The Coming Food Catastrophe

Post by Guthur » Fri, May 20, 2022, 1:39 AM UTC

karaterobot wrote: post #417

Guthur wrote: post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a major fuel shortage so you are just robbing peter to pay Paul. Also fertiliser will be the next problem, we won't be able to grow enough to cover the loss of Russian and Ukraine exports next year. And meat as a source of protein will become a luxury for all those in power. The western government's had to know this would happen otherwise they are grossly incompetent at their job. If the west had had the mea…

> Russia have played this very very well as the west followed their own play book to the letter and the russians had counters planned for years, hording gold, setting up non USD financial systems. First round of The Game goes to Russia imo. I find this very hard to believe. Things are much worse in Russia and for Russia than they are in Europe or the United States right now, with the future looking bleak.

Post by DennisP » Fri, May 20, 2022, 1:45 AM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #392

etempleton wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it can be used for that, but it is also used to cut gasoline and therefore make a single barrel of oil go further. Normally ethanol is less than 10 percent, but I think it can be as high as 15 or 20 percent at the pump right now. Modern engines can handle it just fine, but it does slightly reduce fuel economy.

It's also an oxygenation agent, and replaces MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether) which ... oh, also substituted for tetraethyl lead. (I thought MTBE was an anti-smog treatment.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTBE_controversy MTBE turned out to leach into groundwater quite readily and there was a pretty widespread outcry about it in the early aughts. Again, ethanol is a replacement (mentioned in the Wikipedia article above…

Post by ImPostingOnHN » Fri, May 20, 2022, 1:54 AM UTC

einpoklum wrote: post #360

lovich wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Post by justnotworthit » Fri, May 20, 2022, 1:55 AM UTC

gexla wrote: post #391

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…

I live ridiculously frugal in a emerging economy country. It's not that I actively look to drop out of consumption, it's just that I lifestyle seemed to settle on this way of being. My entire cost of living is probably less than the cost of ownership of my small truck back home. I don't consume things which use corn as an ingredient. I don't use seed oils. My food is mostly wild fish (local markets.) If Russia were u…

Post by Iwan-Zotow » Fri, May 20, 2022, 1:58 AM UTC

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #420

Iwan-Zotow wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Make up your mind - it is either in Syria or ... where? 500kt is not a small amount

that question is for putin to answer – where did he take it?