Guyana is such a weird country to me, I briefly had a bit of a fixation on it.

It's population is mostly Indian, but also mostly Christian, and almost entirely lives in the capital while the rest of the country is jungle. If you google street view the capital city of Georgetown it looks like a cross between New Orleans and a backwater British outpost in India. It's simultaneously very LATAM and not LATAM at all.

Kind of an exaggeration because you don't need all those seven groups. Take China they miss out on dairy, but the majority of Chinese are lactose intolerant. Like are we getting the cart and the horse mixed up here. They aren't self sufficient there because they don't need or want to be.

Plus meat and fish make up for the protein and calcium.

Then look at Australia . Deficient in fish but high in dairy and meat. Probably fine there.

Deficient in vegetables less good but high in fruit, legumes, nuts and carb starches. So probably okay.

This is a false premise from the get go, and it comes from an uninformed perspective on Food History. Food trade and mobility have been a part of nutrition and food systems throughout recorded history. Gastronomic autarchy stems from a fascist misunderstanding of the way food systems work, it's a fiction that only serves chauvinistic, parochial, short sighted aims.

The problem with food trade isn't the fact that it exists. The problem is that the global food system is geared toward profit and extraction rather than feeding people healthy, nutritious, culturally-relevant food, grown and/or produced without exploiting people, poisoning the soil, and decimating biodiversity.

The solution isn't shutting down trade, the solution is food sovereignty and justice, and just trade between equals, aware of the mechanisms and lies of neocolonialism and imperialism.

nutritional needs

looks inside

all seven essential food groups studied: grains, vegetables, fruits, dairy, meat, staples, and fish

Sorry vegans, looks like you can't meet your nutritional needs :smuglord:

This seems absurd on its face. Human nutrition can be fulfilled with a few basic staples and many countries produce huge quantities of these, or could do so rapidly given their industrial base.

Just with B12 vitamins, legumes, and vegetables a population could survive just fine and vegans do this on a regular basis. Dairy is not necessary for human nutrition, it just was (and sometimes still is) a valuable way to get nutrition in food-scarce conditions, with cows turning grass into milk. With industrialized agriculturalism it is much more efficient to just eat the plants. The conditions in which dairy is still helpful is when malnutrition conditions are imposed by capital.

Guyana will inherit the earth

That's actually nuts. global economics are weird and if not for capitalism it would have been amazing news that countries without their own food supply could find it from others.

Russia is pretty much self-sufficient too. Perhaps they don't make the top three at the moment but the capability is definitely there.

Well if it actually happened I'm sure there would be a few other countries who would manage to adapt in time too. Specially considering they would no longer be exporting stuff either, so many a lot would have to change anyway.

generic heavy riff that goes on a weirdly long amount

'Hi this is Guyana a podcast about Guyana. This week we have our special guest Ryan Stiles from Who's Line and the import dependant Gris James!'

This just proves that Roti Wraps are the ultimate superfood

When capitalism collapses it's gonna collapse HARD