And by then it's generally too late. At least Sri Lankans are a little bit closer to the land. Western society - not so much.
That's because such a small percentage of the population grows the food in the west. City dwellers have no clue, either about the agricultural lifestyle, the work or logistics involved, nor the technical proficiency required for so few to feed so many. Take just the 26,000 farmers and ranchers in ND out of production (doesn't seem like so many, does it, to people who live in cities of over a million), and reduce agricultural output by:
1.8 million cattle
335 million pounds of milk.
Sorted by Value of Production in Dollars
Commodity Planted All Purpose Acres Harvested Acres Yield Production Price per Unit Value of Production in Dollars
SOYBEANS
SOYBEANS 7,250,000 7,120,000 25.5 BU / ACRE 181,560,000 BU 12.6 $ / BU 2,323,968,000
CORN
CORN, GRAIN 3,630,000 105 BU / ACRE 381,150,000 BU 5.86 $ / BU 2,020,095,000
CORN 4,100,000
CORN, SILAGE 250,000 7.5 TONS / ACRE 1,875,000 TONS
WHEAT
WHEAT 6,470,000 6,090,000 32.2 BU / ACRE 196,195,000 BU 9.35 $ / BU 1,793,513,000
WHEAT, SPRING, (EXCL DURUM) 5,500,000 5,210,000 33.5 BU / ACRE 174,535,000 BU 8.82 $ / BU 1,509,728,000
WHEAT, SPRING, DURUM 880,000 820,000 24 BU / ACRE 19,680,000 BU 13.9 $ / BU 267,648,000
WHEAT, WINTER 90,000 60,000 33 BU / ACRE 1,980,000 BU 8.27 $ / BU 16,137,000
CANOLA
CANOLA 1,750,000 1,720,000 1,340 LB / ACRE 2,304,800,000 LB 33.4 $ / CWT 751,365,000
HAY & HAYLAGE
HAY & HAYLAGE 280,784,000
HAY & HAYLAGE, (EXCL ALFALFA) 141,680,000
HAY & HAYLAGE, ALFALFA 30,000 139,104,000
HAY
HAY 2,020,000 1.04 TONS / ACRE 2,093,000 TONS 154 $ / TON 280,784,000
HAY, (EXCL ALFALFA) 1,100,000 1.15 TONS / ACRE 1,265,000 TONS 113 $ / TON 141,680,000
HAY, ALFALFA 920,000 0.9 TONS / ACRE 828,000 TONS 172 $ / TON 139,104,000
POTATOES
POTATOES 76,000 75,000 300 CWT / ACRE 22,500,000 CWT 11.5 $ / CWT 258,750,000
POTATOES, PROCESSING 9.650 $ / CWT
POTATOES, FRESH MARKET 16.500 $ / CWT
SUNFLOWER
SUNFLOWER 494,000 482,000 1,581 LB / ACRE 761,900,000 LB 32.6 $ / CWT 241,059,000
BARLEY
BARLEY 580,000 430,000 51 BU / ACRE 21,930,000 BU 5.38 $ / BU 115,133,000
PEAS
PEAS, DRY EDIBLE 255,000 242,000 1,480 LB / ACRE 3,582,000 CWT 19.9 $ / CWT 66,267,000
FLAXSEED
FLAXSEED 190,000 171,000 13 BU / ACRE 2,223,000 BU 25.9 $ / BU 60,021,000
LENTILS
LENTILS 120,000 114,000 830 LB / ACRE 946,000 CWT 37.6 $ / CWT 33,772,000
OATS
OATS 355,000 83,000 48 BU / ACRE 3,984,000 BU 4.8 $ / BU 17,330,000
CHICKPEAS
CHICKPEAS 16,300 15,700 1,290 LB / ACRE 203,000 CWT 41.7 $ / CWT 8,506,000
RYE
RYE 88,000 36,000 32 BU / ACRE 1,152,000 BU 5.95 $ / BU 6,566,000
SUGARBEETS
SUGARBEETS 226,000 222,000 29.2 TONS / ACRE 6,482,000 TONS and that's just one state (39,300,000 acres in production)
The average farm here has over 1,500 acres.
Source:
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Quick_Stats/Ag_Overview/stateOverview.php?state=NORTH%20DAKOTA
