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How We Grow and Eat Food Is Going to Kill Us All

How We Grow and Eat Food Is Going to Kill Us All thumbnail

A years-long study of global food production shows that the entire system is insane.

Over the weekend, more than 200 nations reached an agreement for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions over the coming decades. Even without U.S. participation, it’s a significant step in affirming the Paris climate accord. Unfortunately, it’s still only a small step toward the massive changes needed to minimize the coming disaster climate change will cause.

A new report from the end of last month underscores just how big the task is. The InterAcademy Partnership, a self-described global network of research academies, released the results of a three-year-long, peer-reviewed study on the world’s food-production systems, and their prognosis is grim: The way we grow, raise, and eat food is slowly killing us.

First, there’s the impact on climate change. Agriculture accounts for a third of all greenhouse gases, and the InterAcademy Partnership report projects that by 2030 livestock will be responsible for half of all emissions. Even meager efforts to improve how we eat face intense backlash. Both Barack and Michelle Obama were lambasted by Republican politicians and industry spokespeople when they promoted “Meatless Mondays” to encourage marginally healthier and environmentally friendlier diets.

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Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing Designs for a New Generation

Food distribution is also disastrously unequal and ineffective. Per The Guardian:

The food system also fails to properly nourish billions of people. More than 820 million people went hungry last year, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, while a third of all people did not get enough vitamins. At the same time, 600 million people were classed as obese and 2 billion overweight, with serious consequences for their health. On top of this, more than 1bn tonnes of food is wasted every year, a third of the total produced.

The waste of one billion tons of food every year while nearly one billion people go hungry is galling. A significant portion of food waste is caused by consumers, but other causes include sanitation and health violations (as with the latest E. coli outbreak), food loss during transportation, and overproduction of crops. It’s tempting to write a lot of this off—if there’s excess food produced in the U.S., for example, what good does that do for food-insecure people in other parts of the world? But if it were a simple issue of geography, then a quarter of San Francisco residents wouldn’t be at the highest level of food insecurity despite California producing nearly half of the fruits and vegetables in the U.S.

Instead, these are all systemic problems. Industrial food production—raising livestock, growing produce, processing and transporting food—isn’t governed by questions about how to most efficiently feed the highest number of people. It’s governed by how to make the most money off the lowest expenditure of time and resources. Food deserts, areas where there’s little to no reasonably priced and nutritious food, don’t just occur naturally in the wealthiest cities: They’re the result of deliberate investments, choices, and even negligence by people who profit off of everyone’s need to eat.

Tim Benton, a University of Leeds professor of population ecology, also tells The Guardian that the total cost of these systems—the sum of damages to the climate, the environment, and human health—far outweigh the net profits from the farming industry. The difference is those profits go to a tiny number of people. The costs, meanwhile, will be paid by everyone else.

GQ



40 Comments on "How We Grow and Eat Food Is Going to Kill Us All"

  1. Davy on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 6:06 pm 

    The article pic looks like a Philippines landfill right billy.

  2. Davy on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 6:22 pm 

    “A years-long study of global food production shows that the entire system is insane.”
    Which study? This article is from Luke Darby with GQ??WTF and we are supposed to believe this guy knows what he is talking about?

    “A new report from the end of last month underscores just how big the task is. The InterAcademy Partnership, a self-described global network of research academies, released the results of a three-year-long, peer-reviewed study on the world’s food-production systems, and their prognosis is grim: The way we grow, raise, and eat food is slowly killing us.”
    Maybe the way we live is the problem. Everything we do is the problem.

    “First, there’s the impact on climate change. Agriculture accounts for a third of all greenhouse gases, and the InterAcademy Partnership report projects that by 2030 livestock will be responsible for half of all emissions.”
    Sounds like junk science to me. “Half of all emissions from livestock”???

    “Even meager efforts to improve how we eat face intense backlash. Both Barack and Michelle Obama were lambasted by Republican politicians and industry spokespeople when they promoted “Meatless Mondays” to encourage marginally healthier and environmentally friendlier diets.”
    Spare me please. LOL

    “The food system also fails to properly nourish billions of people. More than 820 million people went hungry last year”
    It’s called overpopulation combined with globalism.

    “On top of this, more than 1bn tonnes of food is wasted every year, a third of the total produced.”
    If you are going to have monocultures and food shipped across the planet for just in time eating this is the result.

    “Instead, these are all systemic problems. Industrial food production—raising livestock, growing produce, processing and transporting food—isn’t governed by questions about how to most efficiently feed the highest number of people. It’s governed by how to make the most money off the lowest expenditure of time and resources.”
    Right, so go back to the land and live local with very little money. Sounds like Luke might not make it.

  3. makati1 on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 6:30 pm 

    Davy, have you ever been to an American landfill? I have. Here are pics of some of them.

    https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=Awr9ImvMPhhcLIoAMllXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyN3E4ZjZ1BGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQjY4MjFfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=american+land+fill&fr=mcasa

    Take a good look at your own trash.

    BTW: Asian countries are now refusing to take your trash, These American dumps are only going to get bigger and bigger. LOL.

  4. makati1 on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 6:49 pm 

    If the Philippines is such a “shithole” why have four Miss Universe winners been Flipina? Including the one who won just yesterday? Not bad out of 195 countries in the world today.

  5. DMyers on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 6:59 pm 

    “…Asian countries are now refusing to take your trash.”

    How dare they!?

  6. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 7:16 pm 

    Mak

    Your gold will be worthless after the collapse..And good luck prepping for when the words nuke plants melt down and spew 10k Hiroshima bombs worth of radiation into the worlds jet stream..You will wake up coughing up blood and your internal organs..You will be like that naked girl in the Vietnam picture running around outside!

    LOL

  7. Darrell Cloud on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 7:22 pm 

    Mob, looking at the wildlife that has moved back into hot zones after melt downs, I think life will go on. It will be shorter and nastier but it will go on.

  8. makati1 on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 7:32 pm 

    MOB, gold? I have a lot of useful, necessary things, but very little gold. I’m talking countries, not citizens.

    The odds of your “nuclear meltdown” is about 1%, or less. The odds of a fast decline of the West is about 99%, if not 100%. If the nuke war happens, all bets are off, but only the US can start that one. We shall see.

    No, I will not be near a nuke explosion. Unlike yourself, there are no nuclear plants in the Ps nor are there any targets that would draw a nuclear missile. China is at least 400 miles away and not even upwind ever. However, you are down wind of many nuclear plants and many likely targets in the US.

    You live in the wrong country.

  9. makati1 on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 7:35 pm 

    Darrell, MOB is very uneducated concerning what is happening in the world outside the “exceptional” US. He relies on the propaganda Americans are fed daily for his world view.

  10. At Least I Got a Mama Not 2 Daddies on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 7:50 pm 

    “Mob, looking at the wildlife that has moved back into hot zones after melt downs, I think life will go on. It will be shorter and nastier but it will go on.”

    What hot zones? Oh, you mean Chernobyl and Fukashima. Neither incident accurately reflects what will happen once a nuke plant goes. After all, great efforts and expense were allocated to mitigating the damage.

  11. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 8:10 pm 

    RYSTAD expects oil discoveries for 2018 to be around 9.4 billion barrels

    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/These-Countries-Found-The-Most-Oil-In-2018.html

    And the world is currently consuming around 36 billion barrels a year..So this is close to only 25% of our present consumption..

  12. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 8:39 pm 

    Mak

    When the grids go down due to the JIT systems going offline..All the worlds nuke plants will melt down and explode..And it will be an extinction event..The grids need spare parts like fuses to properly function..

    Well see how long you last post collapse..And there is no evidence of your 1 percent chance claim..

    Here is the evidence of my claim..

    Financial System Supply-Chain Cross-Contagion: A Study In Global Systemic Collapse (Korowicz, 2012)
    https://www.scribd.com/document/395802980/Financial-System-Supply-Chain-Cross-Contagion-A-Study-In-Global-Systemic-Collapse-Korowicz-2012

  13. makati1 on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 8:51 pm 

    Really MOB? And why would that happen? Every nuke plant has generator backup that can last for a week or more. And, certainly, the plant engineers will shut it down safely to protect their own families. They are not as stupid as some on here.

    Besides, the electric grid going down all at one time is not likely either. Only an EMP of natural or human causes could possibly do that. Neither is likely.

    As I do not live where the electric grid is a necessity of life, I am much better positioned than you are. True, the cities would be hurting, but most of the people there would just go to family in the countryside. Foreigners would be in the worst position if they did not go back to their country before total shutdown. Again an unlikely situation short of a nuclear war.

    The so called “collapse” is not going to take everything down, MOB. It will change BAU in ways that will hurt the US most. The US imports most of its necessities from Asia and far away locations across oceans. THAT is America’s big weakness. Not so on the World Island.

  14. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 9:15 pm 

    Europe’s Retail Apocalypse Spreads to Online From Stores

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-12-17/asos-cuts-guidance-after-significant-deterioration-in-november

  15. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 9:18 pm 

    Mak

    I told you exactly how and why it will happen..And you just ignore the reasons and the study I provided..

    So grow a fucking pair or shut the hell up..If you cant handle the truth I suggest you stop hanging around here…Maybe disney.com would be better for a weak old grumpy man..

  16. MOB MENTALITY on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 9:20 pm 

    @ I AM THE MOB,

    “Here is the evidence of my claim.”

    Since when was somebody’s opinion of future events that have not happened yet, evidence?

    (Herd mentality, mob mentality and pack mentality, also lesser known as gang mentality, describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis.)

    more here:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_mentality

  17. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 9:28 pm 

    Mak

    You just can’t handle that you are going to die after the collapse..You are too stupid, and too weak minded..Its as simple as that..You aren’t stoic enough..

  18. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 9:54 pm 

    Tulsi Gabbard: “I’m seriously considering” running for President

    https://www.msnbc.com/hardball/watch/tulsi-gabbard-i-m-seriously-considering-running-for-president-1396502595795?fbclid=IwAR0cq6ERVgvpNST2TxyQpofHMjSy-QHphKZkDvBfwhzlYV1TD4D-MvGctHA

    Run Tulsi Run!

  19. makati1 on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 10:16 pm 

    MOB, you just cannot handle that I am not going to die and you most likely will. I live in a relatively safe country and part of the world. You live in a chaos filled country full of insane leaders taking you to your death. You live in the bullseye. I live way off the target.

    Yes, if there is nuke war, nuclear winter will probably happen, but, I live in a place that is always warm so my chances of survival is much better than yours. Much better. It is 80F here now. What is it where you live? About freezing, I think. 80s is about normal here every day, all year round. 70s at night. Even if it drops an average 10 degrees, I will still be comfortable. Will you?

    Better give it some thought and not accuse someone of being what you are.

  20. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 10:49 pm 

    Mak

    At least 340,000 Americans died from radioactive fallout between 1951 and 1973

    https://bigthink.com/politics-current-affairs/new-estimate-deaths-from-us-nuclear-tests

    See how dangerous nuclear radiation is? More americans died from radiation in the 50s and 60s than did in Japan..Because the radiation gets into the jet stream and then it rains and gets into the grass and hey..and then the animals eat it and they pass it on to humans..

    When the worlds nuke plants melt down and explode..The radiation will travel over the world..And it will come down in the grass, and hey and water..And even if you dont die of inhaling it..You wont be able to eat or drink anything or you will be poisoned…

  21. makati1 on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 11:28 pm 

    MOB, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and you have a little knowledge. You are still preaching the meltdown of the world’s nuke plants and ignoring my assertion that it will not happen this side of a nuclear war. Denial is not a valid rebuttal.

    Perhaps you should take 15 minutes and watch this video? Take note of how many explosions took place in the US. Hundreds. About 2,000 world wide since 1945. An average of one every two weeks. I have lived thru all of them. Where is the killer radiation? And meltdowns are hugely different from explosions.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLCF7vPanrY

    Yes, thousands died, but mostly before the stupid scientists knew the various ways radiation could kill. The US exposed a lot of it’s troops to radiation deliberately to see what would happen. After all, they were just ‘collateral damage’.

    And many thousands died in Japan years AFTER the bombs from radiation caused cancers. But, you don’t do enough research to find out before you spew bullshit.

  22. I AM THE MOB on Mon, 17th Dec 2018 11:44 pm 

    Mak

    Now you listen and you listen good..We will use the full force of the US military to take all the oil tanker and whatever resources we want..We will not go quietly into the night..we will nuke anyone for any reason..Shit is going to get fucking real here in a few years..And you are not going to like it very much. Asia will likely end up a nuclear wasteland..Live free or die!

    Don’t make us George Bush this button, over nothing..

  23. makati1 on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 12:03 am 

    MOB, the US cannot “take” anything. It has not won a war since WW2 and that one was won by Russia. It cannot even build new ships or planes that work. The US is done “taking”. It soon will be isolated and destroyed from within. You are watching it happen.

    “The Navy’s New Stealth Destroyer Broke Down in the Panama Canal”
    “Breakdowns leave 2 of Navy’s newest ships stuck in port”
    “The Navy’s $29 Billion Ships Broke Down A LOT This Year”
    “U.S. Navy’s New $13B Warship Still Not Ready for Combat”
    “U.S. Navy’s new $13B aircraft carrier can’t fight ”
    “Pentagon: F-35 won’t have a chance in real combat”
    “WTF-35: How the Joint Strike Fighter Got to Be Such a Mess”
    And on and on…

    Denial is not going to change your future. The power has moved East. The West is history. Get over it.

  24. Dooma on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 12:19 am 

    So, NOB, you are proud of the fact that your country can continue to take what it wants from this planet and cause mass death and destruction.

    Also, you can blow up the whole world if you don’t get what you want? Like a spoilt toddler throwing a tantrum.

    And Americans couldn’t understand why 9/11 happened to them.

    I would not be proud of being a bully.

  25. Dooma on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 12:22 am 

    You sound like Trump when you talk that way.

    Again, nothing to be proud of.

  26. anon on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 2:02 am 

    here i was thinking the author would be talking about how the industrial food system is crazy because it is essentially a machine for converting petroleum into unhealthy imitations of real food, poisoning those who it is an a whole lot of the land around as well… not just some bitching about how evil capitalists arent willing to open supermarkets in the ghetto.
    more socialist bitching.. is just another symptom of blind people unable to see beyond the edge of industrial civilization.

  27. I AM THE MOB on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 2:07 am 

    Mak

    China has the worlds largest debt bubble and they are going to start running out of oil soon..The wealth will soon be coming back.

    You ignorant doofus !

    And we won in Iraq and Libya easily..

  28. makati1 on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 2:42 am 

    MOB, you keep shoving the same bullshit every time you get cornered about the US going down and China going up. The US has the most humongous debt bubble ever.

    $22 Trillion N.Debt in total or $67,000. per person and increasing. Add $58,000. per person for personal debt. Total = $125,000.

    China: $2.5 Trillion N.Debt or $1,400 per person. Add in $700 of personal debt per person. Total = $2,100. YUGE difference!

    http://www.usdebtclock.org/
    https://tradingeconomics.com/china/households-debt-to-gdp

    As for your Libya/Iraq joke, I don’t find them funny. All the US got out of them was another few trillion added to the National Debt. Thousands of filled body bags and now a lot of suicidal veterans.

    I’m glad I’m not paying any taxes in the US. Haven’t for over 10 years. But I will take the retirement I paid for over almost 50 years called Social Security. LOL

  29. I AM THE MOB on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 2:47 am 

    Mak

    Debt, Not Trade War, Is China’s Biggest Problem

    Officially China’s debt is a small number: 47.60%. Unofficially, it’s hard to figure it out. For a good reason: the government is both the lender and the borrower. One branch of the government lends money to another branch of government. Government-owned banks, for instance, lend money to State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Town Village Enterprises (TVEs). But there are some unofficial estimates. Like one from the Institute of International Finance (IIF) last week, which place China’s debt to GDP at 300%!
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/11/24/debt-not-trade-war-is-chinas-biggest-problem/#2809abd54c4d

    The Chinese “economic miracle” is built on a mountain of debt. As Chinese GDP grew over 12-fold in 20 years to $12.24 trillion at the end of 2017, credit in the Chinese financial system grew over 40-fold, taking the debt-to-GDP ratio from 100% to 400%, if one counts the shadow banking system. Shadow banking credit aggregates are omitted from official statistics, but they add at a minimum 100% to the total debt to GDP ratio for China (see this Brookings Institution paper).
    https://www.marketwatch.com/story/chinas-coming-recession-has-pushed-oil-below-60-2018-11-13?link=sfmw_fb

    China central bank chief warns of ‘Minsky moment’
    https://www.ft.com/content/4bcb14c8-b4d2-11e7-a398-73d59db9e399

    China’s grand plan hit by delays and debt fears
    https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cover-Story/Is-China-s-Belt-and-Road-working-A-progress-report-from-eight-countries

    Next time do some research instead of just googling for what you want to be true (confirmation bias)

  30. Mister Green Genes on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 2:56 am 

    Like we didn’t already know this about food production being readers here at Peak Oil.
    For every calorie eaten we expend 10 calories.
    Never mind all the external costs not being accounted, as mentioned.
    Sure eating bananas year round is MAGIC!
    Actually, just about everything our way of life is fiction…we just haven’t spoken to that yet.

  31. makati1 on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 3:25 am 

    MOB, are you drunk or on drugs? Nowhere did I mention a trade war.

    You also want to compare the US capitalism with the Chinese modification of communism.

    Two totally different economies. Get educated and reply if you understand the difference. Obviously you do not. All you do is parrot US propaganda. Check the refs you used, both US puppets from the same source.

    “The Financial Times (FT) is an English-language international daily newspaper owned by Nikkei Inc, headquartered in London,…” WIKI

  32. Dooma on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 4:04 am 

    “And we won in Iraq and Libya easily.”

    FFS MOB, why would you even brag about crushing a couple of small countries. Your military is unmatched. More bullying.

    Have you ever wondered why people from around the world know so much about America, yet you would have to Google information on most countries?

    It is because we have had American culture rammed down our throats across the globe. And it is shit-talking bravado like you posted above that gets remembered the most. Not because we envy your way of life.

    I bet you have entirely no idea about how nice of company Mak is in? Filipino people (mostly) are incredibly kind people who band together during a crisis. They know their neighbours and are family-orientated.

    Now compare that to a paranoid, well-armed population that has significant racial tension. How can you argue that being in that situation during a major crisis is better?

  33. Davy on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 4:05 am 

    “Denial is not going to change your future. The power has moved East. The West is history. Get over it.”

    Who is in denial billy? While I do not subscribe to what MOB is preaching you are just is bad. Power as dispersed, it has not moved anywhere. If any major power starts taking too much it is game over for civilization. That seems so simple until you mix in binary minds who peddle emotional agendas.

  34. Davy on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 4:13 am 

    “MOB, you just cannot handle that I am not going to die and you most likely will. I live in a relatively safe country and part of the world.”
    Billy, you live in a country with 10 times too many people. It will be a mad house if globalism breaks down quickly. An old feeble man like you will be among the first to go.

    “Yes, if there is nuke war, nuclear winter will probably happen, but, I live in a place that is always warm so my chances of survival is much better than yours.”
    Billy, where is your reference on NUK winter? I don’t think it is going to be a small reduction of temperature. I think it is going to be climatic nightmare along with the sun necessary for plant life greatly reduced further eroding survivors ability to survive.

  35. Davy on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 4:56 am 

    This article is more blind liberal vegan extremism. These people are living affluent and feeling some cognitive dissonance about it so they attack an imaginary villain. Republicans and meat is a great place to start. Yes many Republicans are uneducated and science denying and industrial meat is bad. Yet, many Fake green Democrats agree with the science until the part on how to fix it. IMA there are many science denying uneducated Democrats. Fake green extremist liberal vegan Luke from GQ is just smart enough to read some studies and pull out some cliff notes to peddle his agenda. This problem goes far deeper than agriculture. Our agriculture is required to support our systematic overshoot of population and unsustainable consumption. Yes, too many people and people living in urban areas too large with too much wealth. We need to be back towards 1BIL people and much more agrarian living with some urban areas for the necessary specialization required to supply the rural farming areas with goods that cannot be produced efficiently locally. It really depends how far back we want to go. An even smaller population as semi-nomadic hunter gathers might benefit the earth even more. The earth did well with humans in this arrangement for many thousands of years. Of course we are not going back to those worlds but we need to leave the one we are in and move in that direction. Fake greens like Luke will not admit affluence is the issue. People like him that are living high energy lifestyles in comfort.

    Vegan is not the answer but it is part of the solution if applied right. A Whole Foods vegan is just shifting the problem. Industrial agriculture is vegan too. Grass fed animals where grazing is done properly is more permaculture than greenhouse raised cucumbers. Corn fed beef is the worst on the planet. That must end. Even organic foods is industrial these days. It might be less industrial but industrial civilizations allows it the field to the table existence. Permaculture that is local, seasonal, lives with intermittency, and seeks to disengage from industrial society where possible is moving towards real green.

    Man has change the world so much we are stuck with industrial living to some degree. Luke is bitching about the bad side of industrial agriculture instead of reviewing his world. This is the problem across the board with humans who are not awakened. Many are partially awakened but still deny the science when the solutions are discussed. They cannot reality test decline because it is so depressing. Think about it can Luke contemplate being poor with hard labor, Nope. That is what we are talking about. Many billions of people are already there but they are part of the overpopulation problem so just another side of the coin from Luke. We are not getting out of this trap as a civilization. We are going down the question is how fast and how hard. For many of us it is possible we might not see the worst. Our kids likely will even with proactive efforts. The reality is we should be thinking about them and we don’t. The “we” is old folks like me who like comfort and affluence. Lots of dying coming in the future and much less affluence. That would be the optimistic if we can manage through wisdom to slow this process down. The pessimistic is a sudden and hard collapse with those who survive living greatly reduced lifestyles on a destroyed planet.

  36. Dick Cheney on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 8:31 am 

    I like my steak with fries and onion rings!

  37. Condoleeza Rice on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 8:33 am 

    The end is nigh, the steaks are weapons of the mass destruction!

  38. Powells' Colon on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 8:38 am 

    Dont listen to those crazy fuckers, what steak! The amounts are not going to threaten Americuh!. Iraq dosen’t have any for christs sake, they wont make me lie again. By the powers of greyskull the fuckers wont make me lie again!

  39. onlooker on Tue, 18th Dec 2018 10:49 am 

    Good article but failed to state the obvious, too many people thus too many mouths to feed

  40. pointer on Wed, 19th Dec 2018 7:11 am 

    onlooker: More like too much oil and too much money to buy it with. Oil and money is what enabled humans to wreck the planet. Take away oil or money, and you’d have little human impact.

    And here’s a radical idea: stop “producing” food, and eat only what nature provides. Bring on the ridicule in 3-2-1…

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