Future Food Crisis and the Seeds of War

Many people have wondered what the next big crisis that the world will face in the future. While I have already eluded to a second US Civil War, I haven't talked about how this comes about. It may seem strange but the a civil war over civil liberties is actually a result of a global food crisis that will become apparent in the next five years. This food crisis will be caused by sharp and sudden decrease in global wheat production. A new wheat fungus will be the cause and while the US will be better off than most other countries and regions, it will still hit America hard.

The fungus will make its appearance in the year 2014 with a sudden and unexpected decrease in production. It is determined to be a new type of fungus that kills almost all wheat varieties around the time of the wheat's maturation. The next year the wheat crop was even smaller due to a return of the fungus but also, it was discovered that the previous year's fungal outbreak left much of the wheat seed unable to self-pollinate. This caused smaller amounts of wheat to grow and then a portion of the wheat that did grow died from the fungus.

Within a few years the world's wheat production has been cut in half. Many countries changed their food production with a shift from wheat to corn, rice or potatoes. Asian countries chose to focus on rice production while countries in the Western Hemisphere moved to corn. Europe and India were unable to adequately grow enough food causing starvation, political instability and mass migration. Europeans attempted migration to the United States, but in reaction to the 100's of millions seeking refuge in America, the government closed its borders.

Similarly, people from India, Australia and New Zealand migrated to China, Japan and other smaller East Asian countries. Those countries also tried closing their borders, but were less successful leading to a near doubling of those countries' populations. This population shift caused social and political instability around the world with harsh reactions by governments in attempts to control their citizens. This includes the United States.

In reaction to this increase in government control and decrease in civil liberties and states rights, a freedom and liberty movement began in the US and slowly spread around the world. This sowed the seeds of rebellion in the America and the eventual secession of Texas and other states paving the road to the New Republic.

I am a dead person

I apologize that I haven't posted anything in a couple of weeks. I've been out on assignment and I've just now returned. I could have returned to the moment I left, but I prefer to allow the passage of time to reflect my age that way I don't "disappear" one day and the next day "reappear" looking months or years older. The TMO allows us to choose, but we get paid more if we do it the other way.

Since there will be a lot of questions about this, I might as well explain myself now. Every now and then I get messages from the home office in the future that detect small changes in history. This is due to the fact that agents like me are here in the past and that as much as we try, changes are inevitable. In addition to recording history, I also have to go and try to correct these incidences. Sometimes this takes weeks.

In order to be able to move among the people of a time period, I must have an identity. This is done by assuming the identity of a recently dead person. The TMO creates a copy of the social security card and birth certificate. Using this, I go out and get a common job and live an ordinary life so that no one suspects who I really am. My name is Brian and I died on November 12th, 2008.

The Future of Technology

The general consensus of people since the advent of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, is that the future is going to filled with amazing technology from flying cars to vacations on the moon. I'm sorry to say that generally speaking technology isn't going to go much farther in the next half century than it is in 2009.



Cloning - There will be developments in food cloning and animal cloning, but human cloning will prove unsuccessful. There will be neurological problems with the clones causing low intelligence and a short life-span.

Robotics - Developments in robotics will be limited to manufacturing, but we don't have human shaped robots that walk around doing human jobs.

Transportation - Mag-Lev trains will become very popular and even replace local subways and buses. However, cars won't float or fly in the future, at least to any great degree. They were tried, but the inability to break quickly in the air proved an insurmountable obstacle. Cars still run on the ground on tires, but the tires don't wear out.

Time Travel & Teleportation - Time travel is discovered by accident by a group of scientists trying to develop a way of teleporting. Both were created but because the amount of resources required for either one, they're only used by the government large shipping companies.

Gadgets - This the area where there will be the most advances. They won't change life or society much, but they're fun. The most common gadgetry will be PCs that people carry around in their pockets. They have laser optic keyboards, mice and digital displays that will allow people to work anywhere. These "PC"s will also be music players, phones and network with families and houses.

The real future of technology is more complex and tied to our social and political future, at least that of the US. In the future technology will taper off until the second civil war. After that innovation will come to halt. The economy will be such that disposable income which won't allow the population to purchase gadgets therefore research and development for new devices will no longer be funded by technology companies.

Furthermore, in the future, common knowledge about technology will begin to wain. The number of people who understand the complexities of devices will decrease as will the number of those who can repair them. For this reason, technological developments will come to a plateau and in 2064, we are still in it.

Climate Change

Recently there was a report issued by the Global Humanitarian Forum saying that climate change could be responsible for killing up to 300,000 people each year. This is a difficult claim to substantiate, but aside from the claim, I wanted to speak to the future of global climate change.

The threat of global climate change is very real and will get worse. There will shifts in the agricultural productions of many countries. In the upcoming decades, countries with typically colder climates like Canada will become warmer allowing it to grow more food for global consumption. This ends up having many benefits because it improves Canada's economy, and allows it to take advantage of the large amount of previously unfarmed land that full of nutrients. In my time Canadian produce is some of the best in the world.

Climate change will have negative repercussions too. Just like in your time, Africa will continue to have droughts and many of the countries will become deserted with their populations immigrating to mostly Asian and European countries. Also, weather patterns will become unpredictable from year to year. On the brighter side, the climate will start to stabilize in the next 15 years.

The major movement to improve climate change will come with the development of industries that create ways to profit from cleaning up air, water and land pollution. In my time, there is virtually no pollution or trash because it has become a source for manufacturing products. Companies will develop ways to extract nitrogen, carbon and sulfur from the air and water - cheaply. Similarly, strip-mining companies will begin to "mine" through landfills to recover iron, steel, aluminum, silicone and other metals. This will leave mostly paper, plastic and food stuff in the landfills which will then recovered for recycling. Landfill recovery projects will be subsidized by government grants, but then will become a viable industry without government assistance.

Civilian Security

In the upcoming years President Obama will create a new expansion to the Americorps program. This was talked about in 2008 when he was running for President, but the new expansion will eventually evolve into a new type of police that will replace the role of the National Guard. This new federal police will be known as the Civilian Security Guard or CS.

Discussion about the CS can be traced back to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the need for a rapid response arm of the federal government that can act with the authority of the police but whose funding won't be tied to the disaster area. Its purpose was to provide additional support to localities at times of disasters without monopolizing resources already being used on the state or district level. While President Obama will authorize the expansion of Americorps, it won't take on this new identity until the next president.

The Civilian Security will be a mandatory service for every citizen ages 18-24 and will last two years. It will take place either after graduation from high school or college and will be designed for people to get training for law enforcement, criminal justice, military, or a number of other careers in technical, vocational or clerical lines of work while serving their country. Everyone who is successful in the CS will either receive college credit, college scholarships or grants to repay college loans.

While the new mandatory service was initially met with protest from both parties and the general public, soon after its creation a need arose which solidified its presence and funding. Eventually it had many other benefits such as lowering unemployment, boosting American commercial competitiveness and oddly, election turnout. The CS also played an instrumental role in improving border security, illegal immigration and urban violence.

Photo Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?_r=4&hp

The First State Leaves

I made mention of the "Second Republic" in an earlier post. This refers to what you see as the current government of the United States. I feel that this point needs more clarification. The current Constitution was signed in 1787 effectively replacing the Articles of Confederation and ending the early confederacy that the US was organized as. This Constitution remained in effect through what in my time is referred to as the end of the First Republic, what is also known as the Civil War.


By 1865 the United States government had moved away from a more confederate style of relationship to a more federal style of relationship among the states. It was after this time both the Executive and Legislative branches began exercising powers not specified in the Constitution. This is the time when a new constitution should have been written, but wasn't in order to maintain the idea that the country was still the same one that had been created 80 years earlier. Therefore, history will show that the chronology is First Republic: 1787-1865 Second Republic: 1865 - 2036.

Several weeks ago the governor of Texas made a statement about the fact that Texas could leave the Union at any time. This is only true in so far as any state or region of any country can choose to become independent if they are willing to fight for it. This is what will happen in 2036 - the 200th anniversary of Texas' original recognition of independence. It is this time that future historians will mark the end of the Second Republic. The US government will respond as it did during the Civil War with a military reaction, but in the end it will not have enough military resources to fight those of Texas. Mexico becomes the first country to recognize its independence and it's status as a separate nation. It was this success that caused Texas to become only the first of many states to leave the union and the United States to enter its current (in my time) era of governance.

Rules about Disclosure and Iran

Being from the future and knowing what I know obviously there are a great many things I can't disclose about future events. This is because foreknowledge may change the events from happening and therefor change my present. However, most of the people that would read this blog aren't the type of people that can affect global events anyway so the risk is virtually zero. Additionally, most of the historical "events" are more or less long term trends in the socio-policital and economic fabric that binds the world together. This again, is something that most people can't affect. Actually, I would seriously doubt if anyone, even myself, could.

That being said, there's very little harm in putting some minds at ease and fishing for some reaction of "current" events. I have been watching the news and there is a lot of discussion about Iran and nuclear proliferation and attacking Israel. First of all, let me assure you, Israel will not be attacked by Iran. This is because in the end, Israel has nothing that another country wants so badly that it is willing to go to war over. Secondly, on the issue of nuclear proliferation, by my time, every country has acquired the technology for nuclear power and most countries have already moved passed it.