A sustained disruption of traffic through Hormuz would not simply constitute an energy crisis. It would also represent a fertiliser shock (where prices go up dramatically and supply goes down) – and, by extension, a direct risk to global food security.
And that’s why it’s good that we have thrown away around 50% of our food so far, so we have significant buffers now.
No till farming significantly reduces the need for fertilizer, while reducing costs for farmers and reducing water pollution.
It was a cause championed by honest work farmer guy meme too:
I’d love to see a movement towards farming that better maintains soil quality and reduces dependence on petrochemical inputs.
However, I’m skeptical about whether we can a) feed 9 billion people that way and b) whether it can be achieved in a short time frame given how badly we have degraded much of our soils
Regardless, it’s the right direction to move in. But I don’t think it can bail the world out of the current crisis
Two of the worst sustainability issues with US agriculture practice is that we use too much land to feed livestock and inefficiently fuel cars. Growing plant-based protein sources uses about 90% fewer resources and land compared to say beef. A good 25-30% of our corn is also used inefficiently to create fuel for cars, relevant Technology Connections video. So reducing meat consumption and replacing a fraction of the corn fields with solar panels would free up a lot more land that could be used to directly feed humans and more efficiently power electric vehicles.
is there a way to do no-till if your soil is in the clay part of the triangle? or should i just plant perennials like artichokes?
my farming textbook says i should use furrow irrigation. that demands a little tilling.
Dave Brandt is his name, he has some good educational seminars
The rich Douchebags that control every country don’t give a shit if the plebs starve. They’ll never know hunger.
“Eat the rich”, as always.
Genuine food/water crisis for GCC. For world, Russia can help if you ask them nicely. North America self sufficient. A food price crisis is more apt description.
The whole area has little food security and no water security. A few desalination plants have already been hit iirc. It’s going to be a huge crisis.
Do American farms not use compost and practice no-till farming?
We never need fertilizer, we just make compost.
Most Industrial farming doesn’t use no-till or much compost outside of raw manure.
If we stopped mandating ethanol, which uses fertilizer heavy corn, it might help ease the shock of fuel and fertilizer shortages.
That’s mostly a problem for countries were almost the entire food base is directly (food, food products, high-fructose corn syrup) and indirectly (chicken and cattle feed) hybrid corn which cannot be grown without fertilizer (as the plant density is too high for normal land to be able to support), i.e. the United States.
Other countries won’t suffer quite as much.
No major country can feed its population without artificial fertilizer.
True.
The US is just even worse off in that regard because of the very high dependency (what I read in the Omnivore’s Dilema was over 70%) of its food supply on hybrid corn.
