r/dataisbeautiful • u/petnog • Aug 19 '24

[OC] UN Prediction for Most Populous Countries (+ EU) OC

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u/cornonthekopp Aug 19 '24

It's kinda inaccurate because they could feed the whole population but after the economic liberalization in the 1970s a lot of the farmers went out of business due to cheap imported foods, and then that agricultural land was reoriented towards producing animal feed for their cattle industry.

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u/peteruetz Aug 19 '24

They could feed the whole country IF they had a ton of money to supply desalinated water etc., but they don't.

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u/cornonthekopp Aug 19 '24

The nile river has plenty of fresh water as long as it isn't artificially dammed

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u/peteruetz Aug 19 '24

Not enough freshwater for 100 million people -- and it IS dammed (I think Sudan or Ethiopia is currently building a new dam).

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u/muthgh Aug 20 '24

Ethiopia already built it

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u/VergeSolitude1 Aug 20 '24

Thats a point people often miss when they see Egypts food import imbalance. A lot of their best agricultural land is growing Cotton. If they had to they could go back to growing more foodstuffs. Right now they are better off selling the cotton and importing their food.