Why Can't Egypt Feed Itself?

[MHz]

You could consider recent events in Manitoba just a refreshing of the land.

Well lets go with that flooding then, in the years there are no floods can crops still be grown. In Egypt the flood have stopped, that means building walls on each side and the diverting the water onto the flood plains. Sounds expensive and the silt from the headwaters doesn't make it past the dam anyway. If that wheel could be made to be 100ft tall the the water can be piped inland to 50 ft above water level. I don't know how much more land that would open up but even pure sand can be turned into topsoil over a few decades. If fertilizers have to also be used in the early stages not a big deal and most of the Prairies is as lifeless as desert sand which sometimes only lacks water before something will grow there. These days weeping hoses stretch water resources a lot further than the spraying methods in use in some systems.

I was under the impression money shortage also had much to do with people's ability to buy food rather than ther being none available. (to a certain degree) Growing cotton doesn't do much to lower the price of imported flour.

 

[petros]

Soil Salinity and Crop Yield at El-Salam Canal Area, Egypt - Lund University

 

[Unforgiven]

Actually, the reason that NewOrleans is sinking is the lack of silts coming down the river in the last 50 to 100 years.

You could consider recent events in Manitoba just a refreshing of the land.

This is something that is often not considered or thought of as a bad thing until there is desert conditions. Then it's all help help.

There was a mayor in a south american city that took matters into his own hands and bought everyone out of the areas that flood. Then let them flood, no one was bothered by it, named it a park and allowed free grazing all over it to ranchers. Took the money from the fed ear marked for flood diversion and renovated the downtown core and the transit system. Now I guess you don't wait more than two minutes for a bus or subway and it pays for itself. The parks are out of order for about two weeks a year due to flooding. Makes a good argument for working with the land rather than against it.

 

[Just the Facts]

Lots of Arab countries have a ton of cash. They could invest it in developing agriculture in the ME.

 

[Goober]

Unfortunately the food security system, domestic and globally is nothing more than a publicity
stunt and has little to do with the reality of food security. Most Canadians don't understand
we as farmers are subject to food safety regulations that farmers pay for. That is fine but the
fact still remains that the food coming into Canada from else where is not subject to the same
standards of regulation. America is facing the same problem, so before the world suggests
that America do more, I suggest the emerging nations should do Some it is more than they
are doing now.
Egypt can't feed itself because the have a large population in a concentrated area and the rest
of the country is desert. The nation in many cases has built their homes and commercial
buildings on the agricultural land that would support the food supply, combine that with the fact
their agricultural practices need to modernize, and you soon have a food shortage, that never
catches up with the demand.

Many of the farms are unproductive - enough to feed a family and that is about it - The Govt if they allowed large farms with all the practices that go with it could feed the country, so why do they not do it. Look at Cairo - Population approx 10 million - large percentage unemployed - amalgamating farms,using proper technology would send millions more to the cities. That is why they import food.Keeps the people out of the cities that have no jobs for them. Just think on how much more civil unrest will/would occur.

Next problem. The Nile - The countries along the Nile are going to be taking more water from it. The original agreement signed when the Brits were around gave most of the water to Egypt. That is going to change and change quickly.

Now see how many countries want water from the Nile.

Then you have the Blue Nile - Eithipoia is preparing dams, that will lessen the flow of water
Nile River

 

[Bar Sinister]

Actually, the reason that NewOrleans is sinking is the lack of silts coming down the river in the last 50 to 100 years.

You could consider recent events in Manitoba just a refreshing of the land.

Yes, it really is unfortuatae that the major crops in Manitoba are not cranberries and rice.

 

[gopher]

It's the USA's responsibility to feed the world while it still refuses to give universal health care to its own citizens?

Sez who??

 

[MHz]

It's the USA's responsibility to feed the world while it still refuses to give universal health care to its own citizens?

Sez who??

It is her responsibility to not interfere with another Nation being able to feed her people, through her own production or purchases.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

Unfortunately the food security system, domestic and globally is nothing more than a publicity
stunt and has little to do with the reality of food security. Most Canadians don't understand
we as farmers are subject to food safety regulations that farmers pay for. That is fine but the
fact still remains that the food coming into Canada from else where is not subject to the same
standards of regulation. America is facing the same problem, so before the world suggests
that America do more, I suggest the emerging nations should do Some it is more than they
are doing now.
Egypt can't feed itself because the have a large population in a concentrated area and the rest
of the country is desert. The nation in many cases has built their homes and commercial
buildings on the agricultural land that would support the food supply, combine that with the fact
their agricultural practices need to modernize, and you soon have a food shortage, that never
catches up with the demand.

Why doesn't Israel blame the desert for all its food woes? I wonder about all these apologists for third world irresponsibility.

I think Canadians understand food quite well. We have lots at good prices. Problem solved.

Actually very few nations are net food exporters and even nations like Canada and the USA which export more food than they sell are heavy importers of many products. Canada's reason for imports is obvious in that it is a country that uses many tropical and subtropical products without producing any of them.

Even nations that actively protect domestic food producers like Japan tend to import more food than they export. As Tonnigton pointed out the answer for the most part is quite simple; there is a global shortage of farmland. Most of the world is simply too dry, too rugged, or too cold to produce much in the way of food. Again Canada is a good example of this. In spite of possessing an area of about 10 million square km. Canada can only farm about five percent of that. In spite of improvements in agricultural techniques this is unlikely to change very much in the next decade or so. The result is that about two-thirds of the world depends on other nations for basic foodstuffs even though many of those nations are also exporters of some food commodities.

Much of the world is very fertile but the lazy people who live on this fertile land don't want to the physical labour required. And we're talking countries wiith hot climates where food will grow 12 months of the year. Why don't you people and the Kielburgers start to tell thiese lazy tropical people to get to work? Tell primitive Haitians they have to commercialize their agriculture like we do and start modernizing their country. Oh no, that's racism. Brown/black people are the best, they dance so well.

I'm afraid we have another inept apologist for third world irresponsibility. Plus plus, Canada is very cold and we still grow a ton of food.
You people are really starting to bore me.

 

[EagleSmack]

It is her responsibility to not interfere with another Nation being able to feed her people, through her own production or purchases.

And the US is doing that?

 

[ironsides]

It is her responsibility to not interfere with another Nation being able to feed her people, through her own production or purchases.

We can interfere with any nation we want as to what we trade or don't trade, it is called free enterprise. If we need a nation to do something for us, using trade is not wrong, just leverage they can always refuse.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

It's the USA's responsibility to feed the world while it still refuses to give universal health care to its own citizens?

Sez who??

The USA considers itself the world's policeman, and now it wants to be the world's farmer? I guess now its the rise of the agricultural-food complex. I see policy gridlock on the horizon. People don't like to work for free or waste their money. tick tick tick

 

[EagleSmack]

The USA considers itself the world's policeman,

From the nation that claims to be the Father of Peacekeeping? I'd bet Canadian soldiers have been deployed just as much as us.

 

[ironsides]

"People don't like to work for free or waste their money. tick tick tick"

Why should they, there will be no policy gridlock, just do ya wanna eat?
Seriously though, the U.S. is tightening it's belt and the freebies will be harder to come by. Just look at all the internal cutbacks were experiencing.

 

[Durry]

A smart country would control it's population so that it can feed it's people.
But if all you know is how to breed four wives, well, what can one say ??

 

[gopher]

''The USA considers itself the world's policeman, and now it wants to be the world's farmer?''

I do not see the USA as feeder and policeman of the world. These roles do not appear in the Constitution and there is no possible justification for the idea that the government needs to take this type of responsibility.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I'm inclined to think the real reason Egypt, and most of the rest of the Third World, can't feed itself is because the people running those places are riddled with corruption, nepotism, and incompetence, and their people are woefully ignorant. I've spent some time in Egypt dealing with officialdom at various levels on behalf of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and one of my brothers-in-law has spent a lot of time all around the Third World on behalf of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. This is admittedly only anecdotal, but what we've seen strongly suggests that most Third World governments are so staggeringly corrupt as to be beyond help, and most Third World people are so poorly educated that you can't explain to them what you're doing there.

CIDA once had a project to provide potable water in various places in central Africa, to provide well water to people rather than having them rely on parasite-infested surface water, and when the pump on a well broke down the locals blamed it on a demon in the well and would no longer touch the water from it. They went back to dipping out surface water for their drinking and washing, and walking many miles to get it, and continued to suffer high rates of parasitic intestinal disease. I've no clue how to deal with people like that.

 

[captain morgan]

I'm inclined to think the real reason Egypt, and most of the rest of the Third World, can't feed itself is because the people running those places are riddled with corruption, nepotism, and incompetence, and their people are woefully ignorant..... Third World people are so poorly educated that you can't explain to them what you're doing there.

Case in point, look what happens to the "aid money" that moves into these regions from the Western Nations. The only thing that it really "aids" is fattening the bank accounts of the upper echelons of gvt and military powers. It absolutely amazes me that these nations that have/had, at best, a tenuous hold on the most very basic needs like agricultural capacity, healthcare and education all have standing armies and air force capacity.

They're almost like mini versions of North Korea.

CIDA once had a project to provide potable water in various places in central Africa, to provide well water to people rather than having them rely on parasite-infested surface water, and when the pump on a well broke down the locals blamed it on a demon in the well and would no longer touch the water from it. They went back to dipping out surface water for their drinking and washing, and walking many miles to get it, and continued to suffer high rates of parasitic intestinal disease. I've no clue how to deal with people like that.

Try as you might; you can't drag anyone kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

 

[Tonington]

CIDA once had a project to provide potable water in various places in central Africa, to provide well water to people rather than having them rely on parasite-infested surface water, and when the pump on a well broke down the locals blamed it on a demon in the well and would no longer touch the water from it. They went back to dipping out surface water for their drinking and washing, and walking many miles to get it, and continued to suffer high rates of parasitic intestinal disease. I've no clue how to deal with people like that.

Education is the only way...not easy though. This area of the world kills albinos and consume them to ingest their powers...Show them the broken part on the pump, and show them a picture of the parasites in the water...then see which they think is a demon.

Here's one:

And the ubiquitous Giardia:

 

[ironsides]

In answer why Egypt cannot feed herself is that Egypt's population has far outstripped the ability of her land to support herself. Just like Ethiopia, a once bountiful place turned into a wasteland by her people over the past 1000+ years or so. Might even happen to us someday. I once heard that the best thing we can do for these people is give them suitcases.