Sunday 9 May 2004

Pic of the day: Sunset for Norwegian agriculture. OK, actually it's a screenshot from the final episode of the anime Boys Be..., which is far more awesome than this blurry photo shows. But enough of that.

Food to the world

The Norwegian government has gracefully offered to only moderately cut subsidies to farming. Evidently those who still try to grow food here in Norway are to be allowed to live out their days in peace, as long as they don't try to foist the folly on a new generation.

Even in the recent past, there was a broad agreement that Norway should have its own agriculture. I am so old, I can remember when "food security" was listed as a reason for this. That is, the idea that Norway should be able to produce its own food in case imports were blocked by some crisis. Of course, already at that time it was pretty obvious that only the collapse of civilization itself could cause such a problem. So the next big reason for subsidizing agriculture was to keep all of the country settled. Norway is a very long and sparsely populated country; much of it has an arctic or mountainous climate. As more and more people flocked to the cities, there was the worry that much of the country might be left deserted.

But the real reason all the time was probably the fact that most Norwegians had their grandparents in the countryside. Urbanization was a fairly recent thing, and many people would spend their summer holiday on a farm with some relatives who still lived there. Well, that time is past. Grandpa is dead, the farm has become a summer house and is probably sold by now. (Well, that doesn't apply to my family, at least not on my mother's side, but this is how most people see it.) So, people no longer feel such a sentimental attachment to the countryside. Why bother with farming when we can get our food in the supermarket?

***

And let us face it: Norway is not ideal for farming. It is stony and steep for the most part, and while it's not as arctic as you might expect this far north, the winter is still fairly long. (Except here on the south coast, thank goodness.) We can grow some rare berries that don't feel too well in more temperate climates, but most other things can be grown cheaper elsewhere. Especially since Norwegians are used to getting paid well for what they do, and preferably not work too hard either.

You'd think that with more and more people in the world, food would be so scarce, prices would soar. Perhaps that shall yet happen. But it's not the current trend. Rather, people eat more and more. Sure there is the occasional famine, but it is not caused by too little food; it is caused by war, "civil" war and armed uprisings. While some people starve, others burn their crops because the price is not right, while others again gorge till they keel over dead.

In China alone, each year the number of people who move up from poverty to middle class exceeds the entire population of the Nordic countries put together. And one of the first things to change is the diet. The poor eat mostly rice, with some fish or chicken on days of celebration. But the middle class loves meat. You may have heard this already, but to make one pound of pork you need to feed the pig ten pounds of grain. Ten pounds of grain that people could have eaten.

Admittedly, a pound of grain does not contain as many calories as a pound of meat, and definitely not as much protein. But you still lose around 80% of the caloric value, and you can get proteins from other sources cheaper and healthier than meat. So extreme ecological organizations want us all to become vegetarians, or at least only eat small amounts of meat and fish. People don't listen to them, though, and strangely enough this seems to have no effect on the food supply. There is just enough for those who are not ruined by war or misgovernment, and that's how it was when I was a kid 40 years ago as well. Only we're like twice as many people now.

***

So, contrary to common sense, when world population grows, food production grows slightly faster. As world population grows, less and less people are starving (at least in % of total population) and more and more people are eating themselves to death. And the world population is now so large (well over 6 billion) that it is no longer feasible to grow much food here in Norway. It is so much cheaper to buy it from abroad. And if we allowed import from developing countries, it would be even more so. I bet if they were allowed to export their food, they would starve less than they do now that they keep it. (Because if they could sell their food, they could get money to buy tools and stuff, OK?)

But here in Norway we don't need farms. Who wants milk from dumb cows when you can get cold milk from the supermarket? And besides, the farmers can be re-trained to more productive work, like moving money back and forth.