Dr. Tim Ball
April 15, 2008
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2656
Hunger from harvest failures fault of Global Cooling
People tolerate incredibly bad government most of the time. What
generally drives them to revolution is a failure of the food supply or
food costs beyond reach. Riots in Haiti and elsewhere are already
occurring and potential for more increase every day.
Traditionally, it was bad weather, such as the harvest failure in 1789
that became a catalyst for storming the Bastille and triggering the
French Revolution.
Government efforts at the time to offset the problem by im****ting food
from other parts of Europe were thwarted by widespread harvest failures.
This is the case today as world supplies are extremely low. Today, bad
weather is still the major cause of poor harvests however, the spiraling
costs are mostly due to unnecessary government policies to deal with
non-existent problems. In their political blindness politicians have
also forgotten economic fundamentals.
There are no farms in the cities but no cities without farms. This is a
pronouncement countries usually forget as they become more urbanized.
They become increasingly removed from agriculture and food production.
They also forget economic strength is in the ability to produce surplus
food. The Agricultural Revolution preceded the Industrial Revolution.
They forget at their peril as history shows, yet the US and developed
countries seems bent on throwing away its agricultural and thereby
economic advantage. Worse, it is occurring because of terrible and
unnecessary policy without factual or scientific justification.
A recent remarkable statement by the UN, but with profound implications
for what is happening to world food supplies went almost unnoticed. They
re****ted that for the first time in history more people were living in
urban areas than in rural areas. This is a real measure of globalization
as it was a situation that previously only existed in developed nations.
It is also the natural trend of all previous civilizations that usually
ends in collapse of the agricultural base. However, within this pattern
are seeds of danger, that are manifest in government policies on energy
and climate change.
Civilization is generally defined as a society moving from barbarism to
an organized political, social and economic structure. Most think of
this in terms of becoming urbanized, ****fting from hunter-gatherer to
sedentary agriculture. The most logical explanation for the ****ft was to
ensure food supply. Food supply means security, which is a common theme
in most human behavior. More im****tant, surplus food is surplus time and
in that time you can create any civilization you want. Gothic cathedrals
rose because good harvest allowed farmers to produce enough to feed
themselves and the builders.
Nowhere was the ability to produce surplus food more successful than in
North America. Most of the continental US lies in the middle latitudes
between 30 and 50°N with generally productive soils and climate,
especially for production of grains, corn and vegetable oils.
Approximately 2% of the population are farmers who produce enough to
feed their own country, but with much left over for ex****t. To
paraphrase Winston Churchill, never in the history of mankind have so
few produced so much for so many at so low a price. The difficulty is
that the farm population has become such a small part of the voting
population that they lose their voice. They also are forgotten by the
urban dweller. How many people are aware of the struggle farmers have
gone through with low prices, increased costs, especially for chemicals
and equipment, and the challenge of marketing in growing global markets.
Weather re****ts on radio or television are a simple example of the ****ft
away from awareness of agriculture. Farmers are frustrated by re****ts
such as, "a nice sunny hot week ahead", when they desperately need rain.
Forty years ago many urban dwellers still had relatives on the farm or
had come from rural areas and newspapers had regular columns devoted to
agriculture. How many urbanites know soil erosion is considered one of
the major environmental problems in the world? Developed world farmers
know and have made extensive adjustments to conserve the soil. Now the
only time farming is discussed in the urban media is when there is
another "hand out" to farmers.
Commitment of 40% of US agriculture to biofuels has created a crisis in
world food supplies and increasing costs for poor people everywhere.
Europe and other regions seem bent on the same unnecessary path. Sadly,
the policies are hurting the very people politicians and
environmentalists claim to care about. However, that is only part of the
story. Cold weather, droughts and poor harvest conditions are
exacerbating the problem everywhere. The poor weather, with too much or
too little rain, shorter frost free seasons and lower heat units for
maximum yields, will continue. Not because of warming as the
environmentalists and governments claim, but because the world is
cooling and will continue to cool for the next several years.
Ironically, grain and corn farmers are making money after years of
struggling with low prices and increasing production costs. However, all
farmers producing livestock have input costs spiraling out of control.
Either way the price of all foodstuffs has increased and will continue
to increase as long as politicians are swayed from science logic and
basic realities.
Environmental extremists and alarmists have exploited peoples fears and
lack of knowledge about climate and climate change. They have bullied
politicians into wrong policy. Afraid to be tagged with not caring about
the environment they claim public sup****t, for their policies. They are
wrong. The majority of the public do not understand climate science but
history shows they know who to blame and how to react to bad policy and
increasing food costs.
--
Warmest Regards
Bonzo
Get The TRUE Facts At
http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/index.html
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"...and I think future generations are not going to blame us for
anything except for being silly, for letting a few tenths of a degree
panic us"
Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of Meteorology MIT and Member of the
National Academy of Sciences
"What most commentators-and many scientists-seem to miss is that the
only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes"
Dr. Richard Lindzen
[most of the current alarm over climate change is based on] "inherently
untrustworthy climate models, similar to those that cannot accurately
forecast the weather a week from now." Dr. Richard Lindzen
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