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Food security and the coming storm

eurasiagroup.net

351–360 of 427 posts

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#351
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You don't know that and I don't want to risk that. Don't be arrogant. Everyone said his buildup on Ukraine a bluff. It wasn't. I don't think we should ever trust people like you again. No, most Western intelligence services were saying the invasion is going to happen. It was Putin-supporters like you, who claimed that it is Western warmongering and nothing will happen.

> It was Putin-supporters like you, Can you stop with these accusations? Not everyone that disagrees with your warmongering supports the other warmongers.

You are hitting all the Russian propaganda points - Russia is winning, sanctions don't work, Kyiv was a feint, it is all NATO's fault, Russia will nuke everyone, people who want help Ukraine defend itself are "warmongers", etc etc.

On top of that, you're accusing people of being arrogant and dismissive and whatever else.

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is that if there's a urea shortage, good governments would waive the DEF requirement until it ends, rather than effectively saying "sorry, it's illegal for you to drive that truck at any price".

> I think the point is that if there's a urea shortage, good governments would waive the DEF requirement until it ends, Automotive EE here, this will ABSOLUTELY NOT happen.

Oh, I have no delusions that it will happen. I also have no delusions that our government is good.

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nato could have marched in at the beginning, with the justification that Russian aggression in Ukraine was a security threat to Europe. Russians only respect strength. The situation could have been escalated much further without tipping over into nuclear exchange. Nato failed, and now we have a multitude of security issues.

NATO is a defense pact. It only acts when its members are attacked.

Good point! Then replace 'Nato' with 'Europe'.

Sadly, Germany, Austria, and Hungary have forgotten just how bad Russians are. I wonder what the oldest generation (especially women) think of the current crisis.

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your suggestions sound nice if you're a foodie. But as someone with zero interest in cooking it's just horrible having to think about it in the evening.

That’s what meal prep is for. You cook once or twice a week and meal prep batches for easy eating.

Understood but that doesn't solve the problem that I hate cooking :) Whether it's one big batch or not, it's still a super annoying chore.

It's just something that I'd love to outsource just like I don't do my own laundry either. Just for food there's not many healthy takeaway options.

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#355
post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in a suburb of a large metropolitan area in the US. The grocery store is abundant, but 20 minutes away, I make one main trip to the store weekly, and a couple of side trips to other stores, eg Mexican/Asian groceries. We have different POV because of our geographic differences, I think. I do not think complicated recipes are good in and of themselves. Pasta + bechamel is easy, you can't do this 5 nights a week. I…

Get a slow cooker. This allows you to arbitrage earlier time to do prep (before work, or during a break if WFH), set it up and forget about it for a few hours. As a bonus, it tends to taste good even if you don't pre sear or saute the ingredients.

+1 for the slow cooker. You can buy a smaller 2 liter one if you are concerned about space. There's a lot of benefits:

* Prepare huge amounts of meat (in the smallest one you can prepare up to a kg of meat). * Very simple meal prep. Plop some meat, throw some salt in, add some sauce (soy sauce, spicy or whatever you prefer), add some liquid (water usually) and turn it on. 5 minutes or less. * It never boils, so the water level never rises, avoiding spills (or having to even worry about it). So you can leave it overnight for the 8+ hour cooking process. * You can transform cheap, tough cuts of meat (like Gulash soup meat) into fantastic tasting dishes.

One of the best things about a slow cooker is that the meat softens up, it uniformly absorbs all seasoning, and it makes the meat release its best fatty flavour.

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I'm from a region that grew sugarcane historically but is moving to tree crops like nuts. Local 'big name' family is voracious in their consumption of government grants. They're not struggling by any means but they've got application writing down to a fine science.

Grants are for claiming. Why leave money on the table? Your competitors won't.

[deleted]

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then the government will need to admit much of a price tag is taxes, probably 1st after taxes.

People have been waking up to this during the current gas price crisis... governments say they're doing everything they can, but they can't do more, because of the global oil prices,... ...meanwhile more than half of the gas price goes to the government, and people are notcing.

How is a market price distortion (artificially lowering gas prices through tax cuts) supposed to solve the gas price crisis? You want people to use less gas, so there is more left over for the industries that actually need it. You don't want consumers to use subsidized gas wastefully.

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economies of scale strike again it seems, for #2. Cows are big. 20 kilograms is practically nothing and the efficency is low at very small scales. Consumers often operate under the delusion that cost is fixed per item in all locations, at all levels of demand and any increased prices are pure opportunism.

It's not just cows.. it's potatoes too... they pick up potatoes and have a warehouse full of them, you want to buy a sack (5, 10kg) from them, and they offer you a price, again, higher than aldi. And i'm talking about the same farmers who sell their produce to aldi and complain about how little money they get from aldi and how (relatively) high the price in aldi is. I understand that a cow is a logistic process, wher…

It's possible that direct buyers are subsidizing the aldi prices. It's basically a donation to keep the farm alive at that point.

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#359
post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It was Putin-supporters like you, Can you stop with these accusations? Not everyone that disagrees with your warmongering supports the other warmongers.

You are hitting all the Russian propaganda points - Russia is winning, sanctions don't work, Kyiv was a feint, it is all NATO's fault, Russia will nuke everyone, people who want help Ukraine defend itself are "warmongers", etc etc. On top of that, you're accusing people of being arrogant and dismissive and whatever else.

> Kyiv was a feint

I didn't say this or believe this.

> it is all NATO's fault

I didn't say this or believe this.

> People who want help Ukraine defend itself are "warmongers"

I didn't say this or believe this.

As for the rest, I'm not sure what problem you have with the truth and someone who has a different risk assessment than you. And yeah, you're literally dismissing facts with references with ad hominem attacks.

Re: Food security and the coming storm

#360
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm less pessimistic. People in the US, and increasingly the rest of the world are on a diet that just isn't good for them: lots of low quality carbs with cheap fat and artificial flavorings and not a whole lot of nutritional value. Arguably, a large part of the population is eating way more than is good for them and not enough good quality food. And it's not just a money issue: it's a skill and knowledge issue. Peop…

Before you all clamor over organics, I'm going to leave some evidence to ponder. The food shortages in Sri Lanka are primarily due to ditching industrial agriculture in favor of organic: https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farmi... We depend on industrial food processes to create the yields necessary to support society. Organic food does NOT provide commensurate food security.

No till farming (which isn't the same as organic farming), requires a lot of knowledge and experience. You can't just take people's synthetics away and expect them to immediately know how to improve their soil quality.

Over the short term, conventional farming will give you higher yields. Over the long term, no till farming will give you higher profits because you aren't depleting the soil and therefore won't need to move to a different location.

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