Earlier quoted context omitted.
But I also have Victory Squirrels taking one bite out of each tomato and moving on...
You need to get a Victory Cat.
Or literally a Victory air rifle..
The Coming Food Catastrophe
251–260 of 634 posts
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#252Might also be worth examining the amount of crop grown, then subsequently burned in the U.S. Somewhere between 25% to 40% of corn in the U.S., up to 20% of agriculture land is devoted to ethanol production. If food production is a growing concern, it seems strange that so much agricultural production is spent on non-food producing activities.
Considering that the US alone could feed another 800M people with just the grains that go to feed cattle - the idea that we're going to run out of food any time soon is strange.
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
Re 4., that's doable if the West renounces some of its existing economic sanctions against Russia, the Russians themselves have said as much recently. It probably won't happen because the West doesn't like to see itself as being involved in the war (in a way similar to what Russia thinks about itself) and will try to resort to "Russia should unlock the blockade purely on humanitarian grounds!", which, of course, is t…
What is "the west" exactly? Japan? New Zealand? Finland? Tunisia? A better term would be liberal democracies, but that wouldn't have quite the same "both sides are the same" ring to it, would it? Russia isn't waging an economic war against anyone. A dictator tried to invade his democratic neighbour, he failed, and now the other democraties are cutting him out of their club
I agree Putin is some kind of dictator, but are you really calling Ukraine democracy? Then you can also call North Korea democracy.
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#254Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another option for #4 is supplying enough long range anti-ship rockets to sink whole russian fleet in black sea. They can't bring in more ships, because turkey is blocking the entrance.
Triggering world war 3 would also help reduce the population which could reduce co2 emissions and food requirements. Killing a few birds with one stone.
This doesn't really make any sense though. It changes nothing about the geopolitical reality of what's going on.
If the US sends a merchant ship and a cruiser, what is russia going to do exactly? Try to bomb the ships? They will lose, and get shot down.
Why would it suddenly be WWIII? Is russia really going to say "Well, they shot down our plane so its global thermonuclear war time".
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#255I am refusing to agree that it is all "Putin's fault". The war is his decision and is not to understand from the normal Western position. However, it is the decision of the West to sanction Russia and to 1) accept increasing energy prices 2) accept a lower fertilizer production 3) break up supply chains even further 4) accept the refugee crisis, the costs of entering this war as a proxy combatant, sending tens of bil…
No society is ideal, but it is better to help a flawed country than to let a war monger who is violating sovereignty norms act freely. Real life is not a series of choices between good and bad - it is a series of choices between bad and worse.
We had the chance to open up and help substantially during the crazy 90s when the post-Soviet economies dropped GDPwise to the 1960s/1970s levels, average male life expectancy dropped by 10-12 years, life-savings were destroyed, criminals became ultra-rich and were welcomed in Zurich, New York and London with open arms. We did not.
We had the chance to open the EU and NATO towards the Russian in the 00s, even when the Russian came crawling to the Berlin Bundestag and suggested to draw a path towards this direction and were rejected hardly.
We had the chance for a compromise, e.g. through the Normandy format when ALL relevant parties agreed more or less except the Americans.
This all does not make the invasion right, but it is not as one-sided as the propaganda is showing it here right now. And this is why agree with your statement that real life is not not as simple as "good" and "bad", it is all just bad - on all sides.
And just another anecdote. As we are originally from Ukraine, I went down to the border with friends, money and cars and helped people at the border to make the right decisions. We mainly focussed on people withough language skills, old people and people with very very very little money. I had the chance to speak to hundreds of Ukranians crossing the border to the EU. 90% DO NOT CARE who "rules" them. They have their dreams, hopes, they have their apartments, their jobs, their pets, friends, homes... they just want this war to be over - even if Putin "wins".
When watching Western news and reports I dont see those opinions represented in the same way I experienced them when talking to people. I see stories about values and democracy and other philosophical stuff - and when they show Ukranians then it is not those who I have met.
Where is the opinion of the normal folks that I have met: the war should end asap, no matter who wins. Instead I feel spoon-fed that we HAVE TO PAY THE PRICE for $VALUES. And then you speak to people who have absolutly NO CLUE and NO RELATION to either Ukraine or even Russia and they are so opinionated and SOOOO SURE about the things that must be done and the price that has to be paid.
I feel very frustrated and I stopped telling people about my experience at the border or here when volunteering and ACTUALLY speaking to the REAL people.
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
Correct—it's doable, it just takes more material and planning than "buy bag of rice, stick bag in dry place in basement". Do that, you'll be sad when you try to use it in a year or three. The alternative is maintaining a stock but constantly drawing it down & replenishing it, but it gets difficult to maintain a substantial reserve that way, unless you already eat your "apocalypse" diet most of the time, so go through…
Maybe I'm ignorant of this, but it was my impression that vacuum-sealed white rice should pretty much last indefinitely?
If you vacuum seal it with mylar lined bags and some oxygen absorbers, it can last up to 5 years, which is a long time.
Oxygen will get through normal plastic vacuum sealing bags and ruin the taste and eventually nutritional content otherwise after a year or two. Mylar lining stops most of that and the oxygen absorber gets the rest.
The thick bags will also stop rice moths from getting through (they are able to get through most cardboard and thin plastic bags), and the lack of oxygen will stop their eggs from hatching.
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#257If you're in the West, it doesn't hurt to buy a couple big bags of rice from the local Indian market, and have some dried or canned beans handy, and cycle through them as you cook. A pallet of bottled water and a bag of charcoal don't hurt either. A dumb power outage or a downed wire or a tornado or something is much more likely than Red Dawn, but you'll still be happy to have all that.
Buy some MREs. They are made to last and to have everything essential for survival. Shelf life is about 5 years, depending on how it's stored: https://www.mreinfo.com/mres/mre-shelf-life/
Make sure to pack some fiber though too! They'll plug you up something fierce if you eat them a lot.
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of the grid tied systems don’t even support off-line use, but you could always bodge something together during prolonged outages.
I was just researching this and the new Enphase IQ8 microinverters will run without grid power. You are correct though it is common for microinverters to require grid power to operate, which seems pretty surprising!
It's usually a safety feature. If there is a downed power line and you lose grid connection, energizing your (otherwise dead) side of the downed lines could easily kill the lineman who comes to fix it.
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
Triggering world war 3 would also help reduce the population which could reduce co2 emissions and food requirements. Killing a few birds with one stone.
This doesn't really make any sense though. It changes nothing about the geopolitical reality of what's going on. If the US sends a merchant ship and a cruiser, what is russia going to do exactly? Try to bomb the ships? They will lose, and get shot down. Why would it suddenly be WWIII? Is russia really going to say "Well, they shot down our plane so its global thermonuclear war time".
"Is russia really going to say "Well, they shot down our plane so its global thermonuclear war time"."
That is what they have been threatening...
Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe
#260If you're in the West, it doesn't hurt to buy a couple big bags of rice from the local Indian market, and have some dried or canned beans handy, and cycle through them as you cook. A pallet of bottled water and a bag of charcoal don't hurt either. A dumb power outage or a downed wire or a tornado or something is much more likely than Red Dawn, but you'll still be happy to have all that.
Rice will keep you full but our body requires protein and fat to live. Carbs are optional.
I Olympic lift so I always have whey.