Drought Reduces Australia's Rice Crop By 98 Percent

Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of this dusty southern Australian town, remembers the constant whir of the rice mill. "It was our little heartbeat out there, tickety-tick-tickety," he said, imitating the giant fans that dried the rice, "and now it has stopped."

The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere, once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people around the world. But six long years of drought have taken a toll, reducing Australia's rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.

Ten thousand miles separate the mill's hushed rows of oversized silos and sheds -- beige, gray and now empty -- from the riotous streets of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but a widening global crisis unites them.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[sheila]

luckily (sarcasm), plans to bulldoze most of our sunny areas for "Solar Farms" will exacerbate drought conditions beyond redemption. dirty little secret about these "mirrored arrays" (other than the fact that they permanently destroy 10,000 acres of pristine wilderness for each 400 MW plant) is that they have to WASH the effing mirrors every day, depleting scarce groundwater supplies by at least 35 million gallons of water each year and creating toxic sludge and "salt cake."

All that devastation just to make sure consumers never get our grubby little mitts on our own solar panels on our own property. Destroying millions of acres of wilderness and calling themselves "green" while shoving conservation and point of use systems aside by hogging all the $$$ for their "utility scale" desert death machines.

Please remember - "renewable" does not always mean "sustainable," "green" or "good for the planet." only systems installed on previously developed land are helpful. The rest are just a bait and switch to further privatize corporate profits and to further socialize planetary costs - it's Big Oil wrapped in Green Clothing...

[TXfemmom]

I read an article the other day which explained that potatoes should be used to replace rice and wheat, which require more water, more fertilizer and better conditions in which to grow. There are many varieties of potatoes, which have a higher protein portion than rice and wheat, and can grow in cold, wet, dry, and poor soil.

The world needs to realize that adjustment is going to be required of all of us.

[craneman]

How long will it be until we will are on the "food standard" instead of gold?

[almoguy]

From the article:
" Meanwhile, changes like the use of water to grow wine grapes instead of rice carry their own costs, as the developing world is discovering."
"Rice is a staple food," said Graeme J. Haley, the general manager of the town of Deniliquin. "Chardonnay is not."

If you read this whole article, the situation is really scary. Here is a direct correlation between global climate change (human activity?) global agricultural markets based solely on profits (capitalism) and the very real possibility of human starvation. How did our priorities become so out of wack?

[WIpatriot]

Money, money, money, mon-ney...

Some people, got to have it....I used to watch "The Apprentice" (tm) just so I could hear that O'Jays song and chuckle for an hour.

[outnow]

Just drink sake, not chardonnay. CO2 increases production of rice but not without water. Invest in mortuaries! The benevolent, invisible hand of the free market will guide you to heaven. The planet does not need any rule that would hamper the free flow of capital internationally for the benefit of the multinational corporations. They just ski Dubai while we all die of starvation.

[WIpatriot]

Anybody else see rice futures up?

[ibsteve2u]

lollll...I sure do....China just slapped tariffs of 100%+ on fertilizer exports to ensure that they have enough (http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSPEK27931120080417).

That will smack agriculture in those nations in their vicinity around - and since almost all nations in their vicinity grow rice...

People always wasted their time worrying about the impact of a butterfly wing somewhere in the world when they should have focused more on what might happen if the leadership of the U.S. were to fall into the hands of immoral, cannibalistic capitalists - like our Republicans of the last 30 years.

[ErnestineBass]

Oh, but BOOOsh IS a butterfly, ibsteve2u.

An IRON BUTTERFLY.

(Innagoddadavida, baby)

heh heh