Have we reached 'peak food'?

[AutomaticEarth]

Interesting to see this is in MSM on the front page.

http://www.independent.co.uk/environmen ... 09185.html

Mods - if there is already a thread on this feel free to close or move this post.

[biffvernon]

Peak production refers to the point at which the growth in a crop, animal or other food source begins to slow down, rather than the point at which production actually declines.

Eh? He's redefining 'peak'. Not the maximum production but merely start of a slow-down in the growth rate.

Bonkers.

Anyway, there's plenty of reason to expect total global food production to become larger than today. Whether we've reached peak production per unit labour is another matter.

[vtsnowedin]

But observing a diminished rate of return for unit invested is at least a warning sign of trouble ahead. Perhaps we are at the point where sending out another fishing boat does not yield another boatload of fish. Certainly most of the good well watered farmland is in production and any increase in planted acreage must come from rougher, dryer, grazing land not well suited to staple crops.
This quote from the article gets to the point.

This synchronisation of peak years is all the more worrying because it suggests the whole food system is becoming overwhelmed, making it extremely difficult to resurrect the fortunes of any one foodstuff, let alone all of them, the report suggested.

The simultaneous peaking of the world’s basic foodstuffs is largely down to the competing demands of a mushrooming population, which is putting ever-greater strain on the land for housing, agriculture, business and infrastructure. At the same time, producing more of any one staple requires the use of extra land and water, which increases their scarcity and makes it harder to increase food production in the future.

[emordnilap]

Perhaps we are at the point where sending out another fishing boat does not yield another boatload of fish.

Perhaps?

[PS_RalphW]

Will the MSM ever admit to limits to growth?

Meanwhile...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/j ... e-children

The only good thing to say about this is that when times get tough, women who are allowed a choice, choose not to have more children.

[vtsnowedin]

Also today. If the seals can't find a fish how many are left to find.?
http://news.yahoo.com/record-sea-lion-p ... 18077.html

[biffvernon]

However, the seals that breed at my bit of seaside had a record number of pups this year. They're doing very well. They feed mostly off fish that are not commercial species.

[vtsnowedin]

However, the seals that breed at my bit of seaside had a record number of pups this year. They're doing very well. They feed mostly off fish that are not commercial species.

Are not those fish species that the seals eat also the food supply for the commercial species?

[biffvernon]

Yes but we ate all those ones!

[Lurkalot]

Eh? He's redefining 'peak'. Not the maximum production but merely start of a slow-down in the growth rate.

That was my first thought too , the rate of increase has decreased as politicians would put it.
Amusing reading the comments on the link too , apparently peak food is caused by all those "greenies" making us burn bio fuels in our cars.

[Catweazle]

Fish are a bit like easy oil - they are harvested cheaply but with little thought to their sustainability.

They'll be gone soon.

I've said it before, we need more smallholders now.

[biffvernon]

...with fish ponds.

[BritDownUnder]

...with fish ponds.

A lot of medieval English villages had fish ponds as an extra source of protein. Not too sure they knew what protein was in those days but they probably did know they would be dead without eating some.

The village where I grew up had a field quite a way out of the village with now dried out pits that were marked on OS maps as being fishponds.

[kenneal - lagger]

Is this just a ploy to get us to admit that we need GMOs.

UN says we need more small scale organic farming and gardening but who are they to argue with the likes of Monsanto, Dow and Syngenta, who obviously know what's best for us. A mixture of glyphosate and Agent Orange is obviously what we need because those pesky weeds aren't bothered by glyphosate on its own any more.

[emordnilap]

Also today. If the seals can't find a fish how many are left to find.?
http://news.yahoo.com/record-sea-lion-p ... 18077.html

More on that story here - it's worse than you think.

Warm surface waters spreading over the ocean can serve as a kind of lid. The warm water prevents cooler water from upwelling toward the surface, mixing nutrients and refreshing the water’s oxygen levels. This shut down of overturning is a dangerous oceanic condition called stratification. And it can level a severe blow to almost all creatures along the marine food chain. Plankton become less productive. Low oxygen zones expand, killing the slow-moving bottom creatures all while driving the mobile fish to more productive waters. In the warmer waters, toxic algae blooms become more prevalent. Harmful microbes, which are culled during influxes of cold water, thrive and multiply, posing a disease threat to all marine species. Finally, in the deeper reaches off the coasts of Washington and Oregon, the already oxygen-poor zones, zones rife with methane from hydrate venting, begin producing a deadly seep of hydrogen sulfide gas.

As a result we have the proliferation of the sea star wasting illness. An illness that would usually be contained by the seasonal influx of cooler waters. So too do we have instances of sea lion adults consuming fish, mullusks, and shellfish contaminated with domoic acid — a toxin produced by algae blooms in warm waters. And lastly, we have the overall stress on the food chain due to low oxygen and productivity which has driven sea lion food sources so far off shore that females are too exhausted after hunting to feed their pups.