Famine

     “Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.” Psalms 105:16

      “Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy; 

     To deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine.” 

Job 33:18,19

     “Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine.”

Jeremiah 11:22

Perilous Times and Climate Change

Growing Deserts and Soil Erosion Threatens to Leave Earth Empty and Hungry*

Arable land is turning to desert or to salt at an ever-faster rate, lessening the hope that we can feed our booming population

      John Vidal
      Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 14 December 2010 14.00 GMT

China desert 2010 review Borderline ... farmers in northern China struggle to eke out a living on the fringes of the Gobi desert. 

Within 40 years, there will be around 2 billion more people -- another China plus India -- on Earth. Food production will have to increase at least 40%, and most of that will have to be grown on the fertile soils that cover just 11% of the global land surface.

There is little new land that can be brought into production, and existing land is being lost and degraded. Annually, says the UN's food and agricultural organisation, 75bn tonnes of soil, the equivalent of nearly 10m hectares of arable land, is lost to erosion, waterlogging and salination; another 20m hectares is abandoned because its soil quality has been degraded.

The implications are terrifying. "The world is facing a serious threat of a major food shortage within the next 30 years. We are trying to grow more food on less land while facing increased costs for fertilizer, fuel and a short supply of water," says Professor Keith Goulding, head of sustainable soils at Rothamsted research station and president of the British society of soil science.