Food prices, droughts and other calamities influencing agriculture world wide

[Kobus Jooste]

Not sure if this will be useful to people, but I love to keep an eye on the world's food price and agriculture stories.  My argument is that we are being asked to compare aquaponic farming to conventional farming by people who obviously have no clue about how soon said conventional methods could be obsolete.  When there is no more water.........

 

I'm not so good with linking stuff yet, so let me know if the links work or not.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12606326

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12569874

 

http://www.un.org/issues/food/taskforce/index.shtml

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12549050

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12474021

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12354402

 

Perhaps people can add some snippets from their local media if they are interested. 

 

 

[Sahib Punjabi]

Food for thought Kobus!

 

You are totally on the ball as regards "My argument is that we are being asked to compare aquaponic farming to conventional farming by people who obviously have no clue about how soon said conventional methods could be obsolete.  When there is no more water.........".

 

Will talk more on this later...thank you for sharing this :-)

 

God bless

[Kobus Jooste]

Here is another angle, other than climate change, that will be threatening traditional agriculture in many parts of the world.  This report linked here is only the tip of the iceberg.  Gold, coal and other mines in the north of South Africa has been polluting ground water for centuries.  The water has been seeping out elsewhere, where farmers are locked in legal confrontation with the nearby iron smelting giant ISCOR (now ISCOR MITTAL).  All the water in the world does not help when it is toxic.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12573284

[David Owens]

Here is a link to some of the same here in America. Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a means of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well. Horizontal hydrofracking is a means of tapping shale deposits containing natural gas that were previously inaccessible by conventional drilling. Vertical hydrofracking is used to extend the life of an existing well once its productivity starts to run out, sort of a last resort. Horizontal fracking differs in that it uses a mixture of 596 chemicals, many of them proprietary, and millions of gallons of water per frack. This water then becomes contaminated and must be cleaned and disposed of. But is it? For each frack, 80-300 tons of chemicals may be used. Presently, the natural gas industry does not have to disclose the chemicals used, but scientists have identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene. In 2005, the Bush/ Cheney Energy Bill exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act. It exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing. Essentially, the provision took the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) off the job. It is now commonly referred to as the Halliburton Loophole. There is a great documentary from Josh Fox on HBO called Gasland (where I got these facts) it is just yet another factor limiting the global fresh drinking water supply.

 

 

http://gaslandthemovie.com/trailer

[Sahib Punjabi]

Thank you for posting this David. I was just about to post this too...we must be thinking on the same wave today :-)

 

So you really think that you have clean water...really?

 

Here is the story I heard last week on NPR (Yes...I love this broadcast radio station):

 

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/24/134031183/Gasland-Takes-On-Natural-Ga...

 

God bless,

David Owens said:

Here is a link to some of the same here in America. Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is a means of natural gas extraction employed in deep natural gas well drilling. Once a well is drilled, millions of gallons of water, sand and proprietary chemicals are injected, under high pressure, into a well. The pressure fractures the shale and props open fissures that enable natural gas to flow more freely out of the well. Horizontal hydrofracking is a means of tapping shale deposits containing natural gas that were previously inaccessible by conventional drilling. Vertical hydrofracking is used to extend the life of an existing well once its productivity starts to run out, sort of a last resort. Horizontal fracking differs in that it uses a mixture of 596 chemicals, many of them proprietary, and millions of gallons of water per frack. This water then becomes contaminated and must be cleaned and disposed of. But is it? For each frack, 80-300 tons of chemicals may be used. Presently, the natural gas industry does not have to disclose the chemicals used, but scientists have identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene. In 2005, the Bush/ Cheney Energy Bill exempted natural gas drilling from the Safe Drinking Water Act. It exempts companies from disclosing the chemicals used during hydraulic fracturing. Essentially, the provision took the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) off the job. It is now commonly referred to as the Halliburton Loophole. There is a great documentary from Josh Fox on HBO called Gasland (where I got these facts) it is just yet another factor limiting the global fresh drinking water supply.

 

 

http://gaslandthemovie.com/trailer

[Kobus Jooste]

David - funny that you should mention fracking.  not content with messing up other parts of the world, some international gas exploration companies want to come a-frackin' in our Karoo shales.  These ares are almost totally dependant on ground water for their fresh water supply.

[David Owens]

It's not that I believe it is only an American problem or that the Oil energy companies are the only ones to blame. The way we are greedily using up our global supply of fresh water and contaminating it as well, worldwide is a problem for our planet as a whole. Whether or not we humans could get by with inventing some kind of massive water filtration system for our own drinking water, the planet as a whole is just one big closed loop ecosystem. Just like our AP setups. If it becomes contaminated at any level the resulting effects will only domino throughout. This will cause food and fresh water prices to soar and millions of people could starve or go to war to try to survive in an age of limited resources (ie. food and water). I believe that Aquaponics can help by conserving our #1 natural resource (fresh water) and help to educate the end consumer about changing the way we treat mother earth. We can feed the world and enjoy the bounty of Earth as long as we treat our planet as our home and stop trashing it. Keep up the great AP research and development

[David Owens]

Here is one that may not be a staple neccessary for the curbing of hunger but I believe that it is an example of the future of our food prices....besides who dosen't like chocolate?  

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-04/cocoa-advances-to-32-year-...