But I thought increased CO2 would cause crops to double and triple! After all, indoor hemp growers pump CO2 into their basement grow rooms to increase their output. Isn’t the planet just like a fluorescent lit closet in a lab, or your neighbor’s basement?
When Russia had to ban wheat exports this past summer due to losses from the worst heatwave in 1000 years, – grain prices shot up around the planet. Now, according to the Telegraph, the worst spring floods in Australian history are raising questions about another major grain exporter’s output.
This video covered the paradox.
NPR touched on the story after the Russian debacle, in an interview with Chris Hurt, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University.
BLOCK: And who would be on the receiving end of that wheat that now may not be getting wheat at all?
Mr. HURT: The ones are really going to be affected: Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria, Morocco and Iraq, so really some of the neighboring countries in Africa and on into Iran.
The other thing that’s really difficult for these countries is they have low incomes, generally 5 to 15 percent of incomes of people here in the United States. So when a basic food item like wheat goes up dramatically in price, it really affects their ability to pay for that. And, of course, the pure will-it-be-available question is another one that really makes people very worried.
From the January 4, 2011, Telegraph
US wheat futures rose heavily yesterday as concerns grew that Australian wheat growers will be unable to deliver their harvests as a result of the devastation. Australia is the world’s fourth largest exporter of wheat after the USA, Canada and Russia.
I feel obligated to mention that no one in their right mind would grow hemp in their basement. They would grow a strain that has meaningful amounts of THC in the plant.