"Billy" wrote in message
http://www.organicconsumers.org/arti...icle_23829.cfm
headline:

Approaching the Collapse: Don't Panic, Go Organic
By Ronnie Cummins
Organic Consumers Association, August 24, 2011


So-called "business as usual" is neither sustainable, nor even
possible, for much longer. Out-of-control energy corporations, Wall
Street, the Pentagon, agribusiness/biotech corporations, and
indentured politicians have driven us to the brink. They tell us:
don't worry; trust the experts, things will soon return to "normal."
But reality and common sense tell a different story.

Extreme weather, crop failures, commodities speculation, land grabs,
escalating prices, soil degradation, depleted aquifers, routine
contamination, food-related disease, and mass hunger represent the
"new norm" for food and farming. The global agricultural system, with
the exception of the rapidly growing organic sector, rests upon a
shaky foundation. Patented seeds, genetically engineered crops,
expensive and destructive chemical and energy-intensive inputs,
factory farms, monoculture production, eroding soils, unsustainable
water use, taxpayer subsidies, and long-distance hauling and
distribution, including massive imports that amount to 15% of the U.S.
food supply amount to a recipe for disaster.

A "perfect storm" or "ultimate recession" as described by Lester Brown
in his new book, World on the Edge, could develop at any time,
precipitated by extreme weather and crop failures on a massive scale.
A growing number of nations, including the oil giants and China, are
now scrambling to secure overseas farmland to feed their domestic
populations. World grocers and supermarkets, including the U.S., have,
on the average, only a four-day supply of food on hand. An oil shock,
global disease pandemic, prolonged drought in the American heartland,
or nuclear meltdown could set off a global food panic.

Billy I'm sure you know that USians have long had a reputation for not
knowing what's going on in the rest of the world. The information in that
article is very dated and there is nothing new in it.

I'm sure you'd be interested in the BBC programs called "The Future of
Food" - they discussed what was happening to food worldwide and began doing
so (IIRC) with the release of the first of these TV shows in 2009. The
Chinese have long been buying up land in other countries as are oil rich
places like Qatar which is trying to get its hands on the Tana River Delta
in Kenya.

Mind you, all horror stories pale beside the activities of Chiquita bananas.