We threw out our back earlier this week. So much so that one afternoon when we accidentally dropped something on the floor we realized that there was no way we could pick it up. There it would stay until we either got better, our cat ate it or our wife returned home. Many years ago we hurt our back so bad we could not get out of bed. Eventually, sometime early in the afternoon, we torturously forced ourselves up, put on a robe and walked towards the kitchen. When we write “walked” what we really mean is we shambled awkwardly with our torso parallel to the floor since we were unable to straighten up, our hair (longer then) shooting in multiple directions at once, unshaven, looking like a crazed maniac escaped from the asylum.
Our neighbors were selling their house at this time and as it happens we were making our Igor-like way past the large dining room window which looks into our neighbor’s front yard just as the real estate agent was escorting a young up and coming couple to the neighbor’s front door. Our memory was the couple was as well-scrubbed, fresh and innocent looking as the most corny Norman Rockwell depiction you can imagine. And then they saw me through the window. A look of horror crossed the young woman’s face, the young man halted in his steps. This creature, they must have been thinking, would be our neighbor if we buy this house. Perhaps they even then pictured their children to be and any pets, a happy-go-lucky dog, for instance, having to be protected at all times from the peril of the crazy-looking neighbor. The real estate agent had the look of an opposing team player poised for the win suddenly seeing Caitlin Clark setting up for a game winning three. You will be unsurprised that this couple did not end up buying our neighbor’s house. We kept the blinds closed this week.
But we open windows on global agricultural efficiency, who might save Ukraine and the continuing worrisome China-Philippines flashpoint in the South China Sea. It’s this weeks’ International Need to Know, providing far more believable international information and data than Shohei Ohtani.
Without further ado, here’s what you need to know.
Less Land, More Food
The world is awash in challenges but also in improvements and progress. Take agriculture. We are increasingly growing more food with less land. As our Our World in Data points out, “60 years ago, the world’s farmers produced around one tonne of wheat per hectare of land. Since then it has increased to three and a half tonnes. This means that wheat yields have increased 3.5-fold.” As you can see in the first chart below from Our World, since the transition to the agricultural age, we more or less used the same amount of land to produce the same amount of food. But then about 80 years ago, thanks to new technology and techniques, that changed, allowing us to produce far more food with less land. The Netherlands, as a Washington Post article documents (thanks Marginal Revolution for the pointer), is taking things to the extreme, “The country, which is a bit bigger than Maryland…has become the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural products by value behind the United States.” Among the ways the Dutch accomplish this is through the use of greenhouses, “The country has nearly 24,000 acres — almost twice the size of Manhattan — of crops growing in greenhouses.” And now we can’t help but picture installing large panes of glass over Broadway. The world needs to continue to improve our agricultural processes but we’ve made incredible progress the last eight decades.
Korea Shelling Ukraine and Russia
While the U.S. House of Representatives continues to act like an 18-year-old college student on a crazy semester-long bender ignoring his Ukraine midterm exam, fortunately other countries are soberly stepping in. South Korea is poised to provide more than a million 105 mm shells. You may remember last year South Korea provided more than 300,000 155 mm artillery shells when the U.S. couldn’t keep up with Ukrainian needs (it’s not just civilian infrastructure that the U.S. is bad at building nowadays). According to an article in the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Ukraine needs 75,000 shells each month “just to hold the line.” To go on an offensive, it would need “more than double that amount.” Meanwhile, “Russia fires around 300,000 each month and can sustain that with monthly production of about 250,000 and imports from North Korea.” It would be good to somehow reduce that Russian production. Of course, it’s also interesting, as CSIS notes, “With South Korea providing ammunition to Ukraine via the United States and North Korea providing ammunition to Russia, the two Koreas are having a proxy war 4,500 miles from the peninsula.” Of course, it’s not just South Korea helping Ukraine with shells, the Czech Republic is also working to provide hundreds of thousands of shells to Ukraine. The U.S. House might want to lay off the sauce for a while.
China Corner: More Muscling Shoals
For months we’ve been warning of the potential flashpoint caused by China’s bullying the Philippines in the South China Sea. China continues to try to claim territory nearly 1000 miles from its borders (see map below courtesy of Hans Kristensen). According to the Filipino newspaper, Inquirer, “A Chinese Navy helicopter harassed Filipino researchers conducting a survey at sandbars off the Philippine-occupied Pag-asa (Thitu) Island on Saturday, the same day that China Coast Guard (CCG) ships assaulted a Philippine supply boat with water cannons near Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal in the West Philippine Sea.” You can see a video of the water cannoning by the China Coast Guard below. Seems dangerous to us. And it’s worth remembering that the U.S. has a treaty to protect the Philippines should they be attacked. Water cannons aren’t considered an attack but China has been ratcheting the pressure up for months. Dangerous waters the world treads in.
From Hans Kristensen
