I have had nightmares about global warming in which there were massive worldwide crop failures. In the dream, the collapse in food supply on the shelves hasn't hit yet, but it's inevitable.
this post was submitted on 04 Jul 2026
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That's my big worry as well, a single harvest failure could easily trigger a global famine.
China's got huge grain stockpiles, I'm sure they're plenty aware and nobody else is following lead
Yeah, China takes food security seriously, they're also leading in building greenhouses for climate controlled food production from what I've read.
While I'm normally pretty ignorant on China their greenhouse game is something I've been aware of for a while. Its awe inspiring really. When you look into greenhouses and how how to deal with them in a research sense, you will inevitably run into what China is doing. Its a drastic difference compared to the individualistic approach the west has, especially America. That is to say, some people are doing some pretty spectacular things, but it won't be helpful to the people.
I often wonder how much the cult of liberal individualism in the west has contributed to utter inability to plan and solve long horizon problems that we see today.
A lot probably
China has stockpiles for China. Not so much for the rest of the world.
The issue is that China has a huge population but surprisingly little flat, arable land compared to its total landmass. A lot of China is mountains or deserts.
The US for example has much more farmable space (the most in the world, or closely tied with India), and even Russia, with so much of its landmass being arctic tundra, still has more than China, and that's not even taking per capita into account.
So yes China has done a very good job ensuring its own food security given its difficult conditions, but much of the rest of the world will still struggle.
from what i've heard, the us-"israeli" aggression that triggered the Iranian blockade of Hormuz could lead to this scenario (earlier than climate change related effects) due to severe reduction of materials for making fertilizer
I need to look at more recent figures, but I’m pretty sure this is in part a result of cheap Chinese agri equipment making it easier for global south countries to grow their own. Let’s not forget that American cash crop exports have been a key lever in imperialist extraction over the last 80 years or so
I don't think wheat is considered a cash crop, i think it's the opposite of cash crop when you grow staple foods
Wheat is absolutely a cash crop
cash crops are specifically not eaten as food though, that what makes growing a shitload of cash crops a bad idea and a cause for famine
If the wheat were 100% being used for shit like biodiesel it would be a cash crop, but it's not
If "wheat is a cash crop" were true the same would be true for rice and at that point the phrase is literally meaningless because it offers no meaningful distinction
Edit: the lying machine agrees with you but i disagree, it thinks the distinguishing factor is whether or not it's subsistence agriculture and I disagree because that doesn't fucking matter lol a cash crop isn't just "a crop that is grown for money" it's a crop which only has trade value for money. Otherwise every bit of excess a subsistence farmer grows and sells magically becomes "a cash crop" and there's no distinction between the end-use of what is being grown, which is what matters. Farmers planting a bunch of wheat that ends up being sold aren't "relying on cash crops" in the same way as cotton or tobacco farmers are.
A cash crop is any crop grown to sell for cash to a (foreign) market, not "non-edible" crops.
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If you accept capitalism/wealth extraction is the natural state of the world, I’m sure calling it a cash crop starts to look like a meaningless distinction. (I’m not saying you do, but I also won’t say you don’t given the context)
I believe it’s worth noting that the mode of agricultural production that gives us wheat as a mass export commodity (often used as a tool for imperialist leverage against colonised peoples) does so for the sake of profit and not to feed humans.
It's still not a cash crop though, you're never goingto have a shitload of farmers growing wheat going OH NO WE OVER LEVERAGED INTO CASH CROPS AND NOW THERES A FAMINE
I’ll take “what’s the Irish famine?” For 500
That's also not the Irish famine though.
Irish peasants grew potatoes because it was more or less the only thing nutrient dense enough to sustain them, due to ever decreasing lot-sizes. Then potato blight + English landlords forcing continued export of food, despite an ongoing famine.
Arguing that someone is willing to pay for food, thus all crops are cash crops is like arguing capitalism has been around forever because people traded in the middle ages
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Weird how Ive never heard the Irish famine being blamed on "potatoes are a cash crop" until now as you nerds attempt to reinvent the term
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Hey, what's up, I live in Ag Country.
Cash Crop is kind of a meaningless distinction, but the way farmers use the term is to separate the portion of their field/harvest not by type or species but what their plan for that chunk of the field is, come harvest time.
There are farmers near me that designate about 10-20% of their soybean or wheat yield as Personal or Subsistence Crop to feed to their family and livestock, and then the other 80-90% of that is Cash Crop.
The colloquial use of the term Cash Crop has entered the public consciousness incorrectly, and the argument here is basically the same as when people misunderstand the definition of the word Theory. There's a breakdown between the specific scientific use as a format for an explanation distinct from a Law, and the colloquial use which just means an idea.
Why did that happen? Because in many places of the world and at different times, farmers were forced to designate most or all of their yield to be sold or to choose which crops they plant based entirely on sale price to the detriment of their ability to grow their personal subsistence crops. That concept is what entered the public consciousness, and I think that's the problem here.
I will never agree with another definition for cash crops, cash crops are crops whose only utility is to be sold for cash and that's an inherent property of the actual thing being farmed. Defining all commodified crops as cash crops also muddles analysis of things like what's going on with this wheat (sold to Africa cheap, African farmers can't compete on staple foods, and consequently choose to grow other crops i.e. cotton or soy for sale. One definition has both U.S. and African producers growing "cash crops" but that ignores that one being a staple food product, the ones relying on the import of that have overwhelming dependency on that continued import to not starve)
Also like things like tobacco and cotton, you can't subsist on them at all. They only have purpose as raw materials to be sold. That's what makes them inherently cash crops. I will never agree with another definition, I'll just say the other person is wrong. If farmers are using the wrong definition then that's fine, they can be wrong too
No, yeah, I feel you. That's why Literally means Figuratively and linguistic prescriptivism is bad.
Words have meanings and those meanings are whatever I want them to be and everyone else is wrong!
Words have meanings and those meanings are whatever I want them to be and everyone else is wrong
Finally someone gets it
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Yes, wouldn’t cash crops be for instance corn and soy which are largely not for human consumption (biofuels/livestock feed)
I would consider those cash crops yeah because those are the intended purposes and a lot of it can't even be used for human consumption even if you wanted to. Wheat has industrial uses (literally everything does) but I've never heard of it being grown on anywhere near the scale of those for those purposes
Anyway Google's lying machine says i'm wrong but i still disagree
Google is psyoping again trust the plan 🌽🌾
Every now and then i feel like the entire world retcons some bit of language into some absolute fucking nonsense and this is one of those times. A cash crop isn't a cash crop just because it's sold for fucking money, it's a cash crop if being sold for money is all it's fucking good for!
being sold for money is all it's fucking good for
This makes it sound like cash crops are the agricultural equivalent of NFTs lol
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Today I learned about the definition of a cash crop
No you didn't you just saw nerds embarrass themselves
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How are the circus harvest coming though?
I'm sure it's fine.
250 years… average age… blah blah blah
Let them eat Bugles
67 comments and i can see 5 of them that's how i know im posting properly
It can be solved. It just needs electrolytes.
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