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Let's say someone hypothetical made a virus that wiped out all crops in the Wheat Belt and rendered the entire area infertile. How bad would this hurt the US and how would it affect international affairs?

Let's say you consolidated all these hypotheticals into a single thread called "Lestov Asks"...

I wouldn't mind doing that. But later. Now I'm asking about the Corn Belt.

Originally posted by Lestov16
I wouldn't mind doing that. But later. Now I'm asking about the Corn Belt.
Just ask a mod to merge your existing threads and post your questions and suppositions there.

Anent the topic: this is a virus that effects all cereal crops? Wouldn't it spread to other regions? If it wipes out all the corn and wheat crops in the Midwest then there would be wide spread food shortages, maybe even moderate famine. As I understand it, most corn is produced as animal feed, so in the short term you'd probably see large scale cullings of cattle and pigs and a huge spike in meat prices. Ethanol would cease to be a viable option, but I'm not sure how important ethanol is to American energy security in the first place, since it seems like after the advent of shale oil and new offshore sites the ethanol movement has died down or at least quieted down. On a global scale I imagine that food prices will rise considerably and most food aid to developing nations will either shut off or be reduced.

The main implication though wouldn't be "OMG America's crops are dead", it would be "OMG there's a super virus that wipes out cereal crops, we might be next", because any virus prolific and severe enough to destroy American agriculture would be a threat to all cereal crops in the world.

Edit: According to Wikipedia, ethanol accounts for 10% of America's domestic fuel production, and domestic fuels account for less than half of America's fuel consumption, so I would think that the loss of ethanol would increase gas prices in America by a significant but not incredible rate, and worldwide by a lesser rate because of increased demand.

Probably not much. They'd just invade Canada and Mexico and take some new clean land to grow stuff. Their usual behaviour. Or they'd force countries to sell them cereal crops for next to nothing like what they do with other crops from south American countries and African countries now.

Originally posted by jaden101
Probably not much. They'd just invade Canada and Mexico and take some new clean land to grow stuff. Their usual behaviour. Or they'd force countries to sell them cereal crops for next to nothing like what they do with other crops from south American countries and African countries now.

America is pretty awesome

that is definitely how economics works.

Originally posted by jaden101
Probably not much. They'd just invade Canada and Mexico...

i believe you mean "liberate"

Originally posted by Omega Vision
Just ask a mod to merge your existing threads and post your questions and suppositions there.

Anent the topic: this is a virus that effects all cereal crops? Wouldn't it spread to other regions? If it wipes out all the corn and wheat crops in the Midwest then there would be wide spread food shortages, maybe even moderate famine. As I understand it, most corn is produced as animal feed, so in the short term you'd probably see large scale cullings of cattle and pigs and a huge spike in meat prices. Ethanol would cease to be a viable option, but I'm not sure how important ethanol is to American energy security in the first place, since it seems like after the advent of shale oil and new offshore sites the ethanol movement has died down or at least quieted down. On a global scale I imagine that food prices will rise considerably and most food aid to developing nations will either shut off or be reduced.

The main implication though wouldn't be "OMG America's crops are dead", it would be "OMG there's a super virus that wipes out cereal crops, we might be next", because any virus prolific and severe enough to destroy American agriculture would be a threat to all cereal crops in the world.

Edit: According to Wikipedia, ethanol accounts for 10% of America's domestic fuel production, and domestic fuels account for less than half of America's fuel consumption, so I would think that the loss of ethanol would increase gas prices in America by a significant but not incredible rate, and worldwide by a lesser rate because of increased demand.

How would this effect the US economy and international trade?

Originally posted by Lestov16
How would this effect the US economy and international trade?
Higher food and fuel prices means higher cost of living. Higher cost of living means people will have to save more money and spend less on non-essentials. Less spending means less economic growth. As for international trade, I already said that grain and meat prices would rise globally, but more so in countries that are major importers of American agricultural goods.

Originally posted by focus4chumps
i believe you mean "liberate"

Touche

Originally posted by focus4chumps
i believe you mean "liberate" We've been dying to have America come inside and liberate us for a long time now. But they've been ignoring our subtle invites--demilitarized border guys, c'mon!

longest non-militarized border in the world, pfft, what are we, pussies?

Pussies dying for a good invasion. Take the f*cking hint, America.

For the U.S., it's very valuable.

To the point where if yellow stone erupted and it's smut drifted over the entire U.S. Farm Belt, we'd likely invade another country to make up the deficit in corn...given, for the U.S., it wouldn't take much effort to go in and conquer a third world country by military force, given the shit-load of resources our military has just sitting around basically as wasted money.

Originally posted by Dolos
For the U.S., it's very valuable.

To the point where if yellow stone erupted and it's smut drifted over the entire U.S. Farm Belt, we'd likely invade another country to make up the deficit in corn...given, for the U.S., it wouldn't take much effort to go in and conquer a third world country by military force, given the shit-load of resources our military has just sitting around basically as wasted money. Wait... America would be so desperate for food that they'd invade a third world country... for food?

Originally posted by Lord Lucien
Wait... America would be so desperate for food that they'd invade a third world country... for food?
Dolos strikes again.