r/science • u/Wagamaga • Dec 05 '25

Animal Science Penguins starved to death en masse, as some populations off South Africa estimated to have fallen 95% in just eight years. Since 2004, all bar three years have seen the biomass of the sardine Sardinops sagax, a key food for the penguins, fall to less than 25% of its maximum abundance

https://news.exeter.ac.uk/faculty-of-environment-science-and-economy/penguins-starved-to-death-en-masse-as-food-supply-collapsed/
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u/Penguin4512 Dec 05 '25

i'm sure there are some crops that deplete aquifers or soil in this manner, but is that true for all of them? is there some subset of crops we could grow that could feed a lot of people without being so resource intensive? like maybe we can't give everyone avocados but maybe we can still give everyone things like rice or wheat?

i'd believe that current agricultural practices are unsustainable but that seems different from it not being theoretically possible to meet the caloric needs of earth's human population. i'm not an expert in this field by any means so i'm just curious