While we’ve been seeing news of extraordinary snows in China, folks in the north are in the grip of what sounds like serious drought:
The drought has led to loss of arable land, livestock and drinking water, according to the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, the official Xinhua News Agency said late Sunday.
China’s south and central areas have been hit by the country’s worst snow storms in more than 50 years, but in the north 2.43 million people have been left without sufficient drinking water and 27 million acres of arable land and 1.89 million livestock have been affected, Xinhua said.
Lester Brown has been pointing this out for some years now. Continued and worsening drought in this region of China will drive them even more to the world grain market, as they use grain to import their water. You can see this the last 3 years on the world grain markets.
Best,
D
Dano,
Regarding China’s greater reliance upon grain imports, it is neither questions of when and how much; rather, it raises questions of famine and social unrest in less developed nations surviving on Food for Peace and other food subsidy programs.
See:
ECONOMY-CHINA: Staring At Grain Imports
By Antoaneta Bezlova
BEIJING, Feb 26 (IPS) – With global food prices on an upward spiral, China is facing renewed fears that its growing demand for grain to feed the world’s largest population may lead to imports from international markets, driving prices higher and spurring further food inflation.
At: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41345
John L. McCormick
Yup. Fully agree John Mc. Earth Policy called it (altho not the biofuels complication).
Best,
D