Originally posted by Lestov16
I wouldn't mind doing that. But later. Now I'm asking about the Corn Belt.
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.
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 👆
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?
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 DolosWait... America would be so desperate for food that they'd invade a third world country... for food?
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.