I know that India is ranked 4th in the world in terms of countries with percentage of arable land (around 55% I think) but still 1 billion+ is a lot of mouths to feed. Should this be a cause for concern?
Thanks for your time in advance.
In order to boost agricultural output from current 210 million tons to about 300 million tons, technology has to play a greater role. Hopefully immediate needs of the rising population will be met with the combination of technology and efficient management of water resources we already have. Next quantum leap in agriculture cannot be achieved without bringing additional areas under cultivation. There is no more agricultural farmland left to cultivate except in the arid west, southwest and in peninsular India. Both will require transport of surplus water from north to south or southwest. The former is proving to be difficult to achieve. But the latter is achievable. It will take about 15 years to implement this scheme and 5 years to plan. By 2025, India can add additional 50 to 60 million of food grains to a total of about 350 to 360 million tons a year. Hopefully by then the West would have eliminated its agricultural subsidies. At that time India could enter export market in a big way.
India is still trying to feed their population mostly from small family farms, If this does not change and they do not convert to large scale farms with their large scale production, they will , I believe run out of food sometime in the future. Organic and Green are nice concepts but will not feed a population of one billion. Yes it should be a large concern for all of us. Consider what would happen if the farmers in the USA could get four or five times as much for a bushel of corn or wheat compared to what they get now. The US could run out of corn and wheat for our use, it could all be going to India. Corn feeds the beef and wheat makes the bread, etc, If you think that $4.00 for a gallon of gasoline was a lot, try $20. for a loaf of bread and hamburger going for $50 per pound.
Millions and billions predictions are one side: no rain, shortage of electricity, shortage in farm labour, usage of farm-land into house-sites and factories and etc will bring down the productions: No politician is cared about this: For example drinking water is sold for Rs 10 per litre: Is is possible to buy a nutrient rice, grain by a below average family with their Cooley: One side starvation %26amp; death will prevail: honest farmers are troubling and dyeing: The borrowed corporates are enjoying luxury Life: a crop loan farmer borrower is targeted with lawyer notice :
The apocalypse will cause a drastic reduction in fertility worldwide . We should expect less food for less people.By the end of the century the world will be underpopulated. Lets hope that humans in the future stop breeding like rats
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Monday, March 30, 2009
Organic food prices vs. Non-organic food prices?
For my Geography class I had o go to a local grocery store and do research on organic vs. nonorganic food, then write a paper on the results.
I found that organic food is more expensive, and that there isn%26#039;t a lot of it in your average grocery store, but I can%26#039;t seem to figure out why. Can anyone help me?
as a formerly certified organoic grower who still makes a living farming fruits and veggies grown organically i can say the mani reason for higher prices and fewer selections are the following
1) there is not a huge demand for certified organic at grocery stores so they do not carry as many products as conventional products, especially with produce
2) Because there has been a national organic program for only 7 years so there are not that many national corporations doing organic yet. It is costly and time consuming to go organic as there is a lot of paperwork to be kept constantly for the USDA organic program. If you process foods you have to create an organic only facility for the organic goods. this is very expensive. You have to be inspected annually at your own expense. So large food corporations tend to be slow when it comes to change and i suspect we will see a lot more offerings in the future as more and more companies figure out and set up organic ventures
3) organic crops yield as good or better as conventionally grown crops. the size of the produce is generally the same if using the same cultivar (I am noticing with organic produce a lot of non hybrid varieties are being used and often nonhybrid crops are smaller (but tastier) than hybrid crops. Plant based pesticides are allowed as are fungicides. And these are as effective (and in many cases more effective) than their chemical counterparts
4) Less than 3% of US crop land is certified organic so you have this huge issue with supply and demand. there simply is not enough organic food grown in the US (or the world) to keep up with the demand, yet.
5) A big reason why it costs more is because a lot of studies have been done that tell middlemen and retailers that people will pay to 200% more for organic products so they charge more because they can get more. So they charge what the market will bear.
It%26#039;s more expensive to grow, because they can%26#039;t use the pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers that ensure the high yields of nonorganic farming, processed organic foods can%26#039;t use some of the fillers and cheap flavorings used in nonorganic, and there is a smaller overall supply because a lot of companies don%26#039;t want to deal with these problems, and the average supermarket shopper is still buys almost entirely nonorganic, usually for price reasons, so there%26#039;s not much reason for non-specialty stores to stock a lot of organic foods.
Organic foods - poorer yields because more is destroyed by pests and diseases. Size of crop is less uniform.
Against that people who buy organic are willing to accept defects that the rest of us would want a reduction for.
What I do is wait until the organic reaches the reduced counter as it always does and you can the buy it cheaper than non-organic
John
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I found that organic food is more expensive, and that there isn%26#039;t a lot of it in your average grocery store, but I can%26#039;t seem to figure out why. Can anyone help me?
as a formerly certified organoic grower who still makes a living farming fruits and veggies grown organically i can say the mani reason for higher prices and fewer selections are the following
1) there is not a huge demand for certified organic at grocery stores so they do not carry as many products as conventional products, especially with produce
2) Because there has been a national organic program for only 7 years so there are not that many national corporations doing organic yet. It is costly and time consuming to go organic as there is a lot of paperwork to be kept constantly for the USDA organic program. If you process foods you have to create an organic only facility for the organic goods. this is very expensive. You have to be inspected annually at your own expense. So large food corporations tend to be slow when it comes to change and i suspect we will see a lot more offerings in the future as more and more companies figure out and set up organic ventures
3) organic crops yield as good or better as conventionally grown crops. the size of the produce is generally the same if using the same cultivar (I am noticing with organic produce a lot of non hybrid varieties are being used and often nonhybrid crops are smaller (but tastier) than hybrid crops. Plant based pesticides are allowed as are fungicides. And these are as effective (and in many cases more effective) than their chemical counterparts
4) Less than 3% of US crop land is certified organic so you have this huge issue with supply and demand. there simply is not enough organic food grown in the US (or the world) to keep up with the demand, yet.
5) A big reason why it costs more is because a lot of studies have been done that tell middlemen and retailers that people will pay to 200% more for organic products so they charge more because they can get more. So they charge what the market will bear.
It%26#039;s more expensive to grow, because they can%26#039;t use the pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers that ensure the high yields of nonorganic farming, processed organic foods can%26#039;t use some of the fillers and cheap flavorings used in nonorganic, and there is a smaller overall supply because a lot of companies don%26#039;t want to deal with these problems, and the average supermarket shopper is still buys almost entirely nonorganic, usually for price reasons, so there%26#039;s not much reason for non-specialty stores to stock a lot of organic foods.
Organic foods - poorer yields because more is destroyed by pests and diseases. Size of crop is less uniform.
Against that people who buy organic are willing to accept defects that the rest of us would want a reduction for.
What I do is wait until the organic reaches the reduced counter as it always does and you can the buy it cheaper than non-organic
John
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What percentage of the land on earth can be used for agriculture/farming?
a. 3.13%
b .9.38%
c. 12.5%
As of the year 2000, about 37 percent of Earth%26#039;s land area was agricultural land. About one-third of this area, or 11 percent of Earth%26#039;s total land, is used for crops. The balance, roughly one-fourth of Earth%26#039;s land area, is pastureland, which includes cultivated or wild forage crops for animals and open land used for grazing. This does not include forests which are also considered agriculture land. So, I%26#039;m guessing your closest answer is c. 12.5% Though it%26#039;s probably crop land that you are asking about, not total agriculture land.
those are two vastly different categories. If you are talking actual tillable land it would be much less than if you are talking all of agriculture which would include all grazing land, some forest land such as that used to raise pulp wood.
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b .9.38%
c. 12.5%
As of the year 2000, about 37 percent of Earth%26#039;s land area was agricultural land. About one-third of this area, or 11 percent of Earth%26#039;s total land, is used for crops. The balance, roughly one-fourth of Earth%26#039;s land area, is pastureland, which includes cultivated or wild forage crops for animals and open land used for grazing. This does not include forests which are also considered agriculture land. So, I%26#039;m guessing your closest answer is c. 12.5% Though it%26#039;s probably crop land that you are asking about, not total agriculture land.
those are two vastly different categories. If you are talking actual tillable land it would be much less than if you are talking all of agriculture which would include all grazing land, some forest land such as that used to raise pulp wood.
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Farming experiment
I have 40 archers of land. I have someone who wants to grow a garden and maybe even have a few cattle, pigs goats etc etc. Not too sure about how far Im willing to take this just yet. But heres the deal.
I figured Id start with just a garden for now. Id invest in all the tools, and he can use my land and he would do all the labor.
All Im asking (since Im investing all the money and its my land) is a small % from sales of crops.
What % is fair?
thanks
The usual arrangement in renting land is one of two ways.
1. The land owner gets 1/3 of the crop and the renter gets 2/3 and pays all of the expenses.
2. The land owner and renter split expenses of fertilizer, pesticides, seed etc., and split the crop 50/50 with renter doing all of the labor.
In both cases the renter supplies all of the machinery, maintenance, fuel, etc.
Someone is looking to get a fantastic deal from you, if you supply the land and invest your money for equipment as well.
50/50 You supply the land and he supplies all plants and labor.
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I figured Id start with just a garden for now. Id invest in all the tools, and he can use my land and he would do all the labor.
All Im asking (since Im investing all the money and its my land) is a small % from sales of crops.
What % is fair?
thanks
The usual arrangement in renting land is one of two ways.
1. The land owner gets 1/3 of the crop and the renter gets 2/3 and pays all of the expenses.
2. The land owner and renter split expenses of fertilizer, pesticides, seed etc., and split the crop 50/50 with renter doing all of the labor.
In both cases the renter supplies all of the machinery, maintenance, fuel, etc.
Someone is looking to get a fantastic deal from you, if you supply the land and invest your money for equipment as well.
50/50 You supply the land and he supplies all plants and labor.
%0D%0A
How did agriculture change with industrialization?
For you other posters, come on guys, wise up! Industrialization (mechanization) of agriculture made it possible for one farmer to feed more and more people outside of his family. This allowed more people to leave the farm and move to towns and cities to pursue careers that were non-agricultural. For example, how much theorizing could Einstein have done if his entire existence was spent foraging or growing food for himself? Not much. Da Vincci couldn%26#039;t have done much painting or inventing if he had to spend all of his time growing food for himself. And all the smart people that made it possible for man to land on the moon? They wouldn%26#039;t of had time for such flights of fancy had they been out chopping weeds and tending livestock every day.
Fewer people on the farm allowed others to pursue careers that let them develop better machines for the farm which continued the migration from farm to city. To answer your question, agriculture initiated or necessitated industralization which changed the way our food is grown and processed rather than industralization changing agriculture.
The industrial revolution and the green revolution went hand and hand. As bigger and better machines were developed we also began dousing our crops with inorganic chemicals to increase yield. Monocultures formed, and the farming industry shrunk to 10% of the population and lower. Basically we got more food, didn%26#039;t distribute it well, and didn%26#039;t care about the consequences.
dno
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Fewer people on the farm allowed others to pursue careers that let them develop better machines for the farm which continued the migration from farm to city. To answer your question, agriculture initiated or necessitated industralization which changed the way our food is grown and processed rather than industralization changing agriculture.
The industrial revolution and the green revolution went hand and hand. As bigger and better machines were developed we also began dousing our crops with inorganic chemicals to increase yield. Monocultures formed, and the farming industry shrunk to 10% of the population and lower. Basically we got more food, didn%26#039;t distribute it well, and didn%26#039;t care about the consequences.
dno
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Explain the difference between a meat-centered diet and a vegetarian diet in terms of:?
fossil fuel usage, land usage, carbon emissions, percent of grain eaten by people verses livestock.
Vegitarians like to talk about how much grain is used to feed cattle for slaughter. The thing is, they are fed grain only about the last 60-90 days of their life. The rest of the time, they and their mommas eat grass, something humans can't eat. Grass converts sunshine into energy which cattle eat and we eat the cattle. Many places where cattle are born and raised before being sent to be finished at a feedlot are too dry, rocky or cold to raise food crops humans can eat. This allows production of food (meat) for humans in areas where it would be impossible to grow vegetable or grain crops fit for human consumption.
In addition, some of the grain fed to animals is typically not eaten by humans (milo to hogs for example). Other times livestock feed consists of grain by products left over after processing for human consumption. (Soybean meal after oil extraction, bran after making white flour, cottonseed meal after the fiber is ginned.)
As far as fossil fuel, a cow grazing mountain rangeland uses no fossil fuels whereas it would require a massive input of fossil fuel to grow non-forage, human food.
Vegitarians like to talk about how much grain is used to feed cattle for slaughter. The thing is, they are fed grain only about the last 60-90 days of their life. The rest of the time, they and their mommas eat grass, something humans can't eat. Grass converts sunshine into energy which cattle eat and we eat the cattle. Many places where cattle are born and raised before being sent to be finished at a feedlot are too dry, rocky or cold to raise food crops humans can eat. This allows production of food (meat) for humans in areas where it would be impossible to grow vegetable or grain crops fit for human consumption.
In addition, some of the grain fed to animals is typically not eaten by humans (milo to hogs for example). Other times livestock feed consists of grain by products left over after processing for human consumption. (Soybean meal after oil extraction, bran after making white flour, cottonseed meal after the fiber is ginned.)
As far as fossil fuel, a cow grazing mountain rangeland uses no fossil fuels whereas it would require a massive input of fossil fuel to grow non-forage, human food.
Where can i get a job in a slaughterhouse?
i have 4 years of experience i do almost anything in the kill flor ... kill, bleed, skin, bung, trim, i can do almost anything. im from visalia california
aberdeen sd is in the process of building a state of the art plant it is supossed to be done in aug. they are planning on 1500 head a day with 650 employees with a sd registered beef program
aberdeen sd is in the process of building a state of the art plant it is supossed to be done in aug. they are planning on 1500 head a day with 650 employees with a sd registered beef program
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