The Only Country that can Feed Itself

Still interesting stuff.

 

I only grow a little arugula, cilantro & basil & I eat far better than 99.9% of people who have ever lived

 

I didn't easily see the source data for this, and I don't have the time to search for it, but the premise seems suspect to me.

If you said, "the only country that DOES feed itself" I'd be more likely to be instantly convinced.

This seems like it may be some fun with numbers. Something like, the US consumes x calories / year. The US grows 2x calories. The US exports 1.1x calories. The us imports 0.1x calories to fill that gap. Therefore, the US "can't" feed itself.

 

Sounds like you need some protein in your diet

 

Big ag needs mono crops to exist.

well and subsidies.

Chocked off varieties. We have plenty excess capacity if we had more crop diversity.

 

From the linked FDA report in the article. It would be interesting to see more granular details on the food items imported. I suspect some of the items aren't core foods necessary for the survival of the American people but are "luxury" in nature. But how much?

"American consumers seek a diverse and abundant food supply that is simultaneously affordable and available throughout the year. To help meet these consumer demands, the United States imports about 15 percent of its overall food supply.1 A 15-year trend of ever-rising import volume points to continuing
increases, with other countries now supplying approximately 32 percent of the fresh vegetables, 55 percent of the fresh fruit, and 94 percent of the seafood that Americans consume annually (see Figure 1).2

FDA Strategy for the Safety of Imported Food

 

BTW .... this is an idea that may happen soon. I know some folks on Florida's west coast aren't happy about it:

Trump may bring floating fish farms to the Gulf of Mexico despite opposition from environmental, fishing groups | WWNO


Floating cages with fish by the thousands may be popping in the Gulf of Mexico under a controversial plan that was backed by President-elect Donald Trump’s administration four years ago and is likely to gain traction again after Trump begins his second term next month.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently identified five areas in the Gulf that the agency says strike a balance between the needs of the growing aquaculture industry and the potential impacts on the marine environment and elements of the seafood industry that depend on wild fisheries.

Identifying these “aquaculture opportunity areas” is part of a decade-long federal plan to open the Gulf and other offshore areas to aquaculture. The plan got a strong push from Trump but slowed under President Joe Biden’s administration, which concludes next month.

Three of NOAA’s preferred aquaculture areas are off the coast of Texas and one is south of Louisiana. Each area ranges from 500 to 2,000 acres and could total 6,500 acres. A fifth area, considered a possible alternative, has been identified near the mouth of the Mississippi River, but it would likely conflict with shipping traffic and shrimping in that area.

 

Was going to guess the same - it’s not that we can’t feed ourselves without imports, it’s that we wouldn’t have things that Americans choose to eat a lot of like tropical fruits, out-of-season produce, and farmed shellfish without imports.

 

Wow, can't wait to smell that from 500 miles out when the red tide kills the entire farm within 24 hours and all of those fish carcasses start to rot on the surface.

 

Everyone’s already fishing around the oil rigs, just farm them out

 

Now that this thread is moved I’m sure we’ll soon discover how terrible this really is.

 

What would be terrible, exactly?

 

We have plenty of farmland to grow what we need, we just have to take back OWNERSHIP of all of our farmland.

 

Not sure, but trumps in office. So it’s either terrible news or, if this board says it’s good news, it’s only because Biden caused this to happen

 

Yeah, we would grow bananas in Nebraska if it weren't for those dastardly foreigners! We must nationalize the farmland to show them!

 

Excellent point