161–170 of 575 posts
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> Only 1 percent of all corn grown in this country is eaten by humans. > The rest is No. 2 yellow field corn, which is indigestible to humans and used in animal feed, food supplements and ethanol. https://www.wired.com/2011/06/five-ethanol-myths-busted-2/
Could we use it as a diet food if it’s indigestible?
Fertilizer depends on phosphorous which cannot be renewed or substituted once its gone.
Without fertilizer we can't support the multi-billion person population we have today.
We're not running out tomorrow, or even this decade, but we may experience peak phosphorous within our lifetimes.
Threads like these reminds me that HN is an overwhelmingly urban community with almost zero exposure to the agriculture sector
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Comments like this show how out of touch the average person is with how much waste is involved in animal products - particularly beef. We can so easily grow enough food to feed everyone. Livestock takes up >80% of land, yet produces The The apocalypse is nowhere near close. The Earth's crust is ~2.5% potassium. A lower supply of Potash is not going to cause the end of the world.
How much arable land does livestock take up?
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As someone who works in healthcare, it must be like a healthcare/medicine/biology thread popping up for me. You'll never see so many people so certain they were right despite lacking the most basic knowledge on the topic.
I've found that you need come into HN comments with a baseline amount of skepticism and then increase skepticism the further the topic strays from being purely about software development.
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I don't believe the argument is that the acreage for animal pastures would be converted, but rather the acreage for the crops they eat would be converted. Or is that in error as well?
Pasture is not just where animals are held. It is land that grows plants eaten directly from the ground by animals, i.e., grazing. So if pasture land isnt suitable to be crop land, then animals fed by grazing pasture is efficient. And according to my reading of this industry website, nearly half of livestock calories come from this: https://www.sacredcow.info/blog/qz6pi6cvjowjhxsh4dqg1dogizno... I think you are talki…
https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/coexisten...
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I don't think that the people experiencing poverty and hunger in the middle east have any relation to anyone in the oil industry there.
History doesn't agree with you. Last time the middle-east and Maghreb got hungry, it was 2011. The Arab spring wouldn't have come if it weren't for food riots.
https://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-cha...
Global food shortage always feels like "well, I'm not concerned many other countries will be hit first". Many countries will literally have issues, but the food will _also_ be a lot more expensive for all of us. The coming years will be "fun" (and I mean bad, to be clear).
40% of all food that is purchased in the US is thrown in the garbage. It's so heavily subsidized here that people just consider it disposable. They buy way more than they need so they can just eat whatever they're in the mood for, and throw out the rest. Maybe food should be a lot more expensive.
If you produce only just enough in good years, then people die in bad years. If you produce double demand in good years then bad years are fine.
The fact that we can usually afford to waste lots of food is a really really good thing.