[Peakoil] SMH opinion on food security

[evfit at quokka.ace-hosting.com.au]

Thanks for posting this, Alex. It's great to have constant reminders that
cheap oil underwrites so much of our life and that proposals for electric
cars and light rail "just don't get it".

There is so much more that I could say, but will spare the preaching
except for commenting on just one observation:

> If Australia's population keeps growing at a rate of 1.2 million people
> every three years, and the Murray-Darling Basin continues to degrade, and
> the arid zone continues to expand, and cheap imported food continues to
> out-compete local product, Australia will become a net importer of food
> sooner rather than later. Hard to imagine, but inevitable on present
> trends.
>
No, IMPOSSIBLE to imagine. By the time Australia reaches the situation
described above, there'll be no other nation with a surplus of good food
available for Australia to import. We're it, folks - this generation is
the one that has to solve this problem.

Keith