wheat shortage

I read an interesting article in a recent New Scientist magazine which said that there is an easy way to make more food available considering that the war in Ukraine will mean shortages of wheat. The article said that governments around the world can easily stop converting grains into alcohol. This is done so that alcohol can be added to vehicle fuel. It means we use less fossil fuels.

Palm oil is also used in fuel.

Many countries will experience food shortages especially Egypt, which is heavily dependent on imported wheat. The problem though is that if we convert less grain into alcohol then we become more dependent on fossil fuels - crude oil converted to petrol and diesel. That would mean more global warming.

We could get around that by having fewer car journeys. That would suit me just fine, fewer cars on the road and more public transport. Even just stopping the increase in the numbers of cars would be good. We seem to have more and more cars on the road and they are getting bigger - more SUV types. That's why we have the problematic smart motorways, we are running out of space on the roads.

However, there is another easy way to free up grain to feed people. That is to breed fewer farm animals such as chickens, pigs and cattle. There are billions of them and they eat vast quantities of grain and soya. Fish such as anchovies too.

Farmers are dependent on subsidies. Governments should ask farmers to breed ten or twenty percent fewer animals for the next year or two. They can withhold subsidies or offer financial incentives.

You might say that this would mean less food available. Not so, animals do not efficiently convert plant calories and protein into animal calories and protein. You might say that people don’t want to eat maize and soya but many people in poor countries like Egypt will want to. I don’t care so much about the affluent countries. Other grains and pulses are available. People should be eating more plants and they don’t need as much protein as they think they do.

So less global warming, especially because there will be fewer cattle to produce methane. Also less animal cruelty and less slurry.