Topsoil In Low Supply: The Next Global Crisis
Over the summer, Iran bought more than 1 million tons of wheat from the U.S.
That’s something we’ve not seen in 27 summers. In Iran’s case, a tough drought cut the wheat harvest by a third, forcing the country to look abroad. But still, the fact that Iran had to come to the U.S. is telling. It’s like Lee asking Grant for rations in the summer of 1863. As one analyst put it: “Do you think Iran would come to the U.S. if they had any place else they could buy it?… They’re searching the world for wheat. They’re buying the U.S. because it’s the only thing they can buy.”
it speaks more to a deeper issue: an emerging shortage in fertile soil. Yes, we’re running out of good dirt..Fertile soil – good dirt – may become more important to land values than oil or minerals in the ground. Some say it is already a strategic asset on par with oil. As Lennart Bage, president of a U.N. fund for ag development says, “Now fertile land with access to water has become a strategic asset.”