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The Coming Food Catastrophe

economist.com

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Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#351

Post by SkyMarshal »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #307
corrral wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rice will be full of pest insect eggs. They'll hatch after a while (smallish count of months, likely). You've got to freeze it (to kill the eggs) and then seal it (to keep more pests from getting in) and/or add stuff that'll kill anything that hatches very fast (IIRC diatomaceous earth is popular for this) Other grains have similar pest problems, plus if it's wheat or similar and ground into flour (not e.g. whole whe…

What are you talking about? I've kept bags of rice for years without any issues.

What he said is generally true [1], so you must have either stored your rice in an environment that prevented them from hatching, or got lucky.

[1]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_weevil

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#353

Post by [deleted] »

xdennis wrote: post #277
paganel wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they don't stand by their word then they can re-impose the sanctions, it's as simple as that. > Why should anyone believe they would clear the blockade if sanctions lift Because at some point the West will have to sit at the negotiating table with Russia.

> Because at some point the West will have to sit at the negotiating table with Russia. The whole point is that you can't negotiate with Russia. Ukraine gave away it's nukes by negotiations and Russia isn't keeping its end of the bargain. Russia has to be defeated like the Japanese did or collapse like it tends to do from time to time.

[deleted]

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#354

Post by einpoklum »

AussieWog93 wrote: post #302
bryanlarsen wrote: post #144

The article actually has four solutions at the bottom. Compared to the severity of the problem, all four solutions are surprisingly simple. Not necessarily easy, but simple and straightforward. 1. Stop using so much corn to make ethanol. 2. Stop using so much seed oil to make biodiesel. 3. Stop feeding so much food to livestock. Bonus: reducing the livestock population provides short term calories! 4. Break the Black…

>1. Stop using so much corn to make ethanol. >2. Stop using so much seed oil to make biodiesel. Easier said than done when there's a global fuel shortage too!

So,

5. Stop using private vehicles so much in favor of public transport + bicycles.

Et voila, no more fuel shortage.

... of course, this is even more easier-said-than-done for the US :-(

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#355

Post by sophacles »

mbg721 wrote: post #131
bell-cot wrote: post #28

Tip from an old geezer: Plant Your Victory Garden Now! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden

But I also have Victory Squirrels taking one bite out of each tomato and moving on...

The squirrels are generally not in it for the tomato, what they really want is the water in the tomato. A lot of people (myself included) have eliminated or reduced the problem by having a birdbath or water display near the garden.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#356

Post by Melatonic »

Not a bad article but this is just a short term problem in a world with potentially much bigger long term food issues. Mega factory farming of monoculture crops covered without rotation or though for the health of the soil and environment and the insects and birds that support it all is going to really screw us long term.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#357

Post by psd1 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #122
mbg721 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have the setup where you've got that connected and make it work, that's a great idea. The neighbors next to my building have some on their roof--it's not too different from having batteries for your radio.

You can get 100-ish watt solar panels on Amazon surprisingly cheaply, and they're small enough to take car-camping. https://www.amazon.com/PROGENY-Portable-Kickstand-Flashfish-... https://www.amazon.com/Jackery-SolarSaga-Portable-Explorer-F...

I've just specced up a system to deliver 1-2 KWh per day off-grid, and there are a lot more parts in the system than just the panels.

Apart from anything else, if you save on costs by sticking at 12v, you run quite high current. That 100w panel can fuck you up.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#358

Post by dang »

mrdoe wrote: post #177
dang wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one of the neighborhood Karens Please keep that sort of slur off HN. We don't need it here, and you don't need it to make your substantive points.

Really? Whats wrong with calling someone a Karen?!

It doesn't take much googling to answer that.

Edit: look you guys, We're not Bowdlers and have never been interested in language policing but I wouldn't have thought this was a borderline case.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#359

Post by Scoundreller »

sbf501 wrote: post #286
Scoundreller wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And it only yielded from July to August Where are you? I’m near Toronto, started my seedlings indoors ~6 weeks ago, and already eating small kale leaves and lettuce that’s somehow growing in the grass. A dying apple tree gave me more than I could eat for 2-3 months last year. Gonna plant a pear tree in the front yard.

Middle of Washington state, off I5. The last few years I planted I got my starts going real early in my basement and we had an early spring and I was over the moon. But I had a few cold springs that didn't warm up until June and had to replant multiple times. Rookie mistakes and bad luck. :)

Yeah, I learned how frost and radiative heat loss via a clear sky into cold space works through gardening.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#360

Post by einpoklum »

lovich wrote: post #219
paganel wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they don't stand by their word then they can re-impose the sanctions, it's as simple as that. > Why should anyone believe they would clear the blockade if sanctions lift Because at some point the West will have to sit at the negotiating table with Russia.

> Because at some point the West will have to sit at the negotiating table with Russia. Do they? What does Russia have that will force them to the negotiating table? The damage to this years harvest is already done and the supply chains will likely have figured themselves out by next year

If the US accrues enough "Oh, we don't talk to _those people_, we only sanction them" world states, they will encompass enough of the world's population to make it unreasonable for third parties to obey US sanctions, which they currently tend to (because the US sanctions transitively); and enough of the world's population to do things like replace SWIFT and/or drop the USD as their main reserve currency.

(Also, there's the question of the fate of the Ukranians, but I guess you're right in that the US doesn't care enough about that to negotiate with Russia.)

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