From: "Phil Payne" 

> Thanks for the insight, but the point is that vast areas of the US have
> more than twenty feet of fertile top soil, while almost all of Australia
> has less than a few inches.
>
> Taking significant amounts of food from soil requires either:
> - A lot of fertile soil (defer the problem). -or-
> - A lot of input.
>
> I'm happy with rice, but any crop requires nutrients.

Rice requires pretty well ordered irrigation.  There's no infrastructure.

I was once told that the Australian fly harvest (you have to be there) was
in large measure a consequence of the raising of beef cattle.  Scatter that
lot on a desert and you have a starting point.

Otherwise advertise to the overpopulated nations - "We pay 10c a tonne
for shit".

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5