Expanding on what I mentioned earlier, the earth has about 12 million square kilometers of arable land. That's about 7.7 billion acres, or just over an acre per person (on average, if it was all used). The United States has tons of arable land, about 400 million acres, but because of the large US population that's still not much more than an acre per person. Canada has less arable land (about 112 million acres) because so much of our nation is desert and otherwise inhospitable, but because of our small population we have about three acres per person.
European countries are fairly troubled; Germany has only about a third of an arable acre per person, France has about two thirds of an arable acre, and the UK has less than a quarter acre per person. Spain has a bit under an acre, and Portugal has about a third of an arable acre per person. Surprisingly, some of the Northern European nations are doing great with as much as 10 acres per person in Finland. Their neighbors in Russia have about two acres per person, and down in China they have only a quarter acre per person (to say nothing of their water crisis). In India it gets a little better because they have so much farmland, but still it's less than a third of an acre per person.
I'm told that you can feed a family of four using about an acre of land and a couple of goats and perhaps some chickens (highly efficient animals)… But to achieve that type of volume in a way that isn't instantly voided by peak oil, they have to be small scale farms producing for local markets. If enough of the right crisises hit at the wrong time, it's going to get real miserable for folks who don't live in North America (I strongly believe that North America will turn out fine — Canada and America combined have a ton of fresh water, mineral, oil, and farmland), and our populations are stable and we're very difficult to invade.
I'll tell you though, I don't think I'd want to be in Europe come fifteen years from now when the shit hits the fan and we realize that the real war isn't for oil, it's for fresh water and food. I'm thinking that over the next two years I should try and set a goal of fixing my finances and buying a small farm with a nice forest somewhere near the city (where should I go?)… I know if there's one kind of people I'd like to be around if the world goes to hell, and that's farmers, and if it doesn't go to hell — a boutique farm in a boutique town sounds quite nice too. Somewhere lush.
Oh, and in terms of the crisis I mentioned in the previous entry… old people make great farmers!
[Yes, I know that you can make these numbers genuinely scary if you take into account water pollution... But I'm trying to be upbeat in a "wow things are fucked up, but we can make it through this" sort of way].
