Who will be growing our food in 20 years?

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 703

With the recent food shortage of rice in the news I have to wonder as Richard Heinberg brought up "Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?"

"The average American farmer is 55 to 60 years old. The proportion of full time farmers younger than 35 years of age has dropped from 15.9% in 1982 to 5.8% in 2002. Who will be growing our food 20 years from now?" from "Peak Everything" by Richard Heinberg

"Amish farmers can't compete in conventual agriculture farming. 40 years ago 90% to 95% of the Amish were farmers. Today less than 10% are farmers." Ffrom: "How the Amish Survive" DVD

We have been worshiping the wrong God all these years. We should have been making farmers our God.

We should have been worshiping the farmer and doing everything we could to make their life a better one and kiss their asses for producing healthy and nutritious food for us.

Our food supply has degenerated unbelievably in recent years and getting worse every day that goes by. A societies well-being is based on healthy food that the farmer produces.

Just as cows go mad with poisonous, unnatural diet - so will society.

People will be headed off the deep end more and more as global warming starts to cook us, the oil and natural gas dries up and our excessive desires cannot be fulfilled any longer.

If the poison food does not drive us crazy, the salty and unnatural combinations and nutritionally bankrupt content will do the job as we get cooked from the inside with EMF and radio wave radiation for every direction.

The food being fed to us is factory made, genetically engineered, poison. But besides the greed for money, the drive for GMO food is that of necessity. We are overpopulated and our land is devoid of nutrition so they monkey with the food to try and keep pace with the insatiable demands of feeding the US.

In addition, there are not enough farmers in the US to feed us any other way than the way they do now. If the US went to organic farming with the same amount of farmers we have now - we would starve to death.

"In 1935, the number of farms in the United States peaked at 6.8 million as the population edged over 127 million citizens. There are over 285,000,000 people living in the United States. Of that population, less than 1% claim farming as an occupation."

http://www.epa.gov/oecaagct/ag101/demographics.html

If we look at the trends of farming in the US it goes in just one direction ... DOWN.

Much of the citrus groves in Fla and CA are disappearing due to skyrocketing real estate values. You know farming is tough work and many times nature deals you a blow with disease, pests and inclement weather that destroys crops.

So why would a farmer want to put up with all that when they could get $5,000,0000 or $10,000,000 for prime real estate?

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Oct/19/bz/hawaii710190345.html

http://www.californiagreensolutions.com/cgi-bin/gt/tpl.h,content=1039

It is really a tough life 'just finding' some decent food to eat nowadays unless you happen to live in a town with a good natural grocer and have lots of money. But money is still no guarantee. I bought some 'organic peaches' last summer at Krogers for $3 a pound...they rotted before the ripened ....went straight in the trash.

When I was a kid growing up in L.A. we could pick apricots from a tree in the alley and they had fabulous flavor even when somewhat green. What do you get now with apricots...tasteless rubber for $3 a pound.

The peaches have lost their fuzz since they are picked green, buffed and waxed with poisons and anti fungals. You can't wash it off either.

Soak a buffed peach in water and you will get a rainbow oil slick on the surface of the water composed of poison...no matter how many times you rinse it. Each summer I make it my mission to try and find a few edible peaches with the fuzz still on them...I usually fail unless I drive great distances and luck into a 'real' farmers market. (I've noticed some roadside farmers stands just buy their produce in normal channels to resell)

We will run out of natural gas, just as we deplete our crude supplies in the near future. Our population boom was fueled by synthetic fertilizers made from natural; gas. Once the natural gas dries up so does the fertilizer and a shortage of fertilizer equals a shortage of food.

http://www.amazon.com/High-Noon-Natural-Gas-Energy/dp/1931498539

I think we have a real food crisis brewing for the world. Not enough young farmers replacing the old, we will run low of fertilizer as the NG dries up and that food which is grown is devoid of nutrition and not healthy.

patience · Expert Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 1371

All good points. I think the future farmers are going to be more and more individuals growing their own, with a bit left over to sell. They will do it of necessity first, then the market-garden concept will probably proliferate.
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wisconsin_cur

I expect that I will be growing my food in 20 years and trading seed and excess for some other things that I will not be able to do myself (blacksmithing).

Who will be growing yours?
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Ainan · Heavy Crude Joined: Feb 18, 2008 Posts: 201

Here in the UK i don't have any problem getting decent organic food. There is a larger market for it, different laws and a different structure of towns and country.

However agriculture is still heavily dependent upon fossil fuels now. In 20 years time i expect most my food to be grown by me and any extra made up from the local area. Although international shipping and rail transport will still be able to distribute food around the world.

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 703

Ainan · Heavy Crude Joined: Feb 18, 2008 Posts: 201

wisconsin_cur

anagami

short answer: We.
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Kingcoal

A farmer shortage? Hmm, I don't think that will be a problem. Unemployment will probably be so pandemic in the future that people will be willing to take just about any job that pays even if it involves shoveling crap and whatnot.
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Ludi

But will there be enough people who even know how to farm? We know it takes time to learn these things.. Folks might go mighty hungry learning how to grow food. (see Cuba example)
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wisconsin_cur

Ludi

Denny

Regarding knowledge and and skills, I find it funny that so many urban folk seem to think the lot of the farmer is such a simple one, although harsh in terms of working conditions.

My grandfather, who farmed, only got to the eighth grade. But, in his head he could figure out how much seed was needed for a given field, and even more, dole it out at the field headlands in the right amounts by pacing off the distance, and estimate closely where to drop off each bag.

By contrast, I asked an office worker recently, a high school graduate who had also finished two years of college, to figure out some proportions and apply them using a spreadsheet to prorate some costs and do up a budget for next year based on a certain growth percentage. I even roughed it out on paper what to put in and the layout of what I wanted the rows and columns to be. She was just dumbfounded. Didn't even know where to start. My grampa could do algebra in his head better than she could do with a computer.

So, I am not sure how many factory or office type workers will have the smarts to think for themselves either if things end up with us being shifted back to agriculture for a way of life. So many guys and gals have every decision spoon fed to them. I guess they'll have to become like serfs of old.

Hagakure_Leofman

you will be growing your food in the future (as it should be).

mos6507 · Fission Joined: Aug 03, 2007 Posts: 2973