The Global Food Economy: Peak Food, Social Unrest, And Bailed-Out Credit-Junkies
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
01/07/2013
Beginning with Malthus’ warning to the world and the Great Irish famine, David McWilliams (of Punk Economics) provides his typically succinct, profoundly fascinating, and graphically pleasing insights on the state of the global food economy. “What happens when hungry people panic?” is the question McWilliams poses; “they move to other parts of the world,” he rhetorically answers, adding that this could well be the story of the next 50 years on Earth as the rock of the insatiable demand of seven billion (soon-to-be-ten-billion) people smashes into the hard place of the planet’s limited resources to produce that one thing that keeps us all alive – food. The food dilemma is more complex though as it is really an energy dilemma – one that is not going away (on the downside). On the bright side, Malthus’ nightmare has yet to occur thanks to the ingenuity of humans. However, if all the world’s seven billion people consumer as much as the average American, it would require the resources of over five planet Earths to sustainably support all of us. So either the rest-of-the-world eats less to allow Americans to eat more or we are stuck! McWilliams takes us on a path from changing global diets to water and energy demands, through central banks’ “frothy response” to the global financial crisis and on to the impacts such as class divisions, rising healthcare costs, and social unrest – all in 11 minutes… Truly must watch!
The Rest…HERE
