Tag Archives: food shortage

A Few Predictions from John Hogue

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(A few prophecies from the Modern Nostradamus, John Hogue:)

DATELINE: 31 May 2020

THE PRELUDE::     May you Live in Interesting Quickening Times

This title is a variation on the Chinese proverb that euphemistically sugarcoats a time of upheaval, an end of the long vacation from history’s whirlwinds as “Interesting.” There are many moving future-trending parts to the quickening evolutionary crisis of the human race. HogueProphecy will try to keep giving you the larger perspective as the news plays its infantile fixation on one running part of this engine of global crises, such as the Coronavirus. The first important trend to anticipate is upon us: what kind of “new abnormal” is the world about to enter, just as it looks like the US and Europe are the first large centers of civilization after China to stagger out of their economic shutdowns and slowly resuscitate the engine of commerce.

What are signs of the damage to look out for?

How long will the recovery be? Will half the world emerge unemployed? Are the dire figures initially being reported about job losses going to end up in fact not at all as high as feared, just like forecasts of the Coronavirus’ death toll have turned out far lower than first anticipated?

Given the quickening times, I will start off my May 2020 Article wave with several news-trending articles providing you with quick oracular insights into future trending themes….

Awakening from a COVID Pan-Econodemic Coma
By early July we will begin to See How much Damage Shutting Down the World. did To the Body Economic

…  The ILO believes half of the world’s workforce—1.6 billion workers—will have no jobs to return to. Like gig workers in the developed world, the informal or day-job workers on short-term contract will be hardest hit, especially in developing nations.

The ILO report came out at the end of April, roughly after month one of the global economic “coma” as my oracle likes to call it, declaring, “The first month of the crisis is estimated to have resulted in a drop of 60 percent in the income of informal workers globally.”

Imagine an epic peril of 436 million businesses descending into foreclosures, bankruptcy with a good chance that a third of these, even half might disappear?

The EU’s (Eeeyoooky!) unemployment stats are coming in. If COVID-19 prays on the vulnerable with compromised immune systems and preexisting conditions, the post-COVID-Pan-Econodemic has the econimmunologically unhealthy members of the EU in its clutches.

Italy is in shock and crawling out of the shutdown weak as a kitten. Then there’s Spain’s Labor Ministry revealing unemployment benefits hitting an all-time high of 5.2 million at the end of April alone. The Spanish working in the food and beverage services lost 720,000 jobs. With the Bank of Spain forecasting an economic shrinkage of 6.8 percent and even 12.4 percent in 2021, “if the Covid-19 lockdown lasts eight or 12 weeks.”

… People’s habits have undergone a shock from this plague and lockdown. China, the first outbreak center opening back to business in early April, has seen a lot less people returning to crowded malls, movie theaters, sport venues and restaurants.

France’s President Macron has already declared in late May 2020 a cancellation of August vacations. Say au revoir to millions of French folk crowding their own and Italy’s restaurants and Mediterranean beaches sustaining millions of French, Italian or the 720,000 Spanish food and beverage workers hoping to go back to work in hotels, bistros and kitchens of these nationally critical tourist markets.

The same vacuum of international tourism is coming all over the world.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) when faced in mid-May with 90 percent of air travel grounded in Europe and the US since the start of the pandemic are now predicting a great downsizing of the airline industry as a consequence. They have concluded recovery back to pre-COVID-shutdown levels will take until 2023, a minimum of three years.

…Now let’s look to the EU’s economic heart, the German economy, without which there would be no Euro economic union, since the euro is a deutschmark in disguise. It’s heading for its worst recession since it had no economy left standing at the end of World War II. The German Economic Ministry predicted it will shrink by 6.3 percent in 2020 but rebound by 5.2 GDP after the economy revives in the second half of 2021.

…( Rick) Sanchez (of RT America) pointed out that that printing unbacked fiat money to abandon “is not good for consumers.” The reckoning comes later when they begin bracing for rises in the cost of living because of all this printing by fiat across the globe. The funny money has been cranked out by central banks in the trillions—$5 trillion by the US alone in mid-May.

…I can feel it clearly, we aren’t coming back to pre-COVID prices for food or much else. There will be a slow climb in costs that the US president will do whatever magic tricks with stimuli of the economy he can to curtail. That means the real pocketbook pain is coming “after” the 3 November presidential election.

…Also by year’s end perhaps 40 percent of the 40-million plus unemployed are still unemployed.

…

If you Can’t Work You Can’t Eat
The Hunger Games of Global Food Shortages are Here

No work equals no income, equals no food security and no future. This, framed in my brevity of words, is what the ILO Director-General Guy Ryder related in his late April UNO report. He added that a “massive” rise in poverty was coming in the wake of the COVID-19 shutdown and lockdown. And what he didn’t mention directly is these newly-impoverished people will go hungry.

…

Where there’s Plague, there’s War:
US Playing Games of Military Chicken with Iran  From the Persian Gulf to Venezuela And US is behind Renewal of Tensions in Hong Kong
Plus the Sino-Indian Border Crisis in Ladakh

There is an important overview not being addressed by the US mainstream media. There is a reason behind why President Trump threatens to defund WHO (World Health Organization) because it answers, in his view, as an agent of China.

…

! EARTH TRAUMA WARNING !
Sooner than Later: Tropical Oceans
Will Begin Collapsing in Ten Years!

It is coming in our lifetimes! The timing, speed and intensity of temperature rises have brought forward estimates by scientists of a catastrophic biodiversity loss their earlier findings pushed back far over the horizon window to the distant year of 2100.

from:    http://www.hogueprophecy.com/2020/06/preview/

The sections have been greatly abbreviated.  Go to the link to read the full text.

 

Meanwhile, Back on the Farm…

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World on the brink of worst food crisis in 50 years, UN warn

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Categories: Featured articles, Hunger

World on the brink of worst food crisis in 50 years, UN warns

The UN has warned that the world is on the verge of the worst food crisis in at least 50 years as the recession following the COVID-19 pandemic may put basic nutrition beyond impoverished people’s reach. The organization has urged governments to take prompt action to prevent further disaster as 49 million more may fall into extreme poverty due to the outbreak.

Food systems are failing and the pandemic is mitigating the situation, said UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, on June 9, 2020.

“Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults.”

Although harvests of crops are holding up and export bans and protectionism have been largely avoided so far, the worst of the pandemic’s impacts and the recession that will follow is yet to be felt.

This year, about 49 million more may fall into extreme poverty due to the coronavirus as the number of people who are severely food insecure will rapidly expand.

“Even in countries with abundant food, we see risks of disruptions in the food supply chain,” Guterres pointed out. “We need to act now to avoid the worst impacts of our efforts to control the pandemic.”

The secretary-general plotted a three-point plan to restore the world’s ailing food systems and avoid further harm.

First, countries must focus aid on the worst-affected regions to ward off immediate disaster and for governments to prioritize food supply chains.

“That means designating food and nutrition services as essential while implementing appropriate protections for food workers. It means preserving critical humanitarian food, livelihood, and nutrition assistance to vulnerable groups.”

“And it means positioning food in food-crisis countries to reinforce and scale up social protection systems,” he added.

Second, countries must strengthen social protection systems for nutrition by safeguarding access to safe and nutritious food, especially for young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, older people, and other vulnerable groups.

“This includes supporting children who no longer have access to school meals,” he continued.

Third, people must invest in the future by building a more inclusive and sustainable world.

“We have an opportunity to build a more inclusive and sustainable world,” Guterres said. “Let us build food systems that better address the needs of food producers and workers. Let us provide more inclusive access to healthy and nutritious food so we can eradicate hunger.”

According to Maximo Torero, the chief economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the world’s food systems were under threat as never before in modern times, as the coronavirus outbreak and lockdowns hinder people’s ability to buy and sell food.

“We need to be careful,” Torero reminded, “this is a very different food crisis than the ones we have seen.”

The UN’s report on the pandemic’s impact on food security shows that harvests are healthy and supplies of staple foods are robust, but most people get theirs from local markets, which are affected by the lockdowns.

Loss of income attributed to lockdowns are also putting food out of reach for many people who are already struggling. Although global markets remained steady, the price of basic necessities has started to hike in some nations.

Lockdowns are slowing down harvests while millions of seasonal laborers are not able to work. Food waste has hit damaging levels as farmers are forced to throw perishable produce as the result of supply chain problems. Meat industry plants have been forced to close as well.

“The Covid-19 crisis is attacking us at every angle,” said Agnes Kalibata, the UN secretary-general’s special envoy for the 2021 food systems summit.

“It has exposed dangerous deficiencies in our food systems and actively threatens the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, especially the more than 1 billion people who have employment in the various industries in food systems.”

Kalibata added that there was also a chance for countries to improve food systems, alongside reducing poverty and increasing worldwide resilience.

“Food has always brought people together and it can again if we build back better as it relates to our food systems.”

Featured image credit: Prayag Tejwani/Unsplash

from:    https://watchers.news/2020/06/10/world-on-the-brink-of-worst-food-crisis-in-50-years-un-warns/

Vertical Farming

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The Problem

By the year 2050, nearly 80% of the earth’s population will reside in urban centers. Applying the most conservative estimates to current demographic trends, the human population will increase by about 3 billion people during the interim. An estimated 109 hectares of new land (about 20% more land than is represented by the country of Brazil) will be needed to grow enough food to feed them, if traditional farming practices continue as they are practiced today. At present, throughout the world, over 80% of the land that is suitable for raising crops is in use (sources: FAO and NASA). Historically, some 15% of that has been laid waste by poor management practices. What can be done to avoid this impending disaster?

A Potential Solution: Farm Vertically

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world’s urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.

It took humans 10,000 years to learn how to grow most of the crops we now take for granted. Along the way, we despoiled most of the land we worked, often turning verdant, natural ecozones into semi-arid deserts. Within that same time frame, we evolved into an urban species, in which 60% of the human population now lives vertically in cities. This means that, for the majority, we humans are protected against the elements, yet we subject our food-bearing plants to the rigors of the great outdoors and can do no more than hope for a good weather year. However, more often than not now, due to a rapidly changing climate regime, that is not what follows. Massive floods, protracted droughts, class 4-5 hurricanes, and severe monsoons take their toll each year, destroying millions of tons of valuable crops. Don’t our harvestable plants deserve the same level of comfort and protection that we now enjoy? The time is at hand for us to learn how to safely grow our food inside environmentally controlled multistory buildings within urban centers. If we do not, then in just another 50 years, the next 3 billion people will surely go hungry, and the world will become a much more unpleasant place in which to live.

 

     

 

Advantages of Vertical Farming

  • Year-round crop production; 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres)
  • No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
  • All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers
  • VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water
  • VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services
  • VF greatly reduces the incidence of many infectious diseases that are acquired at the agricultural interface
  • VF converts black and gray water into potable water by collecting the water of
    evapotranspiration
  • VF adds energy back to the grid via methane generation from composting non-edible
    parts of plants and animals
  • VF dramatically reduces fossil fuel use (no tractors, plows, shipping.)
  • VF converts abandoned urban properties into food production centers
  • VF creates sustainable environments for urban centers
  • VF creates new employment opportunities
  • We cannot go to the moon, Mars, or beyond without first learning to farm indoors on
    earth
  • VF may prove to be useful for integrating into refugee camps
  • VF offers the promise of measurable economic improvement for tropical and subtropical
    LDCs. If this should prove to be the case, then VF may be a catalyst in helping to reduce or even reverse the population growth of LDCs as they adopt urban agriculture as a strategy for sustainable food production.
  • VF could reduce the incidence of armed conflict over natural resources, such as water
    and land for agriculture

from:    http://www.verticalfarm.com/more