famine Is a Famine about to be caused by our own stupidity?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Pollinator mortality increasing.

 

Congratulations, Monsanto.  You and the other chemical and GM mad outfits have derived a method for killing off our pollinators.  Those nicotine-based coatings on your seeds will eventually starve the world to death.

 

No honey bees, no crops!  Is that your new internal motto?

[AkemiAzula 280]

Phineas and Ferb might just have a solution for this. Nanoscopic robots. I daresay in the short term future we will begin to see applications of nanobotics in pollination, especially in more bee-less regions. 

[Mr Saturn64 742]

^ if only they were real.

I wonder if cloning bees is the answer?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I think discontinuing the nicotinoids in agriculture may be part of the answer if it is not too late.  We have outsmarted ourselves.

[nos.17 5,111]

Is a Famine about to be caused by our own stupidity?

 

I think it has already happened. Monsanto is probably the worst offender when it comes to food and the environment. It possesses patents on its GMO seeds that give it a basic monopoly over wheat and corn farms here in the US. They blacklist farmers who do not use their seeds and products. Monsanto, in their quest to reap eternal profits seems to be the doom of our food supply. One only needs to watch Food Inc. to see inherent problems in our world. Now I know one should take all documentaries with a grain of salt, but still, it points out many damning and utterly stunning things we are doing wrong with food production.

 

 

Based on this chart, and here, we should be able to produce more than enough food to feed the entire world, yet many millions of people go hungry daily. I think it is safe to say: "What the hell is wrong?"

[hym 358]

Based on this chart, and here, we should be able to produce more than enough food to feed the entire world, yet many millions of people go hungry daily. I think it is safe to say: "What the hell is wrong?"

 

Many individuals suffer from hunger not because of lack of food, but because of lack of infrastructure to get the food to them.

[Duke87 1,070]

Many individuals suffer from hunger not because of lack of food, but because of lack of infrastructure to get the food to them.

 

Or even just lack of money. There are places in Africa where markets have plenty of food for sale but nearby villagers have no money and can't buy any. The same problem also exists in developed countries among homeless people.

 

 

As for bees, it is true that neonicotinoid pesticides poison them and therefore it would be wise to find a substitute. But that still doesn't solve the varroa mite problem.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Indeed, current famines are all the result of rising food prices. Which is what happenes when for example the US uses 60% of its total corn production to produce biofuels. That and the rising price of oil, reckless speculation on food as a financial product and so on all contribute to higher food prices. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Getting back to the bees, the money that went into the production of the nicotine-derived poisons could also have been used to control the bee mites or even develop a vector against them.  Profit trumps good sense every time.

[LexusInfernus 908]

Getting back to the bees, the money that went into the production of the nicotine-derived poisons could also have been used to control the bee mites or even develop a vector against them.  Profit trumps good sense every time.

Yeah but in that case they wouldn't have developed an otherwise effective insecticide. Bees would be safe, but crops would get eaten. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

How much of the crops?  If we kill all the bees, what will we use for pollinators, feathers?  There will be crop failures if there is no pollination (sex, you know, applies even to plants). 

 

What happens when the American bread basket can no longer feed the American people let alone export anything?  Look at what happened to the Roman Empire when they couldn't get wheat any more from Egypt.  Can you imagine all those people heaps having food riots?