I assume in conditions of one or more skipped global harvests, there would be a mass slaughter of livestock herds (which cant be fed anyway, and are far too large to live off pasturage only) This sudden supply of meat would be available, as well as the grain reserves, and peoples personal supplies.

As of right now, half the food grown in the US is used to feed livestock, which converts into edible food at 10% efficiency.

Thus we've got quite a bit of a safety margin. That a nuclear autumn would fall within the range where this is even an issue is rather slim most likely- either not much happens, or the world freezes over.

This thread is making me hungry.

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie


Things like rice, pasta and canned food is still edible after decades. When I was in the military, we got food that was stamped "Produced 1965" and it was just fine (if you can stand the flatula it produces) the farting would increase green house gasses warming the atmosphere and brining us out of nuclear winter. http://www.discussworldissues.com/im...ons/icon14.gif

Just make sure you have a good gun and a few friends and you'll always know you'll be the one with the food if anyone has any. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.gif

On the upside the EU and US tend to have great big storehouses full of surplus grain. One of the reasons they give away food aid so freely is because it is a good way to get rid of some of that excess grain.

Originally posted by Geronimo
probably obese populations would survie the catastrophie in much larger numbers than the physically fit populations. WOOT! The white folks are safe. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...danceparty.gif

(OK, bad joke)

World Food Reserves Under 70 Days
 

as long as you have guns and bullets things aren't all bad

Finally found a link on the Nuclear Autumn info.

groups.msn.com/JuntoSocietyAdults/sciencebits.msnw?action=get_message&mview=0&ID_Message=77&LastModified=4675401964186185659

In a 1990 article in Science, Sagan and his original coauthors admitted that their initial temperature estimates were wrong. They concluded that an all-out nuclear war could reduce average temperatures at most by 36 degrees Fahrenheit in northern climes. The chilling effect, in other words, would be more of a nuclear autumn. It would really mangle agricultural production, especially at the wrong time of year. Plus I don't have mukluks. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...es/biggrin.gif

Most westerners are too fat anyway.

I've been learning to live of the land/grow my own food etc for ages now. With the right set-up i could probably feed my close friends/family if needed, in theory.

Could i stop people with guns stealing it? thats a different story, i'll need to address that somehow.

If we have a large enviromental shift then i guess its the guys with guns that would last longer, but it might not be for much longer?

http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/frown.gif I was just remined of one of the Mad Max films - i'd be the guy who gets his hard won produce stolen by thugs! damnit http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.gif

Originally posted by Pekka
I have food for about...... well I have ketchup. I guess I can eat that few days. Hmmm, I've got a cat. We should team up.

I hunt, so I know where to get food. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...es/biggrin.gif

I have guns, so I would steal my food. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/evil2.gif

Originally posted by Flubber
. . . and I don't think ANYONE in Canada stocks only 3 days food-- Anyone that has would probably have gotten a bit hungry during something as routine as a major blizzard

I don't think we've had a blizzard that put roads out of comission for more than six hours here in suburban Toronto in the past ten years.

Forget about hunting in case of a volcano winter. The wildlife will starve too.

Any poster with info on the US and EU grain reserves (circa 2004/5) please post. Note that the minimum recommended intake of grain is 450 grams per person (from a site studying starvation in North Korea). Is that dry weight? A pound of dry brown rice would be alot for one day for me.

As a hunter and reloader (ex-Federal Firearms License, they increased the fees too much for serious hobbyists) the gun to have is a black powder rifle, or some of the old large cartridge winchesters, like the .41 winchester that started off as a blackpowder cartridge (I could have the wrong one, I'm doing this from memory). Scrap lead will be available for extended periods of time, and you can always convert to a flint or even matchlock. That, or a crossbow - regular bows are nice but take substantially more training.

The good thing is that in the continental US we will have abundent deer, and if you have a general civil breakdown, abundant dogs. Plus pidgeons, morning doves, and Canada geese. The biggest problem will be that people will need to relearn a series of life skills that are dwindling, so the losses would not be small. Definitely get a the old Foxfire series if you think something like that could happen. I recieved a set from my grandmother several years ago, and they are very interesting.

However, I'm still interested in the stockpiles of grain in various food producing countries, including Australia and Canada. If the timing is wrong, and with the general drift towards just-in-time delivery of goods, exactly how much food would the US have stockpiled let's say in July, before most of the grain harvest? Larger net food importing countries would suffer horrendous losses, including much of Africa and Asia. I'm not too sure on Central and South America.

The problem is WHEN the temperature drop occurs. If it occurs at the start of the planting season, and you are in an area with an adequate transportation net, you can do things like substitute short season coarse grains - barley and oats for example - for corn and soybeans. While you probably will not have adequate stocks to plant all the ground, at least you will get something in.

A similiar drop in April would be catastrophic. By the time you had any kind of temperature stabilization (temperature drops like that will create NASTY weather) it will be too late to get most crops in. Maybe radishes, some greens, etc. that you can freeze and survive off of. In the US at least you have not only the extenisve feed lot animal husbandry that would have to be slaughtered (mentioned by a previous poster), you also have very abundant white tail deer and non-migratory Canada geese.

I have food for about...... well I have ketchup. I guess I can eat that few days.

Come on BlackCat, do you NEVER jump to the last page in OT (from all time) and bump some threads from there?

They'd be locked if you weren't supposed to.