70 per cent of Australia\u2019s urea fertiliser supplies<\/a> are imported.<\/p>\n\u201cIt sounds ridiculous \u2026 but Australia is one of the most vulnerable countries (for food supply),\u201d Dr Keen told news.com.au.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of food we grow is largely determined by the amount of fertiliser we apply. \u2026 If the fertiliser arrives late or you don\u2019t have enough to cover the plan you need to feed the population, you\u2019re not going to be able to feed them. <\/p>\n
\u201cThen, if you have a 50 per cent fall in (crop and grain) yields, then we\u2019re going to be having starvation in the countries where that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Keen issued a caveat that Australia could rely on its significant food exports for domestic consumption for some time, and that he was more concerned about fertiliser supplies \u201cfor India, Africa and even parts of Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added fuel supplies, especially diesel, should be diverted and prioritised for farmers and agricultural suppliers who need to transport food around the country for commercial and household use.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you run out of fertiliser and you have a drop in field yields, and then you can\u2019t even ship the food to where it\u2019s supposed to be processed or eaten, (that creates) serious problems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fuel should be rationed, diesel cars \u2018turned into statues\u2019<\/p>\n
As service stations across Australia experience shortages of fuel and diesel prices surge well over $3 per litre, Dr Keen suggested supplies needed to be used responsibly and in a measured way.<\/p>\n
\u201cFuel rationing should already be happening, and diesel in particular should be rationed so it goes to the (regional areas), not the city. We should only have diesel for strictly commercial purposes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiesel cars in the city should be turned into statues until this is resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n
He suggested some industries may have more precedence for fuel supplies over others, which could affect areas such as retail trade.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to rank industries based on how critical they are for the continuing function of the rest of the economy,\u201d Dr Keen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time for second-hand shopping, not brand new clothing. So diesel for the textile industry (is a) low priority, while diesel for the food industry is a hot priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Keen conceded this would have a significant impact on Australians\u2019 livelihoods, but given the volatility of the situation in the Middle East, he could not rule out any measures as being impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to run out of petrol or diesel, but we quite possibly could, and the question is (around) which industries matter, or which are (more) critical,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bitcoin \u2018headed for zero\u2019<\/p>\n
Dr Keen also warned Aussies that climate change and the global energy crisis could soon see the value of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin plunge to zero.<\/p>\n
He said cryptocurrencies consume some of the highest amounts of energy on the planet because of the computing hardware power needed to perform transactions and maintain operations. Bitcoin also accounts for less than 1 per cent of all global wealth, according to financial estimates. <\/p>\n
As the climate and energy crisis intensifies, governments will target high-energy consumers and limit their activities, and Bitcoin will be one of them, according to Dr Keen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say at some point \u2026 there\u2019ll be a panic by authorities about energy consumption and there\u2019ll be a decision to cut back on any frivolous use of energy whatsoever, and on that basis Bitcoin is in the frivolous category,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Bitcoin) is a tiny minority of economic activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
While he thought Aussies should not be concerned for the immediate future of Bitcoin, Dr Keen advised anyone who has invested in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to monitor the market and be wary of changing conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re hanging onto it, you\u2019re gambling over it. It\u2019s your speculation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBasically, do your own research \u2026 and (consider) looking outside the Bitcoin world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Aussie economist has issued a stark warning to the nation that its food supplies could begin to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[169817,35661,2300,196216,85,2652,196228,196211,138,196227,196218,196207,196222,23763,219,69719,37769,196209,196226,196230,47421,196213,188070,182531,196229,9499,185766,196224,44735,196212,196225,2344,196221,16609,191602,196208,91752,5107,196223,111,139,69,2659,133083,196214,183759,176219,196231,61794,196215,196220,16940,196217,196210,196219],"class_list":{"0":"post-376181","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-agence-france-presse","9":"tag-armed-forces","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-aussie-economist","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-australian-economist","15":"tag-british-entrepreneur","16":"tag-business","17":"tag-commercial-purposes","18":"tag-computing-hardware","19":"tag-diesel-cars","20":"tag-diesel-prices-surge","21":"tag-domestic-consumption","22":"tag-economy","23":"tag-energy-consumption","24":"tag-energy-crisis","25":"tag-experience-shortages","26":"tag-fertiliser-shortages","27":"tag-fertiliser-supplies","28":"tag-food-industry","29":"tag-food-supplies","30":"tag-food-supply","31":"tag-fuel-rationing","32":"tag-fuel-supplies","33":"tag-getty-images-inc","34":"tag-global-energy-crisis","35":"tag-global-food-levels","36":"tag-global-trade","37":"tag-grim-warnings","38":"tag-ike-morris","39":"tag-india","40":"tag-industries-matter","41":"tag-iran","42":"tag-iranian-government","43":"tag-marine-traffic","44":"tag-market-crashes","45":"tag-middle-east","46":"tag-multiple-countries","47":"tag-new-zealand","48":"tag-newzealand","49":"tag-nz","50":"tag-oceania","51":"tag-retail-trade","52":"tag-seaborne-fertiliser-trade","53":"tag-service-stations","54":"tag-southern-asia","55":"tag-steve-keen","56":"tag-steven-bartlett","57":"tag-textile-industry","58":"tag-trade-routes","59":"tag-united-nations","60":"tag-urea-fertiliser-supplies","61":"tag-william-west","62":"tag-wreaks-havoc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}