World food crisis

[East Coast Hustle]

I am disturbed by everybody's assumption that to feed 7 billion people, we need to farm more. I'd just like to point out that vegetables and grains steak taste like crap unless they it are is aside dishes next to a steak vegetables and grains. Also, farming the shit out of the land causes the foods you grow on it to be pretty devoid of actual nutrients. Americans currently consume somewhere between zero and none of the iodine they should have, because all the corn fields have been depleted of iodine, and everything we eat is made out of corn.

So even if we grew all the food needed to keep people from starving to death, we'd still have a population of undernourished people.

The solution, obviously, is not to devote every square inch of available land on Earth to farming. It is to build giant domes on the Moon and raise cattle and pigs there. And if we build the right kind of slingshot, we could just fling them off the Moon's surface at earth, and they'd already be cooked by the time they landed.

Plus there would be cowboys on the Moon.

Worst edit of 2011 so far. Congratulations. You can turn in your canines now.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Um, regardless of a kind of retarded and childlike argument about what kind of food you like to eat, I am simply not seeing any benefit to there being more people on the planet. What's the point? Do we win a toaster if we outpopulate the chickens, rats, and cockroaches?

[LMNO]

More humans = more potential customers.

[Elder Iptuous]

Um, regardless of a kind of retarded and childlike argument about what kind of food you like to eat, I am simply not seeing any benefit to there being more people on the planet. What's the point? Do we win a toaster if we outpopulate the chickens, rats, and cockroaches?

Is there anybody that actually wants the population to increase?
i mean i have heard of groups that want their population to increase (e.g. the quiverfull movement), but i've not heard anybody shouting that we need more people on the planet in general...

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That's why our economy was doomed from the start. It's a fact of existence that everything that grows, dies. Hello.

A growth-based economy can work for a short period of time, but unless you're a fucking moron with only slightly more intellectual capacity than a pony, it's blatantly obvious that growth is FUCKING FINITE, FUCKING RETARDS.

What the hell is wrong with people. I swear, we don't deserve oxygen.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Um, regardless of a kind of retarded and childlike argument about what kind of food you like to eat, I am simply not seeing any benefit to there being more people on the planet. What's the point? Do we win a toaster if we outpopulate the chickens, rats, and cockroaches?

Is there anybody that actually wants the population to increase?
i mean i have heard of groups that want their population to increase (e.g. the quiverfull movement), but i've not heard anybody shouting that we need more people on the planet in general...

Then what the fuck is the debate about feeding all these retarded assholes?

[Elder Iptuous]

Um, regardless of a kind of retarded and childlike argument about what kind of food you like to eat, I am simply not seeing any benefit to there being more people on the planet. What's the point? Do we win a toaster if we outpopulate the chickens, rats, and cockroaches?

Is there anybody that actually wants the population to increase?
i mean i have heard of groups that want their population to increase (e.g. the quiverfull movement), but i've not heard anybody shouting that we need more people on the planet in general...

Then what the fuck is the debate about feeding all these retarded assholes?

i guess i missed something? 
i saw people arguing how to feed the people that are already here.
of course, that will just lead to an increase in population, but i didn't think that was anybody's aim.
if there were a way to feed everybody, while at the same time keeping the population flat or declining, then i think just about everybody would be on board.  except that, like Roger pointed out before, the only ways to do that would appear to be despicably evil...

[Don Coyote]

I am disturbed by everybody's assumption that to feed 7 billion people, we need to farm more. I'd just like to point out that vegetables and grains steak taste like crap unless they it are is aside dishes next to a steak vegetables and grains. Also, farming the shit out of the land causes the foods you grow on it to be pretty devoid of actual nutrients. Americans currently consume somewhere between zero and none of the iodine they should have, because all the corn fields have been depleted of iodine, and everything we eat is made out of corn.

So even if we grew all the food needed to keep people from starving to death, we'd still have a population of undernourished people.

The solution, obviously, is not to devote every square inch of available land on Earth to farming. It is to build giant domes on the Moon and raise cattle and pigs there. And if we build the right kind of slingshot, we could just fling them off the Moon's surface at earth, and they'd already be cooked by the time they landed.

Plus there would be cowboys on the Moon.

Worst edit of 2011 so far. Congratulations. You can turn in your canines now.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Um, regardless of a kind of retarded and childlike argument about what kind of food you like to eat, I am simply not seeing any benefit to there being more people on the planet. What's the point? Do we win a toaster if we outpopulate the chickens, rats, and cockroaches?

Is there anybody that actually wants the population to increase?
i mean i have heard of groups that want their population to increase (e.g. the quiverfull movement), but i've not heard anybody shouting that we need more people on the planet in general...

Then what the fuck is the debate about feeding all these retarded assholes?

i guess i missed something? 
i saw people arguing how to feed the people that are already here.
of course, that will just lead to an increase in population, but i didn't think that was anybody's aim.
if there were a way to feed everybody, while at the same time keeping the population flat or declining, then i think just about everybody would be on board.  except that, like Roger pointed out before, the only ways to do that would appear to be despicably evil...

The solution, which is not only blatantly obvious but also proven, is to reduce the population using the tools of education and choice. The fundamental conflict is that our doomed, primitive, imperialistic economy requires serfs, and a real solution to overpopulation and neediness eliminates serfdom.

[Cain]

Nigel probably hasn't been reading Emmanuel Todd, but he predicted the demise of the Soviet Union (and was talking about US decline in 2002) and he made exactly the same points.  Both about education and about economics.

Fortunately, going by overall trends, literacy tends to lead to a lower birth rate and literacy is trending upwards in the world.  Unfortunately, we are now in a global economic crisis without precedent, and education funds are being pillaged and cut.  Plus there may be some unintended consequences of the whole "war of the civilizations" thing between Islam and Christianity, breathing some extra life into what was previously the dying cult of fundamentalist, violent Islam.  Both being religions which tend to demand large families.  And have a traditional approach to economics (Protestant Work Ethic vs Islamic history of trade and commerce).

[LMNO]

Not saying this is simple to implement, but it really makes me happy that education and intelligence really can have the potential to change the world for the better.  It resonates with me, and makes me happy.

[Cain]

Hey guys, turns out over $80 billion was added to the Commodity Price Index over the last year.

Yeah, there was a bad drought in a couple of places, but a bad drought doesn't cause double or triple digit increases in costs over a single year.

However, throwing free money at banks to let them speculate on prices does, as we saw in 2008.

Incidentally, thanks everyone for totally ignoring the fact I was right and commodity speculation is driving the current rises.

[LMNO]

I kind of took it for granted that you were right...

[Cain]

Not saying this is simple to implement, but it really makes me happy that education and intelligence really can have the potential to change the world for the better.  It resonates with me, and makes me happy.

Todd also believes it tends to greater democratization as well.  Decreasing birth rates and increasing literacy were, as he saw it, the weak fundamentals of Soviet totalitarianism.

On the other hand, Todd outright states that France, the UK and the USA have gone in the other direction (oligarchy) since, but that tends to be a self-correcting problem (see: French Revolution).

[Disco Pickle]

Hey guys, turns out over $80 billion was added to the Commodity Price Index over the last year.

Yeah, there was a bad drought in a couple of places, but a bad drought doesn't cause double or triple digit increases in costs over a single year.

However, throwing free money at banks to let them speculate on prices does, as we saw in 2008.

Incidentally, thanks everyone for totally ignoring the fact I was right and commodity speculation is driving the current rises.

I was in agreement back on page 1 or 2, though I prefer to call it by the root cause of speculation in commodities markets, inflation.  I didn't think there was anything to add that you didn't cover or the article I posted didn't cover.

Not saying this is simple to implement, but it really makes me happy that education and intelligence really can have the potential to change the world for the better.  It resonates with me, and makes me happy.

hate to burst your bubble but because people who attain education breed later and fewer children, that just means the less educated and intelligent are going to out breed the ones who do.  I think they did a movie about this that I couldn't sit through more than once.

I think I read someone here say that over population is a self correcting problem, the exponential growth of population will likely mean that we don't realize it's a problem until it snowballs, and when it does, it will move fast.  very, very fast.