That cloud on the horizon
From today's Independent
Food supplies are shrinking alarmingly around the globe, plunging the world into its greatest crisis for more than 30 years. New figures show that this year's harvest will fail to produce enough to feed everyone on Earth, for the sixth time in the past seven years. Humanity has so far managed by eating its way through stockpiles built up in better times - but these have now fallen below the danger level. [...]
The world's food stocks have shrunk from enough to feed the world for 116 days in 1999 to a predicted 57 days at the end of this season, well below the official safety level. Prices have already risen by up to 20 per cent this year. [...]
As people become better-off, they eat more meat, the animals that are slaughtered often being fed on grain. It takes 14kg of grain to produce 2kg of beef, and 8kg of grain for 2kg of pork. More than a third of the world's harvest goes to fatten animals in this way. [...]
Just a single fill of ethanol for a four-wheel drive SUV, says Brown, uses enough grain to feed one person for an entire year... The number of ethanol plants built or planned in the corn-belt state of Iowa will use virtually all the state's crop.
posted by Udge @ 11:54
3 Comments:
Hello Em, welcome aboard. Nice to see you here.
But isn't ethanol better than gasoline? I am confused.
We're short food because of ethanol? Interesting. I think it's still a better option than regular gasoline, but we need to find a better way to control the food supply. Quite an interesting article.
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