"Food Security more important than Climate Change

gozunda

In a feature in The Farmers Journal on the 23rd of April Europe no longer has surplus food stocks.

Milk, butter and beef in storage at an all time low according to Paolo de Castro chair of the European Parliment Committee for Agriculture and rural development.

Castro stated that food security for Europe is an even bigger issue than climate change and quoted the yearly rises in world food supply of between 2 and 2.5% is failing to keep pace with world food demand between 4 and 5% per year.

Currently Europe has only between 26 and 27 days of food supply in store.

The question is in the event of global emergency or other stoppages to food importation is this window of available food supply sufficient to meet potential requirements for a population of 500 million

Should we be worried?

BUMP

gozunda

Does anyone see this a significant issue?Global economics being currently in an extreme state of flux what are the options?

Rigor Mortis

we should be content that we are able to produce both surplus food and surplus renewable energy and will be in a position to export both commodoties.

We should be worried that we are doing very little to solve the massive wasteage of water in the country. That should be a big issue for government

Dude111

gozunda wrote:

Should we be worried?

Those of us in the states need to worry!

Food is messed with more here than anywhere else! (Dangerous things added to try and get ppl sick so they can then make $$$ profiting from selling stuff to make people better from the crap they created!!)

I try to be VERY CAREFUL about what i eat! -- I used to eat Chicken but i dont think im going to eat anymore after the FDA admitted there is ARSENIC in chicken meat!!

www.benzinga.com/11/06/1157954/fda-finally-admits-chicken-meat-contains-cancer-causing-arsenic-compliments-of-pfizer

I wish the scumbags would admit everything else!! (Aspertame bad,etc) but they dont want all the puppets waking up to how bad things really are in this country!

slowburner

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

we should be content that we are able to produce both surplus food and surplus renewable energy and will be in a position to export both commodoties.

We should be worried that we are doing very little to solve the massive wasteage of water in the country. That should be a big issue for government

For an island with such great water resources, how we use/abuse it is criminal. The fact that we will be paying for water that is wasted, is another crime.
I didn't know that we are able to produce surplus food and renewable energy - tell me more.......

Rigor Mortis

slowburner wrote: »

For an island with such great water resources, how we use/abuse it is criminal. The fact that we will be paying for water that is wasted, is another crime.
I didn't know that we are able to produce surplus food and renewable energy - tell me more.......

On the food side, we currently export far more food than a population our size could ever eat. Although we cannot produce all food types we are more than self sufficient in relation to food. Although neglected during the celtic tiger years, agriculture is to this day the bedrock of our export economy - a resource we have that cannot be taken away on the decision of a boardroom committee in the US.

Energy is a little more long term, but we certainly have the wind, wave and tidal resources to ensure that we achieve a positive balance of payments on energy within the next twenty years. Then there is also the possibility of domestic gas resources in the Celtic Sea and even possibly in the Irish Sea.

Major John

As usual when we are in bother, it all falls back onto the farmers. However, the last forty years of intervention by Eurocrats and our own politicians have basically screwed farming in this country. The environmental costs of Irish farming are criminal. The Department and Teagasc should hang their heads in shame ! Time for a complete rethink.

slowburner

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

On the food side, we currently export far more food than a population our size could ever eat. Although we cannot produce all food types we are more than self sufficient in relation to food. Although neglected during the celtic tiger years, agriculture is to this day the bedrock of our export economy - a resource we have that cannot be taken away on the decision of a boardroom committee in the US.

Energy is a little more long term, but we certainly have the wind, wave and tidal resources to ensure that we achieve a positive balance of payments on energy within the next twenty years. Then there is also the possibility of domestic gas resources in the Celtic Sea and even possibly in the Irish Sea.

Not so sure about this. Look what happened to the Spanish vegetable growers

Yahew

slowburner wrote: »

For an island with such great water resources, how we use/abuse it is criminal. The fact that we will be paying for water that is wasted, is another crime.
I didn't know that we are able to produce surplus food and renewable energy - tell me more.......

If we are abusing the water supply then paying for it will lessen the abuse. Water is only "free" if you collect it yourself. If people pay then the money can go to repairs.

slowburner

Major John wrote: »

As usual when we are in bother, it all falls back onto the farmers. However, the last forty years of intervention by Eurocrats and our own politicians have basically screwed farming in this country. The environmental costs of Irish farming are criminal. The Department and Teagasc should hang their heads in shame ! Time for a complete rethink.

When you say "environmental costs of Irish farming" do you mean the impact agriculture has on the environment, or, the financial costs to farmers of compliance with environmental protection measures?

craggles

Dude111 wrote: »

Those of us in the states need to worry!

Food is messed with more here than anywhere else! (Dangerous things added to try and get ppl sick so they can then make $$$ profiting from selling stuff to make people better from the crap they created!!)
I wish the scumbags would admit everything else!! (Aspertame bad,etc) but they dont want all the puppets waking up to how bad things really are in this country!

Conspiracy theories forum is over there...

Dude111

Sadly it isnt a conspiracy IT IS FACT my friend (It just cant be proven (NOT ENOUGH PPL HERE TO GET INVOLVED AND TAKE A STAND))

El Siglo

Dude111 wrote: »

Sadly it isnt a conspiracy IT IS FACT my friend (It just cant be proven (NOT ENOUGH PPL HERE TO GET INVOLVED AND TAKE A STAND))

How can something be a fact if it can't be proven? Especially adding substances to food to make people sick?

BryanF

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

On the food side, we currently export far more food than a population our size could ever eat. Although we cannot produce all food types we are more than self sufficient in relation to food. Although neglected during the celtic tiger years, agriculture is to this day the bedrock of our export economy - a resource we have that cannot be taken away on the decision of a boardroom committee in the US.

Energy is a little more long term, but we certainly have the wind, wave and tidal resources to ensure that we achieve a positive balance of payments on energy within the next twenty years. Then there is also the possibility of domestic gas resources in the Celtic Sea and even possibly in the Irish Sea.

we may export lots of beef, cheese and a few spuds.. but we import crazy amounts of our food.. largely due to a lack of knowledge/care of where our food is from and of-course the fact that inferior cheaper imports are readily available too the majority of the nation in our supermarkets ... which we seem to prefer over 'guarenteed Irish' (a brandname that was sold!!!! ) would anyone like to discuss the EU directive governing 'buy Irish produce campaigns'. this is one option to give the public an understanding of food consumption in ireland (it could be done by kilmeadan for example) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRfjMOjrfnI&feature=player_embedded#at=23
I would like to add, in realtion to the OP's post, many of us in ireland should take the opportunities available to us that our backgardens afford us and grow our own food as much as possible.