Farmers...can no longer keep up with rising demand; thus the outlook is for chronic scarcities and rising prices.

The problem with water, though, is that the shortfalls don't show up until the very end. You can go on pumping unsustainably until the day you run out. Then all you have is the recharge flow, which comes from precipitation. This is not decades away, this is years away. We're already seeing huge shortages in China, where the Yellow River runs dry for part of each year. The Yellow River is the cradle of Chinese civilization. It first failed to reach the sea in 1972, and since 1985 it's run dry for part of each year. For 1997 it was dry for 226 days.

Farmers...can no longer keep up with rising demand; thus the outlook is for chronic scarcities and rising prices.

The throwaway economy that has been evolving over the last half-century is an aberration, now itself headed for the junk heap of history.

Another agricultural trend of growing concern is the increased nutrient content of coastal waters resulting from fertilizer runoff in agricultural regions. Augmented by urban sewage discharge in some situations, this results in huge algal blooms, which, as they die and decay, deplete the oxygen content in the water, leading to the death of the fish.

Global food insecurity is increasing...the slim excess of growth in food production over population is narrowing.

The biggest threat to global stability is the potential for food crises in poor countries to cause government collapse.