The above chart has been updated using the latest released stocks-to-use estimated percentages from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. In good news from the FAO, lower international prices and freight rates, together with lower cereal purchases, have pushed down the world food import bill in 2012 to an estimated $ 1.14 [...]
1. Crop and Pesticide Inputs. Pesticide Inputs Of the five crops, 53 percent of the pesticide total was applied to corn in 1982, followed by soybeans (28 percent), cotton (9.6 percent), fall potatoes (4.8 percent), and wheat (4.5 percent). Corn’s share declined to 43 percent in 2010, while fall potatoes’ share increased to 20 percent [...]
“Easter lamb” by Niko Pirosmani ● How To Feed the World After Climate Change (Slate) ● The Other Arab Spring, Climate Change (Thomas Friedman, NYTs) ● The Environmental Working Group quotes Dan Imhoff, who says that the existing farm bill’s problems include: subsidizing what the federal government doesn’t want people to eat, paying farmers to [...]
