Quote:

Are we facing a global food crisis? We take our food for granted. Supermarket shelves groan with an incredible variety of produce, but in 2008 as food riots swept the world, we saw that the international food system is not as stable as it looks. Is this just the beginning of a new era of food? Travelling to different parts of the globe, this two-part documentary unravels the complicated web of links that binds the world together and asks what needs to happen to avert a major global food crisis.

Makes you wonder why we are allowing our fertile land to be sold off to foreigners :(

I'll watch that Nail - thanks.

I think personally sustainable population is a greater issue.

It makes you woner why Australians are turing into a dumb population by allowing their fertile land to be sold to foreigns.

You would actually think the media would take notice of this and make it a major concern, and ask politicians why they are doing this, because it will effect all the media too.

The future of food might be like trans fats, man-made and very bad for us. We sell our fertile land for industry, mostly foreign, then we subdivide a lot for housing estates and mining........stupid.

Food is the big business of the future. Brazil are right in there at the beginning, planning and getting it right.

Farming is the future~

Well just consider all the disasters around the world in later years .. and I can see lots of nation are stocking up food .. especially China ..

culldav wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 11:23am:

...and ask politicians why they are doing this...

You only have to look at our politicians to realise that they are asleep at the wheel. We wouldn't like to see them acutally miss out on a junket, would we?

culldav wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 11:23am:

It makes you woner why Australians are turing into a dumb population by allowing their fertile land to be sold to foreigns. You would actually think the media would take notice of this and make it a major concern, and ask politicians why they are doing this, because it will effect all the media too.

probably because we are so hooked on credit as a major source of income then nothing else matters. The media appears to be the least concerned about agricultural production and manufacturing these days :(

useless media :(

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 11:45am:

The future of food might be like trans fats, man-made and very bad for us. We sell our fertile land for industry, mostly foreign, then we subdivide a lot for housing estates and mining........stupid. Food is the big business of the future. Brazil are right in there at the beginning, planning and getting it right. Farming is the future~

To survive you need food, air and water !! You'd think food would be a high priority for the dumb arse politicians :(

Sir lastnail wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 12:35pm:

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Feb 8th, 2011 at 11:45am: The future of food might be like trans fats, man-made and very bad for us. We sell our fertile land for industry, mostly foreign, then we subdivide a lot for housing estates and mining........stupid. Food is the big business of the future. Brazil are right in there at the beginning, planning and getting it right. Farming is the future~ To survive you need food, air and water !! You'd think food would be a high priority for the dumb arse politicians :(

They can only see as far as the next election. They want to concentrate on the short term mining boom, instead of thinking about long term sustainability.

The movie Idiocracy says it all. A guy goes from the present time into the future and finds that the place is a dust bowl basically.

Watch this video. Brawndo is like Powerade, or gatorade. They put it on the plants because water was taking up too much of their market share, so they got rid of water and now can't understand why the plants won't grow.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Vw2CrY9Igs

Sir lastnail wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 12:35pm:

Ex Dame Pansi wrote on Feb 8th, 2011 at 11:45am: The future of food might be like trans fats, man-made and very bad for us. We sell our fertile land for industry, mostly foreign, then we subdivide a lot for housing estates and mining........stupid. Food is the big business of the future. Brazil are right in there at the beginning, planning and getting it right. Farming is the future~ To survive you need food, air and water !! You'd think food would be a high priority for the dumb arse politicians :(

... and shelter!

The elements will kill ya!

The sad thing is that when I go home to visit my farming family of 4 generations there are no farms or farmers left....they have all sold out and properties are now subdivided into small lots with city back street boys as owners. When the floods came the new breed neighbour was nowhere to be seen. He /She was in their office somewhere and did not want to contribute to fence repair or rubbish removal.

No, Keating sold the family farm and I think its too late because my generation left home and we do not have the skills necessary to run the farm......
so we sell and subdivide!!

We grow food for fuel. no.....not fuel to keep us running, fuel to keep our cars running. Have you seen skeletons driving around in their big new SUV's?

beware wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 9:15pm:

The sad thing is that when I go home to visit my farming family of 4 generations there are no farms or farmers left....they have all sold out and properties are now subdivided into small lots with city back street boys as owners. When the floods came the new breed neighbour was nowhere to be seen. He /She was in their office somewhere and did not want to contribute to fence repair or rubbish removal. No, Keating sold the family farm and I think its too late because my generation left home and we do not have the skills necessary to run the farm...... so we sell and subdivide!!

yes a lot of truth there.. but times are changing and so is farming a lot of farmers refuse to move on for instance why do they keep growing food in places of great damage... bananas for starters.. is it ritual that keep them growing  them in a cyclone area??

why would you grow potatoes on land thats prone to flooding?

we seem to take more notice of how and where to grown grape vines for wine than we do food.

we cant train the weather thats for sure.. but we do have a good idea about cyclones and floods..

I agree with many comments made, but especially the one about the Governments and politicians being asleep at the wheel.

Before the last election the ABC aired a program highlighting the substantial foreign investment in Australia’s fertile Agricultural land, but nothing has been seen or heard of since.

My question has always been: if foreign owned companies can buy up large agricultural land in Australia and make it profitable, then why can’t the Australian Government buy this land and keep for Australians and make it profitable.

We see these pollies every night from the Liberal and Labor parties on some media format spruiking about how good they are with financial management of this country, but if they cannot make a basic farm profitable, then how can they make a country profitable.

It simply doesn’t make any sense to claim you can do one, but not the other.

We need a group of politicians that are going to start caring about Australia and Australians and putting our needs and concerns first.

Only stupid, short-sighted dumb-arse country sells its major assets, natural resources and agricultural land to foreigners.

Two properties down from my fathers, the old fella has been running a profitable wheat farm for the past 6 decades. 2 years ago at the age of 73 they decided to retire and sell the property as they had no children to inherit it. One of the first things they did was write to the State and Federal Governments asking them if they would be interested in purchasing the land. Besides being advertised for sale domestically it was also advertised for sale internationally,  as it consisted of 6,500 acres.

They never received a reply from the State or Federal Governments.  7 months the property was sold, and the new owners are now The People Republic of China.

Obviously the Chinese could see the value and potential of the land whereas the Australian State & Federal Governments must be still asleep, or on “junkets” somewhere.  

Here is just one example of an Australian food basket being sold to a foreign Government with no interest or concerns from the Australian Governments at all.

Verge wrote on Feb 8^th, 2011 at 10:57am:

I think personally sustainable population is a greater issue.

It is correct, that there is more going on, than first meets the eye!

For starters, there are large Global Agricultural production problems, particularly in Wheat, in China (due to Drought), in Russia (due to heat & Fires), in Pakistan (due to Flood) & in Australia (due to Floods, Heat & Lack of Rain - on different sides on the continent) and with Canada & many Countries in Europe also experiencing crop reductions in the order of 15% in 2010.

It is an easy prediction, to say that the availability of many agricultural products set to decline & the price of those products set to increase!

That said, we are also set for Demand & Supply problems in other areas such as, Energy (Oil & Coal for starters) and as this decade rolls on, the retirement of 10's of millions of Baby Boomers, will also create "un-thought" of issues!

Central factors to these issues are -
1) Population Size/Growth
2) Energy Decline
3) Climate Change

Factors 2 & 3 are directly impacted by the major culprit Population!

perceptions_now wrote on Feb 9^th, 2011 at 4:01pm:

Verge wrote on Feb 8th, 2011 at 10:57am: I think personally sustainable population is a greater issue. It is correct, that there is more going on, than first meets the eye! For starters, there are large Global Agricultural production problems, particularly in Wheat, in China (due to Drought), in Russia (due to heat & Fires), in Pakistan (due to Flood) & in Australia (due to Floods, Heat & Lack of Rain - on different sides on the continent) and with Canada & many Countries in Europe also experiencing crop reductions in the order of 15% in 2010. It is an easy prediction, to say that the availability of many agricultural products set to decline & the price of those products set to increase! That said, we are also set for Demand & Supply problems in other areas such as, Energy (Oil & Coal for starters) and as this decade rolls on, the retirement of 10's of millions of Baby Boomers, will also create "un-thought" of issues! Central factors to these issues are - 1) Population Size/Growth 2) Energy Decline 3) Climate Change Factors 2 & 3 are directly impacted by the major culprit Population!

Yeh, except that the energy is not being consumed by the overpopulated!

 ;) ;) ;) :D
Talk about vested interests trying to obfuscate the truth!

 ;D ;D ;D

Someones pretending that they didn't see how much grain is taken from the poor (via perfectly legitimate 'economics' of course!) to make protein for the rich countries dietary lifestyles!

NO WONDER THE TERRORISTS ARE HERE!

Who's got a bad attitude?!?

 ;D ;D :D ;) ;) ;) :o :)

Tonight SBS 1 at 8.30.

It's not unreasonable to expect that future wars will be fought for food and water, not oil.

I just saw the one from last week. Thanks for the tip. It was a very interesting show.

sorry, I saw the end of it. Pretty good.


fewer people solves the problem

SOYLENT GREEN
2 birds 1 stone ;)

Rising cost of oil looks to lift loo seats


IT'S about two weeks since oil prices hit a two-year record of $100 a barrel. With oil prices expected to hover around the $100 mark for the rest of the year, it looks like oil will be the next big thing to eat into your pockets.

YOUR SUPERMARKET TROLLEY

Many of the items you put in your supermarket trolley each week are either made of oil, or were transported there using it.

"Oil affects the price of everything," says Michael Kelleher, energy trading analyst with Bord Gais. "You can't produce anything without energy and oil is often the energy -- or within whatever is producing that energy.


http://www.independent.ie/business/personal-finance/rising-cost-of-oil-looks-to-lift-loo-seats-2538348.html

Fertiliser prices have already shot up over the last few months. No surprise then that the price of flour, which is made from wheat, jumped by 13.3 per cent last year while the price of breakfast cereals (often made of wheat and barley) was up 6.3 per cent.