What happens when the prices both of the energy used in growing food and transporting it around the world, and of petro-inputs like fertilizers, begin to rise drastically?
Another 'peak food' worry is the undiscussed crisis of the water table in North America and in former Soviet Central Asia. Regions which the world has depended on for food and agro-raw materials may lose the ability to be the world's breadbaskets.
Agribusiness isn't even especially efficient. It's just much easier and less labour intensive.
I worked in the biz right out of college... it is all about 'cheap, now' and not about sustainability... and the best way to do that in a 'high labor cost society' is to nix the labor...
The factory I worked in produced fuel alcohol... we processed 350,000 bu of corn (maize) everyday... I believe that is approximately 1000 cu meters per day... anyway A LOT.
We had our own powerplant... whole facility was estimated to cost about a billion dollars (1980s dollars at that)...
We ran 24X7 365 days a year except on leap years it was 366 days a year. We tracked all down time due to power outages (prairie storms & such) & it was usually no more than 20-30 hours per year.
And we employed less than 200 people... including support & management... covering all those shifts.
Your European leaders are on drugs and every bit as traitorous as our leaders if the take you down that path. "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog." - Peter Steiner
