Whisky Galore

According Scotland’s chief statistician, barley production has grown from around 190,000 tonnes in 1914 to 2million tonnes last year. Figures also revealed the area of land used to grow barley has increased by 316% to more than 800,000 acres, from just under 200,000 acres. Yields have increased by 178% to 2.55 tonnes per acre, from just under one tonne per acre previously.

According to farm minister Richard Lochhead, around 30% of the 2013 crop – 600,000 tonnes – was used by the brewing and distilling industries. “Over the last 20 years, the barley area has represented around 70 per cent of the area of all cereals grown in Scotland, and around half of all crops,” said Mr Lochhead. 

In the past 20 years, barley has made up around 70% of the area of cereals grown in Scotland and around half of all crops. In the first half of the 20th century, the area of barley grown in Scotland didn’t exceed 247,000 acres.

Let’s be blunt, and despite some peoples fondness of a wee dram, say clearly whisky isn’t a beneficial nutritious food and the barley not grown for food but as a cash-crop for the distilleries  means it isn’t available for livestock or people.

Increasing the world's food supply won't end hunger

An article by Jill Richardson of the Organic Consumers Association makes interesting reading and confirms much of the socialist case.

Some extracts  

Every October, world leaders and corporate executives gather in Iowa to present the World Food Prize to celebrate those who make the largest contributions to increasing the world’s food supply. The corporations that fund the World Food Prize may not entirely drive its agenda, but they certainly influence it. By focusing on the sheer volume of food in the world, they aim to reduce global hunger to a simple matter of science. Then they sell us on the idea that we need their products to increase the amount of food farmers harvest from each acre. But producing more food doesn’t always mean feeding more hungry mouths.  Ending hunger is not a simple matter of growing more food. It involves social science as well as physical science.

When a farmer produces an extra ten bushels of crops from each acre of land, perhaps more people will eat — or maybe not. Americans don’t have to travel around the world to see this, we must only ask our grandparents. During the Great Depression, farmers grew a great surplus of food, and food prices crashed. Both farmers and consumers suffered, as farmers went into bankruptcy while the urban poor starved. Today, we grow more food than we need — and then throw 40 percent of it away. Meanwhile, many Americans can afford to eat enough calories but only by buying cheap junk food that will ultimately make them sick. And that’s just in America, a wealthy nation. What about poor countries?

If we aim to make any real progress toward ending poverty and hunger, we must start by challenging the inequality in our world today.

Profits or People

During the Irish potato famine of 1845 to 1848, the worst year is known as Black '47, when 400,000 people died of starvation and disease. During that time, vast quantities of food continued to leave the country's shores. 4,000 ships carrying grain and livestock sailed from Ireland to the ports of Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow in 1847, according to Dr Christine Kinealy, a fellow at the University of Liverpool.

"I know all the difficulties that arise when you begin to interfere with trade," wrote the Irish Lord Lieutenant at the time, Lord Bessborough, who pleaded unsuccessfully for help from the government in London. "But it is difficult to persuade a starving population that one class should be permitted to make 50pc profit by the sale of provisions whilst they are dying for want of these."

In the world today, just as in Black '47, when wagon-loads of food were exported under guard by the army, there is enough capacity to feed everyone that is in need yet 2.3 million children die from malnutrition every year.

Food Facts to Chew Upon

About one-third of all food produced globally, worth around 1 trillion U.S. dollars, gets lost or wasted in food production and consumption systems.


The average German food wastage amounts to 15 kg food per year while British wastage 9 times higher than the Germany. 30 per cent of the UK’s vegetable crop wasted occurs on the corporate end because the food does not meet aesthetic standards, e.g. size and color. Japan wasted about 20 million tons of food annually which is equivalent to 30 percent of the country’s production. Americans contribution to food waste was at about 28.25 million tons per annum.
In developing countries, most food loss or wasted occurs during production stage due to poor infrastructure, low levels of technology, and low investment in food production systems. At the consumption stage, the food wastage amount is almost zero. Bangladesh contributes insignificant share to the global home and it mostly occurs during food production stage due to poor technology and infrastructure. It is pointed that during pre and post- harvesting processes almost 12 percent rice and 15 percent wheat are wasted. It is further reported that 3 percent of rice is wasted due to unconventional seed conservation practices. The wasted rate of perishable items like vegetables and fruits are alarmingly high is nearly 40 percent.

A crazy world

There are 870 million hungry people in the world today, experts estimate, yet around the world 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year.

Millions of tons of food, particularly perishable fresh produce, also go to waste in the developing world as a result of poor transport networks or lack of markets, storage facilities, and processing equipment.

“I have witnessed people throwing away tomatoes, vegetables, and fruits, among other produce, simply because they did not find a market for it, and they have nowhere to keep it,” said Jane Kathure Biashara, a Kenyan community development expert

Fact of the Day

According to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization post-harvest losses in Asia are estimated at around 30 percent of yearly food production which means at least 100 million tons of food is lost every year.
In rice-producing countries all over Asia, rats are blamed for the loss of 6 percent of production, which is equivalent to the amount that 225 million Asians consume in a year.