The future of food

[Aaron_C]

I know it sounds like a bunch of middle class toss, but I find that the best tasting produce does come from buying in season, locally, direct from the producer.

Sounds like something from Masterchef!

 

[Mooze]

worth checking out (apologies if anyone has posted it previously)
http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_foley_the_other_inconvenient_truth.html

 

[pursefattener]

Around here big farms are being bought up by coal mining hundred-millionares and billionares. And I'm not talking about to dig up for coal, I'm talking about as a store of assets. I am neighbour to one, and about 20 ks from another, and I know others are ready to buy. They are taking their coal profits, and locking it into farm land. This is farms worth 20 million or so. I no longer see my future as one where I buy any more land, but rather one where I work with, for, and help manage these big places next door, as these bloke know nothing about agriculture.

So TC you might become a consultant after all

 

[pursefattener]

So we are now becoming a net importer of some lines of food .

We keep hearing that agriculture is supposed to be well placed to capitalise on demand from Asia . I don't think so . At least not if things stay as they are .

At the rate we are going we may become the begging bowl of Asia .

Many lines of tinned fruit for example are coming in from country's like Chile and are for sale on the supermarket shelf for less than Au companies like spc can even produce them .

Terms of trade are terrible . I see more farms going out of business and ending up in the hands of foreign entities and what ever that may mean down the track.

 

[topcropper]

On SBS tonight starting at 8.30 pm is a documentary about the dust bowl years in the US farm belt.



http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/

THE DUST BOWL chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the "Great Plow-Up," followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Vivid interviews with twenty-six survivors of those hard times, combined with dramatic photographs and seldom seen movie footage, bring to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible human perseverance. It is also a morality tale about our relationship to the land that sustains us—a lesson we ignore at our peril.




I'm interested in the spin that the producers of the show will put on this. Farmers today know that what happened then will most likely never happen again thanks to todays modern farming methods where herbicides have replaced the plough. But will that come out?


See ya's.

 

[Fifth]

I read somewhere that the average apple/ornage has 1/8 of the nutrients the same item had in our youth?

Sorry to quote an old post, but I missed it the first time around.

I'm no scientist/nutritionist/farmer, but there have been studies which have concluded the above.

The Organic Consumers Association cites several other studies with similar findings: A Kushi Institute analysis of nutrient data from 1975 to 1997 found that average calcium levels in 12 fresh vegetables dropped 27 percent; iron levels 37 percent; vitamin A levels 21 percent, and vitamin C levels 30 percent. A similar study of British nutrient data from 1930 to 1980, published in the British Food Journal,found that in 20 vegetables the average calcium content had declined 19 percent; iron 22 percent; and potassium 14 percent. Yet another study concluded that one would have to eat eight oranges today to derive the same amount of Vitamin A as our grandparents would have gotten from one.

Anyway, it's difficult to compare the nutrients in today's fruit/vegetables to those of the past and different studies will produce different findings, but it would appear that what we eat today is at least somewhat less nutritious.

We as consumers are largely to blame because we choose to buy inferior products, mostly because it's 1. cheap and 2. convenient.

Personally, if I cared a whole heap about eating the freshest, tastiest, most nutritious fruit and vegetables, I'd grow my own. As it stands, I'm happy to buy the watery/dry stuff and I won't even fork out for the organic stuff.

Luckily, even with our less nutritious fruits and vegetables, our life expectancy is higher than ever.

A couple of clickables:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=soil-depletion-and-nutrition-loss

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1880145,00.html

 

[kathryn d]

On SBS tonight starting at 8.30 pm is a documentary about the dust bowl years in the US farm belt.



http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/

THE DUST BOWL chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the "Great Plow-Up," followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Vivid interviews with twenty-six survivors of those hard times, combined with dramatic photographs and seldom seen movie footage, bring to life stories of incredible human suffering and equally incredible human perseverance. It is also a morality tale about our relationship to the land that sustains us—a lesson we ignore at our peril.




I'm interested in the spin that the producers of the show will put on this. Farmers today know that what happened then will most likely never happen again thanks to todays modern farming methods where herbicides have replaced the plough. But will that come out?


See ya's.

It also affected western canada during this time too.
Most people learn through their failures.
The same mistakes may not be made, but I'm sure similar events compounded by natural droughts/floods can have just the same devastating effects.

 

[pursefattener]

I saw that show after you pointed it out TC .

It must have been a scary time for everyone . I have seen something similar on a smaller scale in northern Victoria .

Look forward to the second episode next week .

 

[The Fence]

It also affected western canada during this time too.
Most people learn through their failures.
The same mistakes may not be made, but I'm sure similar events compounded by natural droughts/floods can have just the same devastating effects.

Have faith in the farmer as henry Ford would reiterate:

“Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”
― Henry Ford

 

[topcropper]

This made the news a few days ago.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/jul/06/water-supplies-shrinking-threat-to-food


Although this bloke Lester Brown has been predicting this for years. Still makes for some interesting and concerning reading, even if only part true?

Peak oil has generated headlines in recent years, but the real threat to our future is peak water. There are substitutes for oil, but not for water. We can produce food without oil, but not without water.

We drink on average four litres of water per day, in one form or another, but the food we eat each day requires 2,000 litres of water to produce, or 500 times as much. Getting enough water to drink is relatively easy, but finding enough to produce the ever-growing quantities of grain the world consumes is another matter.

See ya's.

 

[Aaron Sice]

i find it interesting that we have signed an agreement for supply of specific fruits to the Phillipines, but then we are using OUR tax dollars to help Indonesia set up an Australian-quality beef industry to rival our own.

Dafuq Rudd?

 

[LoneWolf]

Not sure if anyone seen this one:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-13/un-says-insects-could-be-food-of-the-future/4687132

The future food = insects!