Right now I beleive a major famine is just around the corner.

[begin sarcasm]
Doomer porn! Doomer porn! How dare you bring such stuff into the holy of holies that we call TOD!!!!
[end sarcasm]

In truth, Euan, I agree with you on that statement too. The grain situation for the last 8 years has not looked very good at all as we've plunged from just over 100 days of global grain supply to about 50 days of global grain supply. Given that 7 of the 8 last years resulted in drawing down stocks of grain and in that time we've cut our stocks in half, we are literally 8 years away from famine if present trends continue.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Dr. Albert Bartlett
Into the Grey Zone

Cereal Killer

This chart suggests cereal stocks reaching zero before 8 years. A topic I think we need a detailed look at. Stuart was working on a post but has gotten sidetracked - definitely a subject to pursue though. I was also interested in the comments of Ziz down the thread about fertilizer production being concentrated in the ME. This makes sense but doesn't half open up a major pile of security issues.

Isn't most grain used to feed livestock?

Couldn't we reduce our per-capita grain consumption by about 80% by going vegetarian?

Ya, enjoy those burgers and steaks while you can.