3 pointsby speckx7 hours ago2 comments
  • JohnFen7 hours ago
    The US absolutely could produce all the food needed for its own citizens (and more). That it currently doesn't is a result of business decisions, not because it's impossible. Different decisions could be made.
  • Imustaskforhelp6 hours ago
    I am vegetarian and unless I am missing something which can be very possible, but the only charts India is missing are when they are related to fishes and meat consumption. To then have, India in the final chart require >100% of land feels a bit unsusbtantiated to me because that could've been a possibility if most of India was non-vegetarian but India is one of the most vegetarian countries in the world.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_security_in_India

    From as far as I can tell, India is decently self sufficient in food consumption but there are still people who lack food & nutrition because of a lack of access to affordable and healthy foods is widespread throughout India (Wikipedia)

    Now India's fertilizer industry is also although impacted by the strait of hormuz being closed, for the most part, India has tried to make a neutral stance within the conflict and Iran has opened up a ship or two to India, so I suppose it might be the govt.s priority to get fertilizer to pass through to our nation.

    "Essentially, even if countries are theoretically self-sufficient, in our current system they still rely on the global fertilizer trade. In other words: Self-sufficiency is still only as good as the supply chains that support it."

    I sort of agree with this line but that is because fertilizer can be essentially treated as by-product of oil and oil production within the region that fertilizer has the supply-chain issue.

    If I remember my lessons of economics right, Indian agriculture is still very much lower level and some/many own cows (dairy) so they can use the dung products of cows as a natural form of fertilizer as an alternative form

    The issue becomes really evident, within large scale farms though.

    Within India, Despite rising global prices, the federal government is continuing to sell urea and DAP at subsidised rates[0]. They are able to do so because they can tax us in other areas of our life and Indian govt. as a whole is now working towards getting more urea and they are saying that they have enough for this season even with conflict and are taking multiple measures.

    As such, The food prices within India at the very least are going to be unaffected but this definitely is putting up a strain on the indian budget.

    [0]: https://www.reuters.com/world/india/india-tapping-alternativ...