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The Coming Food Catastrophe

economist.com

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Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#621

Post by brandonmenc »

MrFantastic wrote: post #260
mbg721 wrote: post #91

If 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.

Carbs are not optional for survival. MREs are overwhelmingly carbs for a reason. Pure protein sources lack carbs. Beans and rice don't have this problem.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#622

Post by _kbh_ »

Jensson wrote: post #611
_kbh_ wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the targeting of a specific ethnic group, because they are that ethnic group is, isn't it?. I think this is a pretty good article on the topic, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61017352 and presents both perspectives.

Killing people who support an opposing faction isn't genocide either, that is just regular dictatorship terror tactics. The fact that Putin argues that Ukranians don't exist and that they all are Russians just supports that it isn't a genocide, as he doesn't intend to kill all Russians, just the "Russians" who refuse to be Russians. Instead of calling it a genocide, call it a massacre. Russia is massacring Ukranians,…

per the definition of genocide that I found on the UN's website, they are easily committing at least one of the points that defines a genocide. That is

- Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml

> he doesn't intend to kill all Russians, just the "Russians" who refuse to be Russians.

Given the slaughter of civilians in the majority pro Russian regions of Ukraine i'd argue that is easily false.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#623

Post by dang »

EddieDante wrote: post #594
dang wrote: post #526

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Editing a comment after the fact in a way that deprives a reply of its original context and makes it look stupid is, in most cases, a dick move. I think most users understand that. It doesn't make a difference whether the reply was by a moderator or not.

In most of the spaces I frequent, an edit to change objectionable wording after being called on it is acceptable. Since you've made it plain that that sort of approach doesn't work here, I'll keep that in mind.

Thanks!

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#624

Post by nevermindiguess »

thematrixturtle wrote: post #546
Guthur wrote: post #493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quite sure the whole world is at similar inflation levels, pretty sure it's about 30% considering the drop in profits from Western retailers, same revenue, massive drop in profits, the retailers took the inflationary hit but it will be passed on eventually. Just look at your fuel prices (supply issues there as well as monetary inflation). Will this affect russia, of course, but if their level of inflation is rampant…

Nope, most Western countries have inflation in the 8% range, although as always you can quibble about what's being measured etc. Also, Russia has already turned off the gas taps to Poland, Bulgaria and by the end of this week most likely to Finland. However, European countries can substitute (with varying degrees of pain), while it's physically impossible for Russia to export that gas elsewhere, meaning any cuts to e…

You just left about 4 billion people out of your definition of “world”. China, India, and many more counties that are not against Russia. I find that very arrogant but also reflective of where the “western world” stands right not. This arrogance and self-supremacy must be broken. And that’s what Russia is just doing.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#625

Post by lmm »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #620
lmm wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they were imagining something more like a bakery / brewery / chemical plant that would turn grasses into edible bread / porridge / slop.

Well, you've got a chemical plant that can turn tough cellulose-y grasses and leaves and heather into stuff we can eat, it's called a sheep.

Right, but the efficiency on that is what, 8%? Can we come up with a better model?

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#626

Post by karmakurtisaani »

nevermindiguess wrote: post #624
thematrixturtle wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, most Western countries have inflation in the 8% range, although as always you can quibble about what's being measured etc. Also, Russia has already turned off the gas taps to Poland, Bulgaria and by the end of this week most likely to Finland. However, European countries can substitute (with varying degrees of pain), while it's physically impossible for Russia to export that gas elsewhere, meaning any cuts to e…

You just left about 4 billion people out of your definition of “world”. China, India, and many more counties that are not against Russia. I find that very arrogant but also reflective of where the “western world” stands right not. This arrogance and self-supremacy must be broken. And that’s what Russia is just doing.

There is no comparable gas pipeline infrastructure to those countries, that's the problem for Russia.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#627

Post by Merad »

wott wrote: post #280
Merad wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. Growing up my parents were hardcore gardeners (arguably smalltime farmers) with about 2 acres of farmland and an additional 2 acres of fruit trees. We'd eat pretty heavily out of the garden from the late spring through the fall, and would have potatoes, apples, canned/frozen goods through much of the winter... but it was an enormous amount of work. In the spring and summer basically any time that it was viable…

> about 2 acres of farmland That's huge; I haven't seen anything like that, even in the deep country where I grew up, where people (farmers) almost didn't buy anything but grew and processed most of their stuff. Their gardens hardly ever went over a 1/4 of an acre, I'd say, that was already pretty large and provided for filling quite a number of jar of tomatoes and beans and stuff. Didn't your parents sell anything?…

2 acres was the total farmland, they would rotate which areas they used so on any given year only 30-40% of it was actually growing crops. They never sold anything that I can recall, but they loved being able to give extras away. Both of them grew up in the 50s on farms in the south. They both saw their dad have to transition away from full time farming and get a day job, but in both of their families the farm remained a big source of supplemental income that involved the whole family. Interestingly both of them were the first in their family to go to college because they didn't want to be trapped in the rural farming life. I guess they were still pretty fond of it though because after they married they decided that their dream home was a small farm, which is where I grew up.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#628

Post by pvarangot »

imperialdrive wrote: post #408
pvarangot wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soooooooo "Roughage Products" which is fiber, that humans also need to eat BTW, is usually something like 25% of pelleted food. The main ingredient in pelleted food is usually digestible by humans and between 6% to 15% protein, it's like 25% to 30% depending on the pelleted food. Pound by pound going by the estimates that "eat cow advocates" use you need 12 pounds of food per pound of beef produced, if half of that i…

https://www.markegardfamily.com/ does

Holy shit I need a subscription for the cuts that are worth it? This is peak Bay Area.

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#629

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

FpUser wrote: post #576
geoka9 wrote: post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody believed the Crimea was taken? Nobody in Crimea believed it was being taken, until it was. By that time, the Ukranian government was beheaded, whatever left of the army was demoralized. There was literally a few thousand dollars in the state's coffers. Insurgency in the east was ramping up; a few volunteer battalions were formed overnight, financed by neighborhood donations, and sent off to fight the (covert…

It's been 8 years since and no fight for Crimea. This still contradicts the original statement: "as they would rather vaporize than give an inch of their land to russia". And I am far from blaming Ukrainians. Their government luckily had enough brain cells and had voted not to attack what Russia considers their territory and not to vaporize their nation for the sake of some hot heads's stance. Had they decided to do…

>It's been 8 years since and no fight for Crimea. This still contradicts the original statement: "as they would rather vaporize than give an inch of their land to russia".

only if you believe that viewpoints and opinions and attitudes of humans never change, a ridiculous notion

>It is easy to be brave / stupid sitting in a safe place in front of computer screen.

if you don't like that that's their attitude, feel free to complain to them about it, don't attack me, the messenger, telling you how it is. after all, it is easy for you to doubt their resolve in a safe place in front of a computer screen

Re: The Coming Food Catastrophe

#630

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

Jensson wrote: post #611
_kbh_ wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the targeting of a specific ethnic group, because they are that ethnic group is, isn't it?. I think this is a pretty good article on the topic, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61017352 and presents both perspectives.

Killing people who support an opposing faction isn't genocide either, that is just regular dictatorship terror tactics. The fact that Putin argues that Ukranians don't exist and that they all are Russians just supports that it isn't a genocide, as he doesn't intend to kill all Russians, just the "Russians" who refuse to be Russians. Instead of calling it a genocide, call it a massacre. Russia is massacring Ukranians,…

>The fact that Putin argues that Ukranians don't exist and that they all are Russians just supports that it isn't a genocide

as it turns out, the exact opposite is true. attempting to erase a people (as in "the Ukrainian people") is a pretty common aspect of genocide, and includes forcibly destroying their identity as a unique people

>Prematurely calling it a genocide just makes people stop listening to you.

then it is good that nobody has done so prematurely, as people have not stopped listening (unless you personally constitute "people" ;)

for more examples of the genocide you're denying, a non-comprehensive list of genocidal policies russia employs in Ukraine is at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31447187

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