peak food

[Steve]

I don't think it's as safe as you think, SD. Although the world has a lot of land much of it is unproductive, much of the land that is productive relies on artificial fertilizers, intensive farming is causing massive soil erosion of previously top-grade land, and climate change could cause wide-spread crop failures.

It's not a pretty picture, there are farmhouses in the USA that have had extra stairs built to reach the front doors, as they've lost 10 feet of topsoil.

I think that we can feed ourselves for a long time, but only if action is taken. We need to get organic material back into the soil, it provides and holds nutrients and water, reduces our reliance on imported fertilizer, and reduces nitrogen rich run-off, keeping rivers and drains clear and preventing the algal blooms that are wrecking the oceans.

The big problem is that the public have got used to paying very little for food, which means the supermarkets screw the farmers, and in turn they screw the land.