Plowing through some statistics for a couple of project, when I came across this, France grows around two-thirds of the amount of wheat that the USA does, and significantly more than Canada or Australia.
Fields of wheat aren't the first image of France that comes to mind as compared to the popular ones of the American and Canadian prairies, but there you are there's a lot of wheat in France, one probably doesn't notice them as compared to the other cultural images/myths.
So what over statistics have you found that challenge or give you another view of countries or the world?
There's around 700,000 tonnes of atmosphere per person on the planet, but a bit over 193 million tonnes of water for each man, woman and child here. :)
Wheat fields on the US prairie aren't nearly as common a motif as cornfields.
No shit. Around here it's either corn or soybean. With some tobacco and cattle here and there.
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on October 09, 2014, 07:07:39 PM
Wheat fields on the US prairie aren't nearly as common a motif as cornfields.
Oh yeah, but I feel the cornfields of the mid-west are another motif.
Well I guess learning that deer are swarming the US and have increased an order of magnitude in a hundred years was a bit of a surprise to me. :P
The fact that there were more cars in Kansas in 1912 than in all of France really blew my mind.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on October 09, 2014, 08:14:56 PM
Well I guess learning that deer are swarming the US and have increased an order of magnitude in a hundred years was a bit of a surprise to me. :P
It's not too much of surprise as we've taken out most of their predators and/competitors. Certainly see a lot over here too, cars about the only things keeping their number in check, a bit I think.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 09, 2014, 08:18:21 PM
The fact that there were more cars in Kansas in 1912 than in all of France really blew my mind.
Or how about that 80% of the German Army in WWII was entirely dependent on horses to haul their stuff around?
Anyway I am surprised French agriculture is so lacking in diversity but I guess given the history of grain in France I shouldn't be.
Quote from: Valmy on October 09, 2014, 09:34:53 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 09, 2014, 08:18:21 PM
The fact that there were more cars in Kansas in 1912 than in all of France really blew my mind.
Or how about that 80% of the German Army in WWII was entirely dependent on horses to haul their stuff around?
Anyway I am surprised French agriculture is so lacking in diversity but I guess given the history of grain in France I shouldn't be.
I don't know, seems quite diverse:
2012 Production ranked by value:
Rank Commodity Production (Int $1000) Production(MT)
1 Milk, whole fresh cow 7362517 * 23983197
2 Meat indigenous, cattle 5199944 * 1924924 *
3 Wheat 5024356 * 40300800
4 Meat indigenous, pig 3213295 * 2090300 *
5 Grapes 3051584 * 5338512
6 Meat indigenous, chicken 1678806 * 1178600 F
7 Rapeseed 1521603 * 5463185
8 Sugar beet 1449073 * 33688393
9 Maize 1336765 * 15614100
10 Potatoes 972315 * 6340807
11 Barley 950190 * 11347000
12 Eggs, hen, in shell 707991 * 853630 *
13 Meat indigenous, turkey 588123 * 450000 F
14 Apples 584848 * 1382901
15 Meat indigenous, duck 480631 * 291722 F
16 Meat indigenous, sheep 318567 * 117000 *
17 Sunflower seed 283555 * 1572952
18 String beans 218533 * 229180
19 Tomatoes 217548 * 588660
20 Mushrooms and truffles 210330 * 116574
Quote from: Valmy on October 09, 2014, 09:34:53 PM
Or how about that 80% of the German Army in WWII was entirely dependent on horses to haul their stuff around?
The German artillery in Panzerblitz is horse drawn. I learned that when I was 7.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on October 09, 2014, 09:56:33 PM
Quote from: Valmy on October 09, 2014, 09:34:53 PM
Or how about that 80% of the German Army in WWII was entirely dependent on horses to haul their stuff around?
The German artillery in Panzerblitz is horse drawn. I learned that when I was 7.
I learned that when I was in High School and nobody believed me...which was sort of weird why would I make that up?
Quote from: mongers on October 09, 2014, 09:50:38 PM
I don't know, seems quite diverse:
Damn French farmers are productive.
Quote from: Valmy on October 09, 2014, 10:07:45 PM
Quote from: mongers on October 09, 2014, 09:50:38 PM
I don't know, seems quite diverse:
Damn French farmers are productive.
imagine how much more productive they could be if they weren't protesting every three weeks :P
At least now we know they have plenty of produce to dump on the roads of France and still easily feed the population.
This always seems wrong to me.
QuoteTop 5 countries by agricultural exports:
Country Exports (in billions)
United States $118.3
Netherlands $79
Germany $70.8
France $68
Brazil $55.4
Quote from: Maladict on October 10, 2014, 03:37:36 AM
This always seems wrong to me.
QuoteTop 5 countries by agricultural exports:
Country Exports (in billions)
United States $118.3
Netherlands $79
Germany $70.8
France $68
Brazil $55.4
The soft power of pigs and cheese? :unsure:
Quote from: mongers on October 10, 2014, 06:09:35 AM
The soft power of bigs and cheese? :unsure:
Mostly flowers and vegetables I think. Relatively high-value stuff.
But still, it's an awful lot for so little available space.
Quote from: Maladict on October 10, 2014, 06:35:46 AM
Quote from: mongers on October 10, 2014, 06:09:35 AM
The soft power of bigs and cheese? :unsure:
Mostly flowers and vegetables I think. Relatively high-value stuff.
But still, it's an awful lot for so little available space.
Yeah I forgot about vegatables, though I'd guess flowers aren't included in agricultural exports?
edit:Here's the answer, probably what you'd expect from an advanced economy with a good agricultural base, so plenty of finished food products, though how cigarettes are in there I don't understand:
Rank Commodity Q.tonnes Value.1000 $ Unit.Val.($/tonne)
1 Cigarettes 139,221 3,990,180 28,661
2 Cheese of Whole Cow Milk 678,410 3,733,226 5,503
3 Food Prep Nes 917,853 3,527,694 3,843
4 Food Wastes 2,710,178 2,295,383 847
5 Chicken meat 995,945 2,208,782 2,218
6 Cake of Soybeans 4,575,464 1,994,336 436
7 Meat-CattleBoneless(Beef&Veal) 238,752 1,983,973 8,310
8 Beer of Barley 1,674,103 1,883,519 1,125
9 Palm oil 1,288,157 1,720,598 1,336
10 Tomatoes 1,039,773 1,577,975 1,518
11 Chocolate Prsnes 318,257 1,542,823 4,848
12 Frozen Potatoes 1,430,766 1,460,437 1,021
13 Beverage Non-Alc 1,051,992 1,389,727 1,321
14 Pastry 338,199 1,229,134 3,634
15 Chillies and peppers, green 474,013 1,167,422 2,463
16 Infant Food 131,683 1,132,791 8,602
17 Pig meat 479,147 1,130,840 2,360
18 Cocoapowder&Cake 214,553 1,097,451 5,115
19 Cocoa Butter 212,629 1,070,350 5,034
20 Butter Cow Milk 175,924 1,020,067 5,798
Netherlands seems to be the food re-processor of choice for quiet a few crops grown elsewhere.
Quote from: Maladict on October 10, 2014, 06:35:46 AM
Quote from: mongers on October 10, 2014, 06:09:35 AM
The soft power of bigs and cheese? :unsure:
Mostly flowers and vegetables I think. Relatively high-value stuff.
But still, it's an awful lot for so little available space.
Dutch farmers have long been the world's most modern farmers. I think I read somewhere that they are four times as efficient in dollar output per acre as the EU average (that was before the EU expansion, so it might be higher now) and they export an overwhelming proportion of what they produce. It is remarkable, all the same, that a country with such limited arable land produced so much food value.
When I was born there was enough* land for each person on the planet to have 4.65 hectares.
My estimate is that 2017 will see that area fall below 2 hectares per person for the first* time.
*note the intentional biasing use of words.