This is pretty interesting, I've never stopped to think about how countries in the middle of the desert can be self sufficient in terms of agriculture. Can't wait to read your next post.
Yikes. This brings home the point that is made again and again. There's always a technological solution. However, in almost all cases, the technological solution is incredibly energy-intensive, and usually goes back to fossil fuels. You'd think that such an environment would be able to use solar, though. Surely if there was anywhere in the world capable of doing that, it would be these countries. And if they did, the systems they came up with may be very efficient with other resources, like fertiliser, not pouring it onto the fields and letting it end up in the atmosphere and waterways like New Zealand does. I'll try to be optimistic.
Exactly. And I think we as a society are not paying enough attention to these costs as the hype drowns it out. BTW, In researching for an older post https://climatonomics.substack.com/p/american-midwest-farming-and-climate , I found NZ has one of the highest fertilizer (per hectare) usage rates. This rarely happens in a developed nation due to improved productivity coming from scientific innovations, rather than increasing primary inputs. What do you think is the reason?
I'm not sure, that's an interesting question. We've had rapid growth in some industries, like intensive dairy, so I wonder if the pace of growth has been outstripping technology. New Zealand has a tendency just to do things in a very reactive and non-strategic way, so there might be some of that mentality operating.
This is pretty interesting, I've never stopped to think about how countries in the middle of the desert can be self sufficient in terms of agriculture. Can't wait to read your next post.
Thank you for reading. I never thought much either, until I saw that chart!
Yikes. This brings home the point that is made again and again. There's always a technological solution. However, in almost all cases, the technological solution is incredibly energy-intensive, and usually goes back to fossil fuels. You'd think that such an environment would be able to use solar, though. Surely if there was anywhere in the world capable of doing that, it would be these countries. And if they did, the systems they came up with may be very efficient with other resources, like fertiliser, not pouring it onto the fields and letting it end up in the atmosphere and waterways like New Zealand does. I'll try to be optimistic.
Exactly. And I think we as a society are not paying enough attention to these costs as the hype drowns it out. BTW, In researching for an older post https://climatonomics.substack.com/p/american-midwest-farming-and-climate , I found NZ has one of the highest fertilizer (per hectare) usage rates. This rarely happens in a developed nation due to improved productivity coming from scientific innovations, rather than increasing primary inputs. What do you think is the reason?
I'm not sure, that's an interesting question. We've had rapid growth in some industries, like intensive dairy, so I wonder if the pace of growth has been outstripping technology. New Zealand has a tendency just to do things in a very reactive and non-strategic way, so there might be some of that mentality operating.