Category Archives: Peak Food

Food production, population, and carrying capacity will also be reduced by peak soil, peak water, bioinvasion, pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, war, infrastructure decay and nearly every other category at energyskeptic

We’re killing our food supply and technology can’t save us

Farrell, Paul B. Feb 11, 2015. Opinion: We’re killing our food supply and technology can’t save us. Big Ag can’t feed 10 billion and magical technologies won’t appear.  MarketWatch. We’re maxing-out on Peak Food. Billions go hungry. We’re poisoning our … Continue reading

Posted in Peak Fertilizer, Peak Food | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

70 million people may need emergency food in 2017

Emergency food assistance needs unprecedented as Famine threatens four countries. January 25, 2017. Famine Early Warnings systems network (fews.net) The Famine Early Warning Systems Network is a leading provider of early warning and analysis on food insecurity. Created by USAID … Continue reading

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An invasive green monster that can double in 2 days and impossible to control threatens 20 states

    [ The 2011 House of Representatives hearing below is a discussion of how to control salvinia. We spend about $135 billion on invasive species a year – what will happen when the fossil energy to remove them is … Continue reading

Posted in Biodiversity Loss, BioInvasion, Peak Food | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Mineral: Soil from Ugo Bardi’s “Extracted”

FIGURE 1. The state of soil health globally. Preface. Ugo Bardi’s book on minerals covers a wide-ranging territory, including soil, which is a mineral.  In this section of the book he shows how humans have damaged the soil so much … Continue reading

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Chemical industrial farming is unsustainable. Why poison ourselves when pesticides don’t save more of our crops than in the past?

Pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides destroy soil and ecosystems. Yet a third of crops are lost to pests just as in the many millennia of farming before chemicals Preface. This is a book review of Dyer’s “Chasing the Red Queen”, and … Continue reading

Posted in Agriculture, Biodiversity Loss, Chemicals, Overshoot, Peak Food, Pesticides, Soil | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Chemical industrial farming is unsustainable. Why poison ourselves when pesticides don’t save more of our crops than in the past?

After collapse: plunder or feudalism?

  IWW poster “Pyramid of Capitalist System” (c. 1911), depicting an anti-capitalist perspective on statist/capitalist social structures Preface. In this post an anonymous author looks at what will happen if society collapses and we have to suddenly go back to … Continue reading

Posted in Farming & Ranching, Peak Food, Peak Phosphorus, Soil, Where are the rich going | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

After the harvest – protecting food from rats, mold, insects, fire, and bacteria

Preface. It’s hard enough to protect crops before a harvest. In New South Wales, Australia a plague of millions of mice has multiplied after a bumper grain harvest and eating whatever they can find. Mice can produce 500 offspring a … Continue reading

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Are humans an invasive species?

Rob Jordan. April 5, 2016. Populations of early human settlers grew like an ‘invasive species,’ Stanford researchers find. Stanford University. When humans colonized South America, their populations grew like a typical invasive species – an initial explosive growth rapidly reached … Continue reading

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Fruit and nut crops decline as climate change melts fog

Fimrite, P. May 22, 2014. As Central Valley fog disappears, fruit, nut crops decline. San Francisco Chronicle. California produces 95% of U.S. fruit and nut crops that depend on disappearing Tule fog. The soupy thick tule fog that regularly blanketed … Continue reading

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Peak food. Sustainability challenged as many renewable resources max out

Preface. Also see related article Limits to Growth? 2016 United Nations report provides best evidence yet. This new article shows that climate change is already affecting harvests of the world’s top 10 crops that comprise 83% of our calories: barley, … Continue reading

Posted in Limits To Growth, Peak Food | Tagged , | 2 Comments