Isn't it about time to start digging?

[NoOneMan]

4. Speaking of where you grow your food...

I was discussing the implications of warming last night and our favourite E&E optimist pointed out that we could just move agriculture northward, while not taking into account the soil quality, harsher winters and less viable growing area in Canada would make this transition less than plausible. But another thought occurred to me: the indirect land use change would carry an insane carbon impact. Humans converting that amount of forest acreage into farmland would have incredible emissions by destroying carbon sequestration in the soil and the forests.

It would be a massive man-made feedback loop from the warming. Have you seen this modelled anywhere?

That aside, I find it interesting how some cornucopiasts Americans are comfortable with the idea of importing vasts amount of food from another country that practices different levels of subsidization and uses different laws. Food is more expensive in Canada; significantly so. Just in terms of dairy (due to quotas) milk is $4 a gallon and a block of cheese can be over $10 dollars. If the Loonie keeps climbing as Canada becomes America/China's one stop shop for everything, the price of food can very well sky-rocket for Americans.