegetable proteinWith a change in diet the UK could be self sufficient in food The world could feed twice its current population

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DAVIDV 7 hours ago

So how much are you growing then

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DUNCAN CAIRNCROSS 7 hours ago

eight sheep ten chickens And a fine crop of thistles

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GARDINER 8 hours ago

Youve all just FAILED CSE (even though you all put yourname at the top of the page) BiologyAll species - plant and animal - experience peak food It is thepoint of population saturation Living space is always finiteAllthe others STOP POPULATION GROWTH when this point isreached

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EDZUIDERWIJK 8 hours ago

They dont stop population growth itss done forthem by starvation

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GARDINER 8 hours ago

Sorry forgot to mention Global warming We musthave more Wind Farms in order to cool the Earth down a bit

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POSH TIM 8 hours ago

Never mind the amount of grains used for fuel in thedeveloped world up to 70 of it goes to animal feed so we cancontinue being the fattest people in human history Go paleoForward to oblivion

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EDZUIDERWIJK 8 hours ago

Never mind the inefficiencies inherit in the hippyagricultural methods aka organic farming

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POSH TIM 7 hours ago

Who said anything about hippies or organicfarming Its just maths

Would you describe the massive and successfuleffort in Britain during the war to get everyoneto grow their food inefficient Or call thosesame industrious people hippies for sortingthemselves out while U-boats were sinkingmillions of tonnes of shipping to the UK

Whilst the world population is certainly too bigto sustain in finite resources such as fossilfuels any solution needs to look at what weconsume as well Now theres a challenge - stopmoaning and start taking personalresponsibility - but that requires more thanblaming politicians poor people stupid peoplefrom the comfort of your computer it meanschanging something you dont want to dowhich I know is much harder

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ZZARZAX 8 hours ago

Start taxing anyone who has more that 2 children end allbenefits for those who have more than w in the UK and thatincludes access to the free NHS and education As long aspoliticians allow people to reproduce irresponsibly without athought to the effects this has on the environment there is onlygoing to be one outcome and that is war and it wont just bebetween countries it will be civil war within countries asvarious groups compete for resources Meanwhile other specieswill be driven to extinction as humans either kill them for theirland or eat them as food or both

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GULLY FOYLE 8 hours ago

TOTAL MASS RETAIN

Not all controlled immigration voters (not anti-immigrantlobby) are climate change deniers Please read my post on 10things you need to know about fracking 2nd one down

It is disingenuous of you to imply that immigration has nobearing on this issue for the UK it most certainly doesWe currently import about 38 of our food 88 and 48 forfruit and veg Our meat and dairy industry imports hugeamounts of Soya for animal feed A few extreme weather eventsor the BRIC countries bidding heavily into food markets andwe especially our big cities could have problems Against thatbackground we can sayImmigration should be sensibly limitedBuilding on the greenbelt is a very bad idea (and unnecessaryas we have so much quality brownfield land)Our farmers need more support and we need to develop ouragricultural industry including the latest hi-tech applicationsWe need to re-assess our food supply chains including ourrelationship with the EU and the corporate influence of oursupermarkets

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TOTAL MASS RETAIN 3 hours ago

But weve been a net importer of food for nearly 200years with or without immigration Indeed withoutimmigrants many farmers in the UK couldnt cultivateand harvest their crops at a price competitive withimports so we would import more food if we wanted tokick out such immigrants In doing so more demand isplaced on global supplies increasing prices

However the article is about the totality of foodproduction to feed the totality of the humanpopulation It is much less about local variations infood production versus the local population density Tothat extent immigration is peripheral at best to thearticle If they werent here theyd be competing withus for access to global food production fromsomewhere else

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