In the first place, agriculture, even actually organic agriculture that uses no chemicals or sprays of any kind, is totally unnatural.  Mono crops are even more unnatural, and so is planting non-native crops.  Add gross overpopulation to this, and voila!  You now have what's described as a "crisis" or "tragedy."  It is neither, it's merely the Earth rearranging itself to correct human harms.  Remember, in nature there are neither rewards nor punishments, only consequences, and failure of crops is a natural consequence of practices that are so removed from natural processes.

Agriculture has always been a big gamble in good times and now it looks even more prone to ruin because we went for mono-culture instead of regional "boutique" crops. Good article but depressing.

Some of us brewers and bakers are in a state of shock. Those prices hurt!  What are we supposed to do, grow our own grains because of the stupid system?

So great article - I think that fungus and insects will teach us a lesson in short order.  By the way, the spring crop plantings for the Mid-West were knocked back by weeks because of cold weather and rain - they just couldn't tractor the fields. I wouldn't pack a lot of significance into those statistics, other than as you say, we have no national reserve system.  /sam

Onward through the fog

Given the fact that wherever there's any kind of environmental stress, let alone crisis, generalists as a rule are better off than specialists, and the fact that man, thanks to science, KNOWS this, it's an astounding testament to man's stupidity and depravity that he has knowingly, willfully abjured generalization (something man in theory is better equipped for than almost any other species) and intentionally sought to become a hyper-specialist, a dweller exquisitely attuned to a very small and precarious niche, a hothouse flower.

No other species has ever done anything so insane, and nature is going to penalize this severely.

Gotta love Borlaug - let's make the same mistakes over and over and over...
Because, after all, mistakes with the food supply don't have any consequences or anything.

Sharon, with dirt under her fingernails.