u/Electronic_Dream8935

From the Article:

>Global food prices hit their highest levels on record after the 1970s energy crisis, triggered by conflict in the Middle East, once inflation is corrected for. Could we be headed for a new record – the worst food shock ever – as fuel, fertiliser and pesticide prices skyrocket because of the turmoil in Iran?

>Faced with soaring costs, many farmers are likely to plant less in the coming weeks, leading to shortfalls and rising food prices later this year. This is already happening, but just how bad it will get depends on many factors, from how long the war continues to how hard global warming-fuelled weather extremes hit crops this year.

>“The potential is there for this to develop into a major crisis for poor and hungry people,” says Matin Qaim at the University of Bonn in Germany.

>“We are in a bit of a perfect storm, and there isn’t any easy way out of this,” says Tim Benton at the University of Leeds, UK. “Even if everything was solved tomorrow, it will take some time, as we’ve found with post-covid reconstruction.”

>After declining for decades after the 1970s peak, global food prices have, in real terms, been rising since the 2000s and aren’t far off that 1970s record. Climate change is a big factor, with more extreme heat, floods and storms hitting yields, sometimes to the extent of causing global food shocks like that seen in 2010. The covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s war on Ukraine also led to big jumps.

>Rising biofuel production is also pushing up food prices, with more than 5 per cent of food calories now being turned into fuel rather than eaten. While some governments have acknowledged that food-based biofuels should be phased out, a recent report estimated that 92 per cent of biofuels will still be food-based in 2030.

>Now, the US and Israeli attacks on Iran are leading to a big shortfall in the raw materials crucial for food production and distribution. Fuel is the obvious one. Diesel fuel is what powers a lot of farm machinery, as well as the ships and trucks that move food around, so increases in the price of oil eventually lead to higher prices in supermarkets.

Sounds like they want Oregon's water and they want it now. A precious resource for ai. https://www.opb.org/article/2026/01/15/as-googles-water-demands-grow-the-dalles-aims-to-pull-more-from-mount-hood-forest/