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Australia faces famine, expert warns

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LupusMom

Posted: October 27, 2009 10:21 am

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QUOTE

A food production expert says Australia may face a massive famine if governments fail to address an impending global food shortage.
A conference of food productivity experts in Sydney this week heard the greatest threat to the world is not climate change, but food production on land and in the water.
Science communicator Julian Cribb, an adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney, made a keynote address at the seminar saying there is expected to be about 9.2 billion people in the world in 2050, barring wars or major accidents.
But Professor Cribb says that population will create an alarming problem - there simply will not be enough food to go round.
"Basically what the world has not noticed is that hunger has been sneaking up on us for quite a while," he told ABC News Online.
"Population is growing and demand for food is rising.
"Governments have had it so good for so long - the world has had plenty of food - they have become complacent and ignorant.

"Climate change is going to get worse and worse, but the food problems are going to be in the next two to three decades.
"I'm warning now because it takes about a generation to develop new technologies and get them out broadscale. We need to take action now about these things."

Treasury head Ken Henry this week said that Australia's population growth is the biggest challenge to Commonwealth and state governments since Federation.

Professor Cribb agrees it will cause problems, and says governments must not forget future famine goes hand in hand with population growth.

"They have grossly underestimated the potential for population growth in Australia," he said.
"If you get a major collapse in food supply in an area like the north China plains or the Indo-Gangetic plains, there will be hundreds of millions of refugees cut lose so we could easily see 20 or 30 million refugees arrive in Australia over a couple of years. "That's going to completely alter any plans we might have for a managed population growth.
"This is quite a dangerous situation. We may be OK for food, but if others are not, we will cop the backwash."
He says a range of issues have sparked current food production problems."Apart from the obvious things going on in the world food markets, there's a colossal shortage of water emerging because cities worldwide are pinching the farmers' water," he said.

"There's land degradation that's proceeded unabated for about 30 or 40 years now. We're losing land at the rate of 1 per cent of the world's farmland every year.
"We're running into energy shortages, we're running into shortages of fertilisers, and on top of that you've got climate change. All of these things are making the agricultural environment much less certain."
Professor Cribb says governments should be doing a range of things now to fix the problem.
"They need to focus on recycling water and nutrients, putting more science into agriculture to get farmers better technology, stopping cities from stealing farmers' land and water, paying farmers a better price so that they don't destroy the environment that produces the food and opening up free trade in agriculture," he said.
"We really need to get on to this. Australia is as much to blame as any other country for neglecting its agricultural science. Let's face it, this is what keeps the people fed. "So if you neglect that, you neglect the first and most important thing for any country."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/24/2723137.htm

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Wildkoala	Posted: October 28, 2009 01:51 am
Watchman Group: Members Posts: 700 Member No.: 45 Joined: July 02, 2008	The federal government were the ones enticing people to increase the population in the first place! Few can forget former treasurer Peter Costello urging people to have more babies - 'one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country'. Then they gave the baby bonus - $4000 to new parents for every baby born (if you end up with IVF multiple births then you get the baby bonus multiplied by however many babies you had). And it's still in place - colloquially (and rather cynically) referred to as the plasma TV bonus, because that's what so many new parents are doing with that particular government handout. I thought it made no sense at the time - and it still doesn't. Farmers get next to nothing for what they produce, and have to battle severe drought, and even when they do manage to produce the goods they have to compete with fruit & veg from China and other places who can subsequently produce cheaper. Large scale problems later on - definitely on the cards.

Mitsy	Posted: October 28, 2009 07:01 pm
Disciple Group: Members Posts: 1199 Member No.: 26 Joined: July 02, 2008	The Lord hasn't given us any rain (especially in season) on our traditional farmland which is inland. Australia has always had a limit to the number of people it can sustain. Valubale farmland on the Coastline where we always get good rainfall has been replaced with the Urban Sprawl. We only have ourselves to blame for not having farmland with good rainfall that could keep supplying us with food. All we can do is hope the Rapture comes soon.

TenBear2808	Posted: November 18, 2009 08:31 am
WWJ Smiley Apprentice Group: Super Moderator Posts: 5159 Member No.: 20 Joined: July 02, 2008	Its a shame that rather then taking the farmland for the Urban Sprawl they didnt move out into the more arid lands saving the farmland and subsidizing farmers to help them grow more and to work out irrigation for crops. Israel has desalinazation plants that Australia needs to look at and get up and running to help with water proplems and irrigation. I also read of a place that has such little rainfall that these people use some kind of a membrane of something that catches like humidity or something and provides water. I dont understand it or how it works but there is no reason for lack of crops except the lack of intelligence and common sense. I dont think any government is blessed with that right now. I truly hope God will move and bring rain. -------------------- Better Get Ready! Jesus is Coming! Soon we will be going Home! Dont be left behind!

Wildkoala

Posted: November 18, 2009 09:42 am

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QUOTE (TenBear2808 @ November 18, 2009 12:31 pm)

Its a shame that rather then taking the farmland for the Urban Sprawl they didnt move out into the more arid lands saving the farmland and subsidizing farmers to help them grow more and to work out irrigation for crops.

Israel has desalinazation plants that Australia needs to look at and get up and running to help with water proplems and irrigation.

I also read of a place that has such little rainfall that these people use some kind of a membrane of something that catches like humidity or something and provides water. I dont understand it or how it works but there is no reason for lack of crops except the lack of intelligence and common sense.

I dont think any government is blessed with that right now.

I truly hope God will move and bring rain.

Politicians + power + public money to play with = zero intelligence and common sense (the notion of an intelligent politician is pretty much a contradiction in terms

).

There are arguments going to and fro about desalination and other measures that might be taken - they've become part and parcel of party politics. Once anything becomes a pawn in party politics, it's bound to hinder rational discussion.

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