Monday, 5 April 2021

Feeding the World

Advances in technology, fertilizer use and global trade, allowed food production to broadly keep pace with increasing human populations up to the 1960s. The food wasn't, of course, equitably distributed (that's why there was starvation before 1960). A new study suggests, however, that since 1961, food productivity has slumped, by more than 20% (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/01/climate-crisis-global-heating-food-farming-agriculture). The study suggests the prime reason for the decline in the productivity of crops and livestock, is the increase in global temperatures. This acts as a 'handbrake'. We know that human activities cause global heating. We also know farming practices per se account some of that temperature rise. So, food production is hitting food productivity. Time for changes?

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Flowers of Oahu 64. Wikstoemia uva-ursi or Akia

The bark, roots and leaves of this plant release a narcotic that was used to stun fish.