bafoote wrote:Thirdbase wrote:Duckk wrote:The amount of hyperbole used to describe Lacoon reminds me of the discussions we had of Oyster Bay where people were claiming the entire Manticore system would soon fall apart due to lack of maintenance and starvation would prowl all the planets. Yes Lacoon is going to put the thumbscrews on the League economy. No it's not going to directly lead to the mass starvation of the entire League.
The fact that Montana exports beef is not indicative of food supply of the entire League. Beef is a luxury item. It's expensive to raise since they both need to be fed, raised, then slaughtered. They are a land intensive animal because they both need space to roam, and there's also the space required to raise the food to feed the cow. Shipping the beef back to markets in the League isn't a problem since good beef is aged for 1 or 2 months before being cooked, so sitting in a freighter is not a problem.
Plant foods, on the otherhand, are fairly cheap to bring to market from local sources. Hydroponics and orbital farms have been mentioned as cheap areas for growing food even if there is no land on the planet to grow it. Fresh food also go bad unless preserved somehow (freezing, canning, etc). I'm sure most people would prefer having fresh food at least some of the time compared to a diet of all frozen or preserved food.
Taking the two statements above, it is not unreasonable to assume that while some food is imported, much of it is produced locally.
I'm not even sure how much food those planets need to import. Back in the '60s and '70s they said we wouldn't be able to feed 4 billion (or some number around that) here we are at over 6 billion and we produce plenty of food, distribution isn't the best, but the food exists.
It doesn't take much food growth to keep feeding the population.
I honestly can't believe ANY planet would import food. It all comes down to available energy and how cheep it is. Energy = water. IE desalination. Free energy = Free Water. Since this is a fusion society Energy = "Free" = "Free water" for high intensity farming.
Take wheat farming for instance. Dry "traditional wheat farming" obtain 3-4x LESS wheat than wet wheat farming. It all comes down to availability of water. With free energy one can pump the needed water ANYWHERE one wants to farm. Take Desserts for instance. Make it automated for most farming. If energy were free even a small portion of african Dessert would feed the entire world with its year long growing season.
Even if the population was 10X what it is today. As the vast majority of land surface is not used for farming due to its aridness this problem vanishes. Fact is the most key ingredient is potassium as nitrogen fertilizer for growing plants is tied directly to Energy as well as its NH3 ammonia nitrates. With free energy this can be processed directly out of the air and plant matter or the ocean itself. Gets back to desalination. Also obtains your H3 needed for said fusion as well...
Actually I can see all planets importing food. For the same reason the US does, because it isn't available on the planet. I do agree though that planets should not be importing staple foods like grains.[/quote]
Hi guys,
Importing exotic and 'luxury' foods has been going on for several millennia.
Regarding primary food supply ditto, ditto:
Remember Japan starving in WW2, so post war farmers were and are subsidized, despite extremely high property values for the best farmland, which is often adjacent to major cities. In the US, most farmers just sold when the price was 'right'; we're about 20 times Japan's size with far more arable land. OTOH, the soviets tried to increase meat production and wound up importing basic grains when the weather didn't cooperate.
Today some appropriate tech agriculture can feed 14-15 per acre (~3000ft^2) or 9000-9600 people per mile^2 (their goal is 1000 ft^2/person). I suspect 2000 years of technological advances ought to mean even greater agricultural improvement, but nanotech might be processing garbage into tasty, healthy food or synthesizing food directly from 'raw' (pure) chemicals.
Even at rates of only 10,000 people per mile^2, the average SL planet of 6-8 billion population would need only 600-800,000 square miles of farmland, or only 1-2% of the likely planetary arable land area, without using the counter-grav tech to build 100+ level sealed agri-towers, miles on a side, if there was ever a need for it on any planets like Grayson, etc.
Torch has a population of 4.25 million, but is supposedly all jungle (poles, etc ?), I suspect they could build agricultural 'skydomes' for agriculture if needed, but since food production hasn't been mentioned as any kind of problem, there probably is plenty of land for any growing population's needs.
Granted, Haven was so inefficient that the peeps were importing food for the dolists, until they got off their duffs. While they demanded to work in the shipyards, just becoming self sufficient would have had a faster, more immediate effect on improving peep resource allocations for the war; "fighting farmers" etc (BTW, the dolists weren't just on Haven).
Regarding the Solarian war, if the SLN is concentrating all its remaining active SD's against the SKM, if their next two missile sponge operations (Filareta & unknown follow-up) fail to consume the SKM's remaining missile pods, what will happen in their absence ?
The MWW has repeated in the pearls that there are many SL members that don't trust their neighbors with good reason, and the same reciprocated, etc. Just over 2/3 of all SL members have only LAC's, depending on the SLN (BF) for real deterrence. If that leaves suddenly, or disappears, what will replace that protection?
How many mice, now kings among the blind, will play ?
A simple breakdown produces the possible following OoB's:
300 system SDF's with 5-6 hyper-capable warships,
150 system SDF's with 10-12 H-C warships,
75 system SDF's with ~25 H-C warships,
38 system SDF's with 50 H-C warships,
19 system SDF's with 100 H-C warships,
9 system SDF's with 200 H-C warships,
5 system SDF's with 400 H-C warships,
4 system SDF's with ~800 H-C warships.
All spread among ~1200 of their LAC only neighbors.
The MWW has declared the largest SDF has no more than 800 H-C warships if that, which is why larger fleet numbers aren't larger.
If someone suddenly promises your system the protection you need against your neighbors, are you going to get snarky if its Mesa that will save you?
Nor will it matter if your enemy may be part of the RF.
HH's divide and conquer strategy will work just as well for the MAlg as the SEM or the grand alliance.
So far, the only one who really sees whats coming and is the best prepared for whatever action is required to "save civilization" is the MAlg/RF, not surprisingly; after all, they set it up.
The SEM may have envisioned it, but only its allies in the grand alliance are large enough to have anything comparable to the MAlg.
Will local BF or FF units set up their little fiefdoms ?
If the FF leaves the protectorates, what happens to OFS ?
How many verge states might want to help their neighbors wrest their systems back from FS ?
After the losses from BoMA in AAC the Manticoran Alliance had some 237 SDP's, ~200 non-Apollo's; In SFtS Caperelli says they'll have "some 380 by mid February, most of them Apollo capable", which also happens to be when Bolthole completes its 800 RHN SDP program (what's on the slips after the SDP's?) of which only ~420 survive, for 800 SDP's between the 4 'grand alliance' members (plus next fall-winter, the RHN will complete another 400 SDP's). the MA has some 483 old SD's remaining, while the RHN has around 319, for another 800 SD's, nearly all under 20 years old.
Against this the SLN isn't that much of a threat.
Given what should be its own security priorities, sending half of BF to soak up SKM missiles at the cost of several (6-7) million sailors shows the moral bankruptcy, the arrogant ignorance, and military incompetence of the SLN command. The fact the MAlg is helping them walk the plank doesn't abjure them from their own stupidity.
I suspect when Admiral Chin greets Filareta, Tourville may be aboard but not in command (with a RMN ship acting as FTL relay for Hermes), with only 200 SDP's (400 pods each), if only 800 missiles per BF SD, she ought to be able to destroy him easily (only 40% of her load-out), and re munition in hours, though it will be month's before the SLN will be able to try again.
With SL newsies aboard to report it, that fact might compel the SLN or the bureaucrats to call Rajampet off like the mad dog he is, or the paid or programed MAlg tool he's become, etc.
Perhaps her possible line might be: "Filareta, choose which quarter of your fleet I kill, so I don't have to kill the rest" might get Filareta see reason.
As for RMN pod numbers, the need is no longer critical, aside from some possible 'skirmishes' for Laocoon I &II (for color in the next book), but the confidence of WhiteHaven and Caparelli in executing both of them argues local SLN forces are not a threat if they even exist.
There's more meat here, but there are time and space limitations.
Best wishes,
L