ELI5: Does global food export/import create an imbalance in biomass etc

Submitted by Ohpex t3_z7qbnf in explainlikeimfive

I live in a country that's not self sufficient when it comes to food production, so much of our foodstuff needs to be imported. I'm wondering if the food that is grown elsewhere (fruits, vegetables, meats, grains etc) and then consumed here is creating an imbalance in soil quality, "available biomass" for future food production, or other factors I haven't mentioned.

This question is only about the growing, displacement, consumption (and whatever happens next) of foodstuffs, so not interested in the effects of transports or consumption in general.

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Whaleflop229 t1_iy7pp9h wrote

I see why you'd ask, but I think huge amounts of fertilizer are also moved, which are not biomass until incorporated in plant growth.

Also natural ecosystems (in balance) would normalize biomass to some extent. A pond with algae can easily replace some algae that you take, because it grows to fill the pond. Thus, if you expose the surface water, you give an opportunity for replacement growth that wouldn't have existed. That biomass primarily comes from water and carbon dioxide in the air that gets converted.

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Mammoth-Mud-9609 t1_iy7pzb4 wrote

In theory yes, but fertilizer is moved around the world as food, some of that is deliberate by farmers and another part is the Eart's environmental system, including moving dust from the Bodele depression in Africa to South America. https://youtu.be/Ggeu_M7HRR4

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TotallyNotARobot2 t1_iy7r2yc wrote

I know this isn't really what you asked about, but on a semi-related topic, Stuff you should know (podcast) released an episode on invasive species not too long ago. It kind of touches on some of these points. Pretty interesting.

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