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Grim signs the globe is about to run short of food (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/worldnews@aussie.zone
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[–] 21 points 3 days ago (4 children)

We make enough food to feed 10-12B people, but for some reason, we feed most of that to the animals, then eat the animals. It is high time we just ate plants.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    Maybe one day we have the technology to torture vegetables and eat them.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    I hope so. I'm vegan because i want to torture and murder carrots! Fucking carrots, i swear

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  • [–] 1 point 3 days ago (1 child)

    people eat two third of our global crop calories.

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  • [–] -1 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    Which is exactly what they said?

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  • [–] 2 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    we feed most of that to the animals,

    no, it's not

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  • [–] -2 points 3 days ago

    They did.

    We make enough food to feed 10-12B people

    If we feed 8B but could feed 12B if we didn't eat animals, that's 12-8=4, 4B more people, and 4/12=1/3, or a third of our crops that could be used to feed people instead of animals. Which is right at the percentage of crops used for animal feed, ~36%.

    You are correct that they did use the word "most" instead of "much" which wasn't as accurate as their math. I guess I focused more on their concrete descriptor while you went with the fuzzy one.

    Either way, the truth is certainly that we could mitigate the crop loss of climate change with a simple alteration of our diet, while we figure out where, when, and how to grow crops now. It likely won't happen, but it's possible.

    Unfortunately, just like with the current percentage of the population that is actively starving, the greater percentage in the future will likely just be forced to die, even though they can be easily fed.

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    • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    Anyone who is not working to increase their food resilience right now is crazy. This year I've turned half of my landlord's lawn into veggie garden, and if I had a lawn of my own it would have been all of it. I'm also squirreling away whatever I can afford (not much) in long term food stores.

    I don't like to think of myself as a doomer, but I think it's time to think about these things.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    They’ll keep Western nations fed for now at the expense of developing nations, which have already been forced into cash crops by GATT. See the Irish potato famine for the capitalist playbook on crop failure.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    You're assuming they can hold it together. I don't have that much faith in our current crop of global leaders and I don't think their grip on or understanding of the entire system is all that secure.

    I haven't done or seen any analysis, but I'm at least considering the possibility that we may have a period where zero oil or anything else shows up from overseas. Do we even produce enough of our own to keep food moving, lights on, clean water coming out of the tap?

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    • [–] 4 points 2 days ago

    it's not the price of fertiliser that worries me

    it's the awful floods in China and the heatwaves and drought in Europe and the Americas

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