Peak Food - what happens when we run out of places to put crops?

April 1, 2008

Oil is getting scarce. OK, no problem, we drive smaller cars.

Water is getting scarce. Food is getting scarce. No problem, we desalinate, we put more land under cultivation.

But: Land is getting scarce. Oops.

From the end of Food Prices Rise, Farmers Respond

Despite the back-to-back increases [in price of commodities like soybeans and corn], the number of acres under cultivation [in the U.S.] is still about six million below the level of a decade ago. The government is not entirely sure why that is happening, but one possibility is that some land has been swallowed up by suburban construction.

Higher demand + inflexible supply = higher prices. The economic equation is so elementary it is a wonder we are not having a more urgent discussion about it.

I suppose the answer is that this will, as always, affect the poor first. Adios, developing world.

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One Response to “Peak Food - what happens when we run out of places to put crops?”

  1. The Schwazz Says:

    Ask Science to develop cheap photovoltaic power.

    Ask Science to develop cheap desalinization methods.

    Ask Science to develop a method to transmogrify the ever-widening river of shit that flows beneath our sprawling metropoli into farmable dirt.

    Farms can then grow up, not out.

    Or, just start more wars, thin out the herd.

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