X-Message-Number: 22010
From: "michaelprice" <>
References: <>
Subject: Feeding the six billion 
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2003 09:04:10 +0100

Mark Plus says we are running out of wheat.  The world is not running out of
wheat.  The wage-adjusted  price of wheat has fallen by approximately 10
since 1900 and 40 since 1800 and is still declining.  If we were approaching
scarcity the price would be going up.  Page 87 of The Ultimate Resource
2 shows that historically per capita food production is going up, not down.

As for fish, Simon may well be wrong about that, since fishing suffers from
the problem of the commons -- unlike crops fish can swim away -- and so
don't benefit from capitalist exploitation!  However no fish to eat is not
the end of the world.  Sad, perhaps, catastrophic, no.

Cheers,
Michael C Price
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http://mcp.longevity-report.com
http://www.hedweb.com/manworld.htm

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