[Luis Dias]

Faster planes.

[karajorma]

At which point, he should have wiped out everything he just wrote, or perhaps asked for a split.

Yep, that was exactly my point of view. Especially considering Joshua answered him making it look like Joshua was somehow the one at fault for driving the thread off-topic.

[JCDNWarrior]

'tis a good suggestion, JCDN, but another large problem of the food problem is the infrastructure: In the case of a humanitarian crisis, the troubles are not in obtaining the food (strangely enough?), but most of the troubles are getting it to the right location. How do you propose we fix that?

Well, that's something to be considered. When there's a crisis, the infrastructure may be in ruin, and many people will not be able to find food locally because of that. It's why stocking up on food seems to be a good idea to not be caught in the cycle(s) between supply and demand that will then occur.

[Grizzly]

'tis a good suggestion, JCDN, but another large problem of the food problem is the infrastructure: In the case of a humanitarian crisis, the troubles are not in obtaining the food (strangely enough?), but most of the troubles are getting it to the right location. How do you propose we fix that?

Well, that's something to be considered. When there's a crisis, the infrastructure may be in ruin, and many people will not be able to find food locally because of that. It's why stocking up on food seems to be a good idea to not be caught in the cycle(s) between supply and demand that will then occur.

Hmm. In a food crisis, aren't food stockpiles the first thing to go? Or indeed, the nasty habit of the food stockpiles going down is usually the start of a crisis.

Faster planes.

Right. The current planes can cross the world in 24 hours. You die from starvation in a month. The areas affected by food crisis are also the ones without airfields, or far away from airfields, or hard to reach from airfields (or ports). That is one of the infrastructural problems. Faster planes simply will not work and would be a waste of money.

(Unless you mean that faster planes would be the reason for the rising food prices or where not even replying to me. In that case, please quote).

[Luis Dias]

I was joking. What do I know about food management in crisis?

[Grizzly]

I was joking. What do I know about food management in crisis?

Well, I do not know the extend of your knowledge, but I was asking JCDN (As could hopefully be seen by my usage of the quote). I did ask you a different question at the bottum of the second page. Could you answer that one?

[Luis Dias]

What would explain the rise? Ah. You'd be surprised. Pure speculation.

The rise of food prices skyrocketed shortly after the banks started coughing in 2008. Two major markets spiked, the oil futures and the food. Basically, the hedge betters started to panic and infuse their money in all the bubbles they could find / create, turning the whole game into a "last man standing". This had terrible consequences to the food market, because this infusion of capital didn't exactly "trickle down" to the farmers themselves, but made the whole market fluctuate wildly. The market was no longer "functional" so to speak, to its purpose of mediating between producers and distributers, but was turned into a ****ing casino.

Many other reasons gathered to build up the perfect storm happening now:

 - The obvious connection to the energy price is obvious. Oil is rising and so will agriculture.
 - Staggering rise of human conditions throughout the world. Yeah, the rising food price is also a symptom of something remarkable happening in the world, namely the fastest decade of economic growth the world has ever seen, driving hundreds of millions out of poverty.
 - Really bad weather in the worst places. Many people blame environmental hazards that stroke the world in 2010 in the exporting countries. This also contributed.
 - Biofuels. ****ing biofuels.

[JCDNWarrior]

What would explain the rise? Ah. You'd be surprised. Pure speculation.

The rise of food prices skyrocketed shortly after the banks started coughing in 2008. Two major markets spiked, the oil futures and the food. Basically, the hedge betters started to panic and infuse their money in all the bubbles they could find / create, turning the whole game into a "last man standing". This had terrible consequences to the food market, because this infusion of capital didn't exactly "trickle down" to the farmers themselves, but made the whole market fluctuate wildly. The market was no longer "functional" so to speak, to its purpose of mediating between producers and distributers, but was turned into a ****ing casino.

Many other reasons gathered to build up the perfect storm happening now:

 - The obvious connection to the energy price is obvious. Oil is rising and so will agriculture.
 - Staggering rise of human conditions throughout the world. Yeah, the rising food price is also a symptom of something remarkable happening in the world, namely the fastest decade of economic growth the world has ever seen, driving hundreds of millions out of poverty.
 - Really bad weather in the worst places. Many people blame environmental hazards that stroke the world in 2010 in the exporting countries. This also contributed.
 - Biofuels. ****ing biofuels.

I agree with that assessment. By ensuring elements such as biofuel, improving infrastructure around the world and limiting the damage you take due to environmental hazards and bad weather, could help a great deal to support many more people in the world. There's many places in the world such as Africa where with proper assistance and keeping track of development, you could capitalize on improved food production in poorer parts of the world, so they become more self-sufficient nationally.

Also -Joshua-, I meant with stockpiling food, for people themselves to stock up in the times where food is still affordable in larger quantities than necessary for day-to-day survival. That could greatly help reduce the biggest problems such as famine in the first weeks or months of a (sudden) economic crisis.

[Ghostavo]

I agree with that assessment. By ensuring elements such as biofuel, improving infrastructure around the world and limiting the damage you take due to environmental hazards and bad weather, could help a great deal to support many more people in the world.

By ensuring (biofuel) you mean eliminating, right?

[Bobboau]

if by that you mean corn based ethanol.

[Ghostavo]

Most biofuel nowadays is made from crops IIRC.