I just did a bit of research on using urine to fertilize your garden and even house plants. Seems urine works even better than commercial fertilizers.

Despite the 'yuk!' factor, urine from healthy individuals is virtually sterile, free of bacteria or viruses. Naturally rich in nitrogen and other nutrients, urine has been used as fertilizer since ancient times. Urine fertilization is rare today. However, it has gained attention in some areas as farmers embrace organic production methods and try to reduce use of synthetic fertilizers.

In the new study, Surendra K. Pradhan and colleagues collected human urine from private homes and used it to fertilize cabbage crops. Then they compared the urine-fertilized crops with those grown with conventional industrial fertilizer and no fertilizer.

The analysis showed that growth and biomass were slightly higher with urine than with conventional fertilizer. There was no difference in nutritional value of the cabbage. "Our results show that human urine could be used as a fertilizer for cabbage and does not pose any significant hygienic threats or leave any distinctive flavor in food products," the report concludes.

How to apply...

Dilute urine to 10-15 parts water to 1 part urine for application on plants in the growth stage. Dilute to 30-50 parts water to 1 part urine for use on pot plants as they are much more sensitive to fertilizers of any kind.

Trees, shrubs and lawn should cope well without dilution. Withhold the use of urine liquid fertilizer on all food plants at least two weeks before harvesting. Apply under fruiting plants, not directly on foliage.

Don’t use urine older than 24hours on your plants as the urea turns into ammonia and will burn your plants. If it’s not fresh, add it to your compost heap. Adding undiluted human urine to your compost heap will help heat it up quickly as it is an excellent activator and will add to the final nutrient value.

Below are some links...

http://www.howtodothings.com/home-garden/how-to-use-urine-as-a-fertilize...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071008093608.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news111063956.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR200710...
http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Human-Urine-As-A-Liquid-Fertilizer&id=39...
http://www.cloudforest.com/cafe/forum/26679.html

Those of you listening to 'financial experts' and trying to figure out a strategy to protect your savings and retirement accounts need to know one important thing...

The 'financial experts' that are being allowed to speak in the popular media are all totally, and completely wrong, and have been wrong ever since this crisis began.

The long-term outlook for the world economy is terrible, for the foreseeable future, some say a hundred years or more. The driving factor is the inescapable fact that the global economy is totally dependant on cheap, plentiful energy, and that is quickly going away.

Holding stocks is going to bring you nothing but pain. There will be big drops in value, then periods of stagnation, or maybe even small gains, before other big drops. This will continue until the stock markets lose all value. This not only applies to stocks, but all paper promissory notes of any type, since they all rely on orderly financial markets.

You need to research this to believe it, and come to a conclusion of your own finding. You need to become your own financial expert now, and quickly, or you stand to lose everything.

There are only 2 smart choices right now, cash or 1oz gold Kruggerands hidden on property you control. I think gold is a much better choice in the medium to long run. Jim Kramer, of ‘Mad Money’ is now even telling people to put the majority of their money in gold.

“It’s telling that for those whose livelihoods depend on beating the market, the investment du jour is no investment at all.”
http://blogs.moneycentral.msn.com/topstocks/archive/2008/09/25/hedge-fun...

All we hear these days is ‘don’t panic, don’t cash out your 401k, think long term…’, they are just mouthpieces of those who are currently looting America of its last few crumbs.

To get started in your own research, read a NY Times article about the only guy who correctly predicted today’s mess…
‘Dr. Doom’
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/magazine/17pessimist-t.html

Then, find out about ‘Peak Oil Theory’ from a great Fortune Magazine piece from a few days ago…
‘Here comes $500 oil’
http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/15/news/economy/500dollaroil_okeefe.fortune...

To get the complete story on ‘Peak Oil Theory’, go to…
http://www.energybulletin.net/primer

My suggestion for books would be…
Twilight in the Desert, by Matt Simmons
The Party’s Over, by Richard Heinberg
The Long Emergency, by James Kunstler

Below are some resources…
Books
· Colin J. Campbell,
o Campbell Colin J (2004). The Essence of Oil & Gas Depletion. Multi-Science Publishing. ISBN 0-906522-19-6.
o Campbell Colin J (2004). The Coming Oil Crisis. Multi-Science Publishing. ISBN 0-906522-11-0.
o Campbell Colin J (2005). Oil Crisis. Multi-Science Publishing. ISBN 0-906522-39-0.
· Kenneth S. Deffeyes,
o Deffeyes Kenneth S (2002). Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09086-6.
o Deffeyes Kenneth S (2005). Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak. Hill and Wang. ISBN 0-8090-2956-1.
· Eberhart Mark (2007). Feeding the Fire: The Lost History and Uncertain Future of Mankind's Energy Addiction. Harmony. ISBN 978-0307237446.
· Goodstein David (2005). Out of Gas: The End of the Age Of Oil. WW Norton. ISBN 0-393-05857-3.
· Richard Heinberg,
o Heinberg Richard (2003). The Party's Over: Oil, War, and the Fate of Industrial Societies. New Society Publishers. ISBN 0-86571-482-7.
o Heinberg Richard (2004). Power Down: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World. New Society Publishers. ISBN 0-86571-510-6.
o Heinberg Richard (2006). The Oil Depletion Protocol: A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism and Economic Collapse. New Society Publishers. ISBN 0-86571-563-7.
· Kleveman Lutz C (2004). The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0-87113-906-5.
· Kunstler James H (2005). The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of the Oil Age, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes. Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 0-87113-888-3.
· Leggett Jeremy K (2005). The Empty Tank: Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Financial Catastrophe. Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6527-5.
· Leggett Jeremy K (2005). Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis. Portobello Books. ISBN 1-8462-7004-9.
· Leggett Jeremy K (2001). The Carbon War: Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era. Routledge. ISBN 0415931029.
· Pfeiffer Dale Allen (2004). The End of the Oil Age. Lulu Press. ISBN 1-4116-0629-9.
· Roberts Paul (2004). The End of Oil. On the Edge of a Perilous New World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 9780618239771.
· Ruppert Michael C (2005). Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil. New Society. ISBN 978-0865715400.
· Simmons Matthew R (2005). Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy. ISBN 0-471-73876-X.
· Shah Sonia (2004). Crude, The Story of Oil. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 1-58322-625-7.
· Simon Julian L (1998). The Ultimate Resource. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-00381-5.
· Smil Vaclav (2005). Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-19492-9.
· Stansberry Mark A, Reimbold Jason (2008). The Braking Point. Hawk Publishing. ISBN 978-1-930709-67-6.
· Tertzakian Peter (2006). A Thousand Barrels a Second. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0-07-146874-9.
· Yeomans Matthew (2004). Oil, Anatomy of an Industry. ISBN 1-56584-885-3.
· No Blood for Oil! by George Caffentzis discusses peak oil and its relationship with current and past conflicts. [1]

Articles
· Tinker Scott W (2005-06-25). "Of peaks and valleys: Doomsday energy scenarios burn away under scrutiny", Dallas Morning News.
· Benner Katie (2005-12-07). "Lawmakers: Will we run out of oil?", CNN.
· Benner Katie (2004-11-03). "Oil: Is the end at hand?", CNN.
· Mitchell John V (2006-08). "A New Era for Oil Prices" (PDF).
· "The Future of Oil". Foreign Policy.
· Robert Hirsch (2008-06). "Peak Oil: "A Significant Period of Discomfort"". Allianz Knowledge.
· Campbell Colin, Laherrère Jean. "The End of Cheap Oil". Scientific American.
· Williams Mark. "The End of Oil?". MIT Technology Review.
· Appenzeller Tim. "The End of Cheap Oil". National Geographic.
· Lynch Michael C. "The New Pessimism about Petroleum Resources".
· Rapier Robert (2006-04). "Peak Lite".
· Roberts Paul (2004-08). "Last Stop Gas". Harper's Magazine: 71–72.
· Larry West. "Sweden aims to be world's first oil-free nation by 2020".
· "'Peak oil' enters mainstream debate". BBC News.
· Welch Dan. "Between Peak Oil and Climate Change". The Peakist.
· Mosher Donna. "Actions everyone can take to prepare for the possible end of an era". Citizens League for Environmental Action Now.
· Alex Kuhlman (2006-06). "Peak oil and the collapse of commercial aviation" (PDF). Airways.
· Anonymous (2005-02-20). "A letter from oil exploration insider". Energy Bulletin.
· Cochrane Troy (2008-01-04). "Peak oil?: Oil supply and accumulation". Cultural Shifts.
· Jaeon Kirby & Colin Campbell (2008-05-30). "Life at $200 a barrel". Maclean's.
Reports, essays, and lectures
· "Crude Oil - The Supply Outlook" (PDF). Energy Watch Group (2007-10-22).
· "Doctoral thesis: Giant Oil Fields - The Highway to Oil: Giant Oil Fields and their Importance for Future Oil Production". Uppsala University (2007-03-30).
· "Review: Oil-based technology and economy - prospects for the future". The Danish Board of Technology (Teknologirådet) (2005-06-09).
· Jim Bliss (2005-07-05). "An Introduction to Peak Oil".
· City of Portland, Peak Oil Task Force (March 2007). "Descending the Oil Peak: Navigating the Transition from Oil and Natural Gas". City of Portland, Oregon, USA.
· "The End of Oil" (PDF). University of Otago Department of Physics (2005-07).
· "Peak Oil Theory – “World Running Out of Oil Soon” – Is Faulty; Could Distort Policy & Energy Debate". CERA (2006-11-14).
· "Australia’s future oil supply and alternative transport fuels". Parliament of Australia - Senate (2007-02-07).

Video Documentary
· Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2006)
· The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream (2004)
· The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006)
· What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire (2007)

I put a garden in the front yard of my rented duplex this year. Just dug it right into the ground with no fancy anything, using a lot of free fencing wire & posts. Very crude but effective. My neighbor across the street thought it was so cool he came over and offered to water if I ever needed help. (He paid pennance for 5 days in a row a few days later, but will be repaid in veggies)

The yard had been unwatered and neglected for a few years. I added some amendments with a shovel 10 months ago but the seedlings, planted from seed about 3 weeks ago, were struggling.

This morning I mulched around everything with 6 bags of compost / steer manure ($.99 a bag at Home Depot) layed about an inch thick, but not touching the stems*.

It looks like the plants grew 2" just today!

*Beware, I just thought this up and did it without any research and could meet with disaster later.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today I watched the DVD "The Power of Community, How Cuba Survived Peak Oil".

This is a very hopeful, uplifting documentary that is only 51 minutes long, but packed with great information.

I feel 87% less doomerish than before watching it:)

Why Sustainable Matters

Sustainable is a word that is being misused by the corporate monsters who have compromised our planet, most people do not understand what it means.

To live in a sustainable manner means that you can live in that place, doing the things you are doing, essentially forever, because you are recycling EVERYTHING. You will import nearly nothing to your place on this earth, and put out no trash, flush no toilet.

Most of us want to live sustainably because it is in the best interest of people, animals, and all the other inhabitants of the planet. To live unsustainably means to add to the destruction of the planetary ecosystem.

Even if you don't really care about the long term health of our planet, there is a reason to learn to live sustainably for your own benefit, in the short term.

Peak Oil and its ramifications are right now beginning to sort out who will live, and who will not in the coming years. Those who live very low on the resource ladder and have given up the 'striving to have more' lifestyle will have a huge edge as we enter a new era of scarcity.

To understand what is coming, you need to understand Peak Oil and the huge body of knowledge that has been accumulated about what to expect. You must invest a few moments research on this very important topic.

The Wall St. Journal and several other business publications have declared in print that 'the Peak Oil Theory folks are / were right'.

If you understand that the world oil production has peaked, in 2005, and no amount of drilling will change that fact, you can then move on to 'what does it mean?'.

There have been a plethora of books and documentaries made on this topic. People have been thinking about this for a very long time and writing about it.

You can find out the science behind Peak Oil Theory at
http://www.energybulletin.net/primer.php
(They are now doing a site conversion so it may not be available for a few days)
Another good place to look is...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

America is being lied to by the popular media in what is one of the most tragic coverups in our history. The reality of our situation is terribly complicated, but here is a small sample of what it means.

· Oil is used to create most of the things in our society and is the dominant source of all of our energy, especially motive fuels.
· Oil and natural gas production worldwide have peaked, and prices will continue to skyrocket no matter how much we drill.
· No combination of renewable or alternative resources will supplant even a tiny fraction of the energy we now use.
· Transporting food into Boise will become problematic because our nations roads will quickly deteriorate.
· Our economy needs growth and growth is correlated with increases in energy supplies. Those energy supplies are about to start shrinking.
· Even if we made fusion work, and energy became essentially free, the world is quickly running out of the mineable minerals and metals that make energy useful. The average is perhaps 15 to 20 years of supply left.

Some specifics...
· Coal: 15 year supply of economically extractable coal left (Big Coal: Jeff Goodell)
· Oil Shale: No future, not economically viable to extract
· Tar Sands: Needs abundant natural gas to extract
· Uranium: 20 year supply
· Wind & Solar power: At a certain point, when oil becomes too expensive, it will become too expensive to keep creating these products and the appliances that make electricity useful.
· Hydrogen: This is an energy carrier, like a battery, and needs to be created at typically a 40% energy loss.
· Ethanol & Biodiesel: We are currently turning oil into these products, they have little future application.

The reason you need to understand this stuff is because the whole game has changed.

The best survival strategy I have found is...

-Sell your house unless you own it outright and can afford to have it lose most of its value.
-Get totally out of debt, now.
-Cash out your 401k, sell all the stuff you don't really need, clean out your bank account
-Put all of your assets in 1 oz gold Krugerrands and bury them in several locations close to home.
-Relocalize yourself so you can sell your car.
-If you must own a car, it really won't matter how many miles per gallon it gets when gas hits $20 per gallon, so don't waste a lot of money on a hybrid or have much money tied up in it no matter what kind it is.
-Learn to grow food, start as big a garden as you possibly can. Take over your neighbors yards if possible. This will be the most sought after skill in the coming years.
-Find a job that will be around, that is very close to home.
-Prepare to live without heating / cooling, or build yourself a 0 energy house.
-Spend as little as you can so you can work less.
-Get yourself in great physical and mental shape.
-Know your neighbors and share your knowledge/vegetables with them, become invaluable.
-Arm yourself well, we are entering very turbulent times.

Peak Oil Reading list...
Twilight in the Desert, Matt Simmons
The Party’s over, Richard Hienberg
The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubberts Peak
The Coming Economic Collapse, Dr. Stephen Leeb
The Oil Factor: How Oil Controls the Economy and Your Financial Future, Dr. Stephen Leeb

Thanks for reading,

Bob

Some time back I read an eye opening book called "Gardening When it Counts: How to Grow food in Hard Times". The author shows that current intensive growing methods do not work when fertilizer and water are hard to come by. He relays heirloom information that will be vital in the coming years and I highly recommend it.

See this article by the author, Steve Solomon in Mother Earth News to get a taste of his invaluable knowledge.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2006-06-01/A-Better-Way...
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A while back a commune in North Carolina was featured in a multi-page article in the New York Times. They had plenty of land, water and labor but could not grow all of their own food. They needed to buy grains. They've been trying for a long time but can't make it work.
------------------------------------
I ran across something a while back called "the myth of the self sufficient homestead". Essentially, colonial homesteaders where modified hunter / gathers who supplied some of their food with farming / gardening.
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Thoughts of this topic arose recently from 2 posts on my favorite news source, that being www.energybulletin.net.
Both articles are below...

http://www.energybulletin.net/45135.html
Published on Friday, May 30, 2008 by Common Dreams

It will take a lot more than gardening to fix our food system
By Stan Cox

I didn’t mean to lead anyone down the garden path. Adding my small voice to those urging Americans replace their lawns with food plants wasn’t, in itself, a bad idea. But now that food shortages and high costs are in the headlines, too many people are getting the idea that the solution to America’s and the world’s food problems is for all of us in cities and suburbia to grow our own. It’s not.

Don’t get me wrong: Growing food just outside your front or back door is an extraordinarily good idea, and if it’s done without soil erosion or toxic chemicals, I can think of no downside. Edible landscaping can look good, and it saves money on groceries; it’s a direct provocation to the toxic lawn culture; gardening is quieter and less polluting than running a power mower or other contraption; the harvest provides a substitute for industrially grown produce raised and picked by underpaid, oversprayed workers; and tending a garden takes a lot of time, time that might otherwise be spent in a supermarket or shopping mall.

So it was in 2005 that our family volunteered our front lawn to be converted into the first in a now-expanding chain of “Edible Estates“, the brainchild of Los Angeles architect/artist Fritz Haeg. We already had a backyard garden, but growing food in the front yard (which, as Haeg himself points out, is a reincarnation of a very old idea) has been a wholly different, equally positive experience.

Our perennials and annuals are thriving, we’ve gotten a lot of publicity, and I’ve been talking about the project for almost three years. Yet neither of our gardens, front or back, can stand up to the looming agricultural crisis. Good food’s most well-read advocate, Michael Pollan, has written that growing a garden is worth doing even though it can make only a tiny contribution to curbing carbon-dioxide emissions. He might have added that growing food is worth it even if it does very little to revive the nation’s food system.

World cropland: the pie is mostly crust

The edible-landscaping trend is catching on across the country, and with food prices rising, it has taking sadly predictable turns. A Boulder, Colo. entrepreneur, for example, has tilled up his and several of his neighbors’ yards and started an erosion-prone, for-profit vegetable-farming operation. It will supplement his income, but it won’t make a nick in the food crisis.

That’s because the mainstays of home gardening — vegetables and fruits — are not the foundation of the human diet or of world agriculture. Each of those two food types occupies only about 4 percent of global agricultural land (and a smaller percentage in this country), compared with 75 percent of world cropland devoted to grains and oilseeds. Their respective portions of the human diet are similar.

Suppose that half of the land on every one-acre-or-smaller urban/suburban home lot in the entire nation were devoted to food-growing. That would amount to a little over 5 million acres (pdf) sown to food plants, covering most of the space on each lot that’s not already covered by the house, a deck, a patio, or a driveway. (And in many places it couldn’t be done without cutting down shade trees and planting on unsuitably steep slopes).

That theoretical 5 million acres of potential home cropland compares with about 7 million acres of America’s commercial cropland currently in vegetables, fruits, and nuts, and 350 to 400 million acres of total farmland. The urban and suburban area to be brought into production would not approach the number of healthy acres of native grasses and other plants that are slated to be plowed up and sickened to make way for yet more corn, wheat, soybeans, and other grains under the newly passed federal Farm Bill.

A nationwide grow-your-own wave would send good vibes through society, ripples that could be greatly amplified by community and apartment-block gardening. But front- and backyard food, even if everyone grew it, would not cover the country’s produce needs, much less displace our huge volume of fresh-food imports.

We could, instead, plant every yard to wheat, corn, or soybeans, which would account only for a little over two percent of the US land sown to those crops. Other policies, like dispensing with grain-fed meat and fuel ethanol, would free up far more grain-belt land than that.

Not even a poke in the eye

I’ve played a part in the promotion of domestic food-growing, and I now I seem to hear daily from people who believe that it’s the best alternative to industrial agriculture (as in, “I’ll show Monsanto and Wal-Mart that I don’t need their food!”). Even though most prominent home-lot food efforts, like the “100-Foot Diet Challenge“, also try to draw attention to bigger issues, the wider message can get lost in the excitement. Whatever its benefits, replacing your lawn with food plants will not give Big Agribusiness the big poke in the eye that it needs, nor will it save the agricultural landscapes of the nation or world.

To do that, the big-commodity market must be not just modified but overthrown. Until then, most of that two-thirds or more of the human calorie and protein intake that comes from grains and oilseeds (directly in most of the world or among Western vegetarians, largely via animal products for others in this country) will continue to be served up by a dirty, cruel, unfair, broken system.

Essential for providing vitamins, minerals, and other compounds, a highly varied diet is important, and home gardens around the world help provide such a diet. But with a world population now approaching seven billion people and most good cropland already in use, only rice, wheat, corn, beans, and other grain crops are productive and durable enough to provide the dietary foundation of calories and protein.

Grains made up about the same portion of the ancient Greek diet as they do of ours. We’ve been stuck with grains for 10,000 years, and our dependence won’t be broken any time soon.

The United States could emulate Argentina and a handful of other countries and by raising cattle that are totally grass-fed instead of grain-fed and thereby consuming less corn and soybean meal. But most of the world is utterly dependent on grains. The desperate people we saw on the evening news earlier this year, filling the streets in dozens of countries, were calling for bread or rice, not cucumbers and pomegranates.

Capitalism: It doesn’t go well with food

Humanity’s attachment to cereals, grain legumes, and oilseeds has acquired a much harder edge in the industrial era, but as a base for political and economic power, the staple grains have always been unsurpassed. Because they hold calories and nutrients in a dense package that can be easily stored for long periods and transported, the more fortunate members of ancient societies could accumulate surpluses. Those surpluses are recognized by the majority of scholars as necessary to the birth of market economies, which allowed the prosperous to exercise control over society’s have-nots. Eventually, states used control over grains to exert political power over entire populations.

Few foods could have filled that role. Noting that before grain agriculture came along, ancient Egyptians might have gathered a surplus of various foods from nature, most of them highly perishable, economic historian Robert Allen once wrote, “If all a tax collector could get from foragers was a load of waterlilies that would wilt by next morning, what was the point of having them?” The Pharaohs managed to exert control over the area’s population only after people started farming wheat and barley.

The even bigger problem with grains — which are short-lived annual plants, grown largely in monoculture — is that they supplanted the diverse, perennial plant ecosystems that covered the earth before the dawn of agriculture. We’ve been living with the resulting soil erosion and water pollution ever since.

Then, when grains became fully commodified a couple of centuries ago, things really started to go downhill. In discussing his new book Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, Raj Patel cited India as an example: “The social safety nets that existed in India under feudal society had been knocked away by the British. If people couldn’t afford food, they didn’t get to eat, and if they couldn’t buy food, they starved. As a result of the imposition of markets in food, 13 million people across the world died in the 19th century. They died in the golden age of liberal capitalism. Those are the origins of markets in food.”

Indeed, if capitalism were a wine, it would be a wine that doesn’t go well with any type of food.

Most food today is produced not as an end in itself but as a by-product of a global economy with the singular goal of turning maximum profit. That is a dysfunctional arrangement, as Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, the founder of ecological economics explained almost 40 years ago in his book The Entropy Law and the Economic Process: “So vital is the dependence of terrestrial life on the energy received from the sun that the cyclic rhythm in which this energy reaches each region on the earth has gradually built itself through natural selection into the reproductive pattern of almost every species, vegetal or animal … Yet the general tenor among economists has been to deny any substantial difference between the structures of agricultural and industrial productive activities.”

Industrial or commercial output can be increased by building more capacity, stepping up the consumption of inputs, taking on more workers, and pushing workers harder and for longer hours. Farming, by contrast, is inevitably bound by the calendar - by month-to-month variation in the capacity of soil and sunlight to support the growth of plants. It depends fundamentally on the productivity and the habits of non-human biological organisms over which humans can exert control only up to a point.

That clearly isn’t the ideal pattern for efficient wealth generation, so the past century has seen relentless efforts to mold agriculture into the factory model as closely as possible and, where that can’t be done, to graft more easily regimented industries — farm machinery, fertilizers, chemicals, food processing, the restaurant industry, packaging, advertising — onto an agricultural rootstock. In the US, the dollar outputs of those dependent industries are growing at two to four times the rate of agriculture’s own dollar output, putting ever-greater demands on the soil.

With a wholesale shift toward mechanization of US agriculture, 75 percent of economic output now comes from fewer than 7 percent of farms; furthermore, there has been a steep rise in the proportion of farms owned by investors living in distant cities (some of them perhaps avid urban gardeners).

Because, as Georgescu-Roegen showed, there’s a fundamental difference between the farm and the factory, the well-used term “factory farming” represents more an aspiration than an accomplished fact. Nevertheless, agribusiness’s attempts to defy natural rhythms and achieve industrial efficiency have been ecologically devastating. The biofuel craze, encouraged by subsidies that continue in the new Farm Bill, compounds the problem.

“We must cultivate our garden,” and …

To repair the broken system that supplies the bulk of the nation’s diet will require Americans to step out of the garden and into the public arena. Beyond working to get a better Farm Bill passed five years from now, we have to work together to break the political choke-hold that agribusiness has on federal and state governments.

With land and wealth being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands (and with more prisoners than farmers in today’s America) we have actually reached a point at which land reform is as necessary here as it is in any nation of Latin America or Asia. Only when we get more people back on the land, working to feed people and not Monsanto, will the system have a chance to work. Most home gardeners know that the root of the problem is political, but the agricultural establishment would like nothing better than to see us spend all of our free time in our gardens and not in political dissent.

Ironically, it’s that great troublemaker Voltaire who has too often been trotted out (and too often misquoted) as an advocate of withdrawing from the tumult of society, into tending one’s own property. Voltaire was indeed a gardener, and he did end his most famous novel by having Candide, after surviving so many far-flung hazards, utter those famous words to his fellow wanderer Dr. Pangloss: “We must cultivate our garden.”

However, with the publication of Candide in 1759, Voltaire entered the most politically active part of his life, as he “went on to a series of confrontations with the consequences of human cruelty that, two hundred-odd years later, remain stirring in their courage and perseverance,” in the words of Adam Gopnik.

If Voltaire could find the time for both gardening and radical political action, then all of us can do it.

Stan Cox is a senior scientist at The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas and author of the newly published Sick Planet: Corporate Food and Medicine (Pluto Press, 2008).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND THE OTHER ARTICLE...

http://www.energybulletin.net/45239.html
Published on Tuesday, June 3, 2008 by Energy Bulletin

A doomer's garden
By Zachary Nowak

Now that oil is up over $130 a barrel and the subprime debacle is making everyone think that there may just be a Big Problem in the future, I would like to reopen the discussion on the menu du jour, post-Peak. Tractor trailers may not be able to bring in our Krispie Flakes and California oranges, and we may have to “make other arrangements,” as James Howard Kunstler often says, to feed ourselves. I am worried with the frequency that I see “gardens” as a solution to a breakdown in the food supply, and I would like to disabuse the peaknik crowd of this dangerous illusion.

“If there’s a problem with the food supply, I’ll just garden,” you say! If the Peak comes and causes disruptions in the food supply, your Hubbert Victory garden will see you through the winter months. I’m sure most of us love to picture ourselves putting up forty quarts of tomatoes and salting beans for the winter in a large beige crock. With your green thumb and Mason jars you’ll can enough to last until next year’s first corn comes in.

This is a nice fantasy, but I would ask the more serious to do a simple survey. Each of us likely has a friend who has a fairly large garden. Ask him or her what percentage of their family’s yearly food intake comes from the garden – I would be astounded if any say more than two percent. Annual gardening, like agriculture, takes an enormous input of energy for the return you get, and that is assuming you are good at it.

Are you good at it? How much do you know about gardening? To have a truly successful large garden you need to eliminate as many of the risks as possible. Unfortunately, the risks are myriad: poor germination, premature planting (or a late frost), garden pests (from aphids to groundhogs), too much rain, too little water, and so on. Taking each of these individually, we can see that annual gardening has a lot of luck involved in it. A good gardener buys high-quality seeds, uses cold frames to start plants before the last frost, knows the growing periods of each vegetable well, is prepared for the various “enemies” of his/her plants, and spends hours watering if need be.

What happens, though, if it doesn’t work out well? If gardening is your hobby, it’s not a problem. But in a post-Peak situation where food is tight, it just may be. Ask yourself what you know about gardening, and whether that is enough to risk your life on the tomatoes coming in and rows of corn ripening. Horticulture alone is not a valid answer unless you are already an expert, and even then it is tough. I am emphatically not saying that you should not garden – a large garden will be essential – but simply that it is dangerous to depend on gardening alone.

What then, is the answer? Lowering your inputs, increasing your outputs, and redundancy. In other words, get more food from plants that don’t require such babying, and don’t rely on just a few main crops. The key is diversification with hardier, low-maintenance crops: perennial vegetables, bush- and vine-fruits, and trees. If you’re a gardener you likely already have the two most common perennial vegetables, asparagus and rhubarb (the latter we often eat as a fruit, with strawberries), but don’t limit yourself to these! There are a number of perennial onions that come up every year without the hassle of planting sets, tubers like Jerusalem artichokes that are easy to the point of being pesky, and even old-fashioned favourites like lovage. Fruits like currants and gooseberries are easy to propagate and can, and you can even have kiwi fruit growing along your fence (it’s a smaller, hardier relative than the kiwi in the grocery stores). For trees, go beyond apples and peaches to hazelnuts, quinces, and persimmon trees. All have fewer pests than their more common cousins and produce fruit and nuts earlier and more steadily.

Of course a bountiful harvest just begs more questions, like are there other methods of preservation that are less energy-intensive than canning? This is an optimistic problem, one you should be happy to face. A much more immediate problem is feeding yourself in an uncertain world. Don’t get me wrong, I will still have an annual garden long after Hubbert’s Peak – I can’t be without tomato sauce or fresh corn – but having tried my hand at gardening, I’ve realized that it’s a gamble as far as what you get, and not one most people should make. Peakniks with green thumbs, go buy some currant bushes!

Zachary Nowak splits his time between central Italy and upstate New York. A self-described doomer, he’s just put out a new book, Crash Course: Preparing For Peak Oil (www.preparingforpeakoil.com). The book lays out a holistic plan for post-Peak life, and records his seven-year attempt to become more self-sufficient…and get the corn before the raccoons!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editorial Notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two chapters of Zachary's book can be viewed online at his website

For more on the limitations of gardening, see It will take a lot more than gardening to fix our food system by Stan Cox at Common Dreams.

-BA

Contributor SP adds:
I think this is true of most backyard gardens I've ever seen.

I received my new Mundo in about 200 pieces and assembled them in about 5 hours on Tuesday. There were some issues as it is a new-to-market bike, but they are resolved and it is ready to haul. It rides very nice and has great ergonomics. I am 6'4" and the thing could probably adjust up to someone a lot taller. It also goes down to someone over 5' tall, one size fits all.

I just stopped at Georges Cycles and about 6 employees jumped on it and rode it around. The owner got a ride on the back rack, as well as a few others, and they showed interest in carrying it. Currently it is only available through Rock the Bike in Berkley, CA. They ship it out for $800 + about $50 shipping, I added a kickstand (very nice) for about $25.

Today it is going to take my kayak down to the play wave on the Boise River after a run to the store.

Let me know if you want to try it out. I live near Boise and Broadway and am home quite a bit.

Bob

Below are three letters about Peak Oil and its possible outcomes that were delivered to Boise Idaho Mayor Dave Bieter and the Boise City Council. The first two were also given to the Ada County Commissioners.

The first letter is an outline of America's current energy problem.

The second letter is some possible actions the city could take.

The third letter was sent after I met with Dave Bieter and fought for Peak Oil planning on the city level.

When the energy sh*t hits the political fan, don't let anyone say our local leaders didn't know it was coming. I'll testify otherwise.

**FIRST LETTER**

Hello Mr. Mayor, Boise City Council,

What has often been called ‘the most significant event in human history’ is beginning.

Matt Simmons, one of the worlds foremost energy finance bankers and energy council to the President and Vice President of the United States, said in a speech a few days ago that the energy crisis feared for so long is upon us. When asked how immediate the situation was, he responded that it is now time to learn to grow your own food.

T. Boone Pickens, America’s most famous oilman, said a few days ago that world oil production has peaked.

The Wall St. Journal reported June 12th that Saudi Arabia oil production was down 400,000 barrels a day as of last month, after holding steady for years. In Matt Simmons book “Twilight in the Desert”, he said that when Saudi Arabia peaks, the world has peaked.

Al Gore and Bill Clinton have both recently warned of Peak Oil and asked the media to begin informing the public.

I have been studying energy for several years now, have read most recent books on the subject, and have been following worldwide media coverage of this topic. It is not an understatement to say that Peak Oil should now be the most important consideration for all civic planning.

Peak Oil means that in the coming years:
• The corporate agriculture system of food production will fail because it is entirely predicated upon cheap oil, natural gas and transportation.
• We will experience severe inflation, a collapse of the dollar, and possibly deflation similar to the 1970’s.
• The interstate highway system will collapse and the electrical grid will cease to exist since it takes too much energy to maintain these systems.
• The current monetary system will not survive because it is predicated upon growth and growth will reverse since it is a direct result of an increase in energy supplies.
• Reverse globalization will take place and our local economy will eventually need to produce most all goods needed by the people, especially food.
• Most occupations will fade away and the dominant form of work will be producing food.
• The U.S. Federal Government will likely become powerless and probably cease to exist.

The bad news is that there is no substitute for oil, which has peaked worldwide, and natural gas, which will peak very soon. (There is a distinct possibility we may see shortages of natural gas if the coming winter is normal, or abnormally cold)

Ethanol, if produced using no fossil inputs could only supplant 1% of our motor fuel needs if we used every square inch of America to grow the fuel, it is a dead end.

Coal is being oversold as to its ability to be produced on a large scale, the remaining coal is hard to get to, and it is high in sulphur content.

Nuclear would take too long to build, uranium is becoming scarce (perhaps a 20 year supply is left) and the cost of construction will skyrocket due to the cost of energy.

Tar/Oil sands would only produce a tiny percentage of current supply and will likely be shut down (the project in Alberta shown on 60 Minutes has been stopped from growing) due to enormous environmental devastation.

The short story is that from now on, less energy will be available to our civilization every year, no matter what we do, and the depletion will accelerate rapidly. We humans love to be optimistic, but when all the evidence is laid out, there is no escaping the fact we are in deep trouble. Many have said that the coming years will make the Great Depression look like good times.

The reason so many people have been so wrong about world oil supply is that the USGS has been using ‘cooked’ figures that arose from OPEC rules. In the late 1980’s, OPEC ruled that a country could produce at a certain percentage of probable reserves and, that year every countries reserves jumped dramatically. The unaccounted for new reserve figures have been the ones quoted ever since.

There are many solutions to consider and they all need to be implemented on the local level. This may seem strange, but you, the members of city government, are now the most important leaders in our future.

I understand that Elaine Clegg is aware of this situation, but am not sure how deeply she has studied it.

I would be honored to share what I know in further detail, please let me know how I can help.

Bob Blurton
Former Boise City Council candidate
Technology marketing professional

1735 Melody St. Boise
rjblurton@hotmail.com

384.0706

Reading List:
1. Powerdown by Richard Heinberg
2. The Long Emergency by James Kunstler
3. The Party's Over by Richard Heinberg
4. Twilight in the Desert, by Matt Simmons
5. High Noon For Natural Gas, by Julian Darley
6. Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak by Kenneth Deffeyes
7. Half Gone by Jeremy Leggett
8. The End of Oil by Paul Roberts
9. The Coming Oil Crisis by Colin Campbell
10. Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil by David Goodstein
11. The Oil Factor by Stephen Leeb, PHD
12. The Coming Economic Collapse by Stephen Leeb, PHD
13. http://www.energybulletin.net/
Below is a brief page detailing the problem.
http://www.energybulletin.net/primer.php

**SECOND LETTER**

Energy II: The Solutions

Hello Mr. Mayor, Boise City Council,

My previous letter gave a brief overview of a future of decreasing energy. I would now like to address some of the solutions.

It would be political suicide to start pouring money into an infrastructure in preparation for a future few are aware of, but perhaps there is another way.

The citizens of Boise place rising property taxes and growing traffic congestion, perhaps growth in general, as their biggest complaints. Since conservatives dominate, it would be an easy sell to stop expending resources in areas that have no future.

The traffic congestion and growth will self correct as people find ways to drive less and arrange shorter commutes, and declining energy supplies snuff out growth. The real concern is the many projects that are paving over farmland and adding to an infrastructure with no future.

If well orchestrated and marketed, a strong protectionist, anti-growth stand might facilitate a successful turnaround.

Things with no future are:

• Airports
• Parking structures, lots
• Freeways
• High schools and colleges
• Buildings taller than can be accessed with stairs
• Shopping areas built for car access, featuring giant, flat roofed buildings
• New houses that are not passive solar, or built zero energy
• High water landscaping
• Medium to large size companies, and companies that produce complex, energy intensive products
• Electrical grid, computers, the internet

The end of cheap energy means that most folks in the near future will be busy growing food. We need to find a way to make that transition without massive home foreclosures, high unemployment and starvation.

Richard Heinberg's book, Powerdown, talks in detail about how he thinks this might be accomplished without social chaos. The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century, by James Howard Kunstler, is also a window into the likely scenarios that will occur.

For many years, local government has acted essentially as a growth manager and crisis referee. If we are to survive, local government will need to assume a leadership role and shed the passive, reactionary one.

Perhaps the best ‘case study’ to peer into our future is Cuba. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a US embargo, permaculturists from Australia saved a starving Cuba. They taught Cuba how to produce their own food in a manner that was sustainable with no fossil fuel inputs. Cuba now produces about 50% of the food needed for their large cities within the city, and the rest is produced in the surrounding area.

Below are some of the latest studies about Cuba.
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes. Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities
The Greening of the Revolution: Cuba's Experiment with Organic Farming

We need to:
• Stop spending money in areas with no future
• Keep people employed
• Encourage community and personal food gardens
• Ramp up agricultural education
• Encourage small, local manufacturing companies and farmers
• Discourage immigration
• Protect water quality and availability
• Protect the sustainable harvest of nearby forests

Zoning laws and ordinances will need to be changed frequently to reflect the new reality. People will need to be able to build structures in the city using techniques like ‘cob’ and ‘straw bale’, and will also need to have more animals such as chickens on their property.

Boise must have plans in place for creating local currency, because the likelihood of a dollar collapse is very high.

This is my personal opinion, but I believe it would be in the public interest to shake up the news-for-profit crowd, and replace them with non-profit organizations if necessary. Our local news sources are virtually useless, and mostly harmful. A successful transition needs real, useful information, not endless car crash, fire and crime stories. Canadian news organizations are an example of a system that informs the public and could be our role model.

In the coming months and years we will hear of fantastic new ways of producing energy. Most, and probably all of them, will be simply a desperate attempt to draw investment money into a marginal and often useless business scheme. The first chapter in Richard Heinberg's book, Powerdown, is a dissertation on the fundamentals of energy and is difficult, but mandatory reading in understanding our energy future. A new type of super efficient solar cell or amazing new wind turbine would buffer us against the coming crisis, but only for a few years. You cannot build solar cells or wind turbines using non-fossil fuel inputs so they will only be a temporary solution at best.

Even if a new energy source were invented that was non-polluting and essentially free, our plight would only be drawn out perhaps another 10 or 20 years. This is because we are running out of the mine-able metals and minerals that are the underpinning of the industrial economy. They are the transformative raw materials that make energy useful, and are becoming ever more scarce.

The key to the future of Boise is to change rapidly as the situation warrants. The danger is in trying to hold on to the energy intensive, industrial model as it becomes antiquated. True leadership will be the top requirement as we venture into the most difficult period in human history.

Bob Blurton
Former Boise City Council candidate
Technology marketing professional

1735 Melody St. Boise
rjblurton@hotmail.com

384.0706

**THIRD LETTER**

Follow up letter to meeting with Dave Bieter...

Hello Mr. Mayor,

Thank you for meeting with me this morning. I would like to share a few more thoughts about the topic of a ‘peak oil’ task force.

The ideas I shared this morning were those of authors who have studied and written on the topic for many years. It has taken me several years of reading their writing to actually feel I have a good grasp of the problem, and the potential solutions.

There are two main enemies you will encounter in quickly trying to assimilate this material. The first is the opinions of people who have not researched the issue, and the second is the free market trying to capture investor dollars.

Most folks think they know quite a bit about energy issues, but a recent survey told a much different story. The researchers concluded that while most everyone thinks they are knowledgeable, they are mostly misinformed, and few have any concept of any of the deeper issues.

The second problem is that we are constantly bombarded by the promise of wonderful new technologies that will make our oil problems a thing of the past. This leads most folks to think that ‘they’ will come up with something, so why worry. The truth is that governments have been throwing billions of dollars at the issue and have little to show for their efforts.

As for alternatives to oil, the lead time to fully ramp up new technologies and broadly implement them is about 10 to 15 years, and as much as 25 years or more for Generation IV Nuclear. This is a problem because as oil prices steadily rise, the cost of implementing these technologies will skyrocket. Most researchers believe that even when fully ramped up, which we probably won’t be able to do, alternative technologies could only replace about 25% of our liquid motor fuels. These alternatives will also only be temporary since you cannot make windmills with wind power, solar cells with solar power, or nuclear facilities with nuclear power.

Alternative energy projects started 10 or more years ago would have given our energy crisis a softer landing, but they would not work in the long run. Cheap oil has created our highway system, electrical grid, food creation and delivery system, and nearly every other facet of our civilization; and expensive oil will reclaim them much more swiftly than most can imagine.

The main issue now is carrying capacity of the land without long distance transportation, or cheap farm machinery and fertilizer. The ‘Green Revolution’ was a product of cheap oil. Many authors now believe that we have overshot the carrying capacity of the world by about 5 billion people, and, unfortunately, America will be among the worst off countries, since most of our systems are entirely predicated on cheap oil.

I ask you to please consider allowing me to work closely with you on this issue. Having a person who understands the incredibly complex interrelations that make up the peak oil issue, and energy issues in general is invaluable.

I ask that you please allow me to assist in starting a city-sponsored task force that would recruit members with deep energy knowledge, and no conflicts of interest. If any person in this valley is better versed in energy knowledge, I would gladly cede to them.

It is critical to get the ball rolling now. I fear that handing the information to your air quality person will just immediately overwhelm them and the issue will die.

The people of Boise need to know that global oil production has peaked, that it is called ‘peak oil’, and that this event has serious implications that have been written about by many authors, for a great many years, and that their community is actively working on a solution.

Please let me help you with this issue, there is literally no time for others to start researching this from scratch.

Thank you,
Bob Blurton

Hot off the grid
Solar ovens utilize nature's rays for energy-efficient, everyday cooking -- even in foggy San Francisco

Tara Duggan, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/11/FDG6BQROHD1....

Global warming. Dwindling energy resources. Deforestation and pollution, natural disasters and power outages.

These are just some of the things to worry about in today's world. Yet a small but growing group of advocates says a simple tool exists that can help address them: the solar oven.

Sun-heated ovens are nothing new. The idea has been around for centuries, and people of a certain age may remember using ragtag cardboard-and-foil contraptions to bake carrot-lentil loaf back in their hippie days. But with today's new versions that produce results comparable to conventional ovens, solar ovens are poised to move into the mainstream.

"For people who are interested in being carbon-neutral or being green, the idea of using something like a Sun Oven is very appealing," says Paul Munsen, president of Sun Ovens International, based in Elburn, Ill. He expects to sell 5,700 ovens in the United States this year, up from around 1,000 in 2004.

Lynn Langford of Ross purchased a Sun Oven a year ago and uses it to prepare dishes such as baby beet salad with walnuts and feta. Instead of boiling the beets on her stove and toasting walnuts in her oven, she places the beets in a dark pot, wraps the nuts in parchment paper and tucks both into the oven to cook in her sunny backyard.

"When you care about not heating up the whole planet, it's a fun and easy way to do it," says Langford, who says her electricity bills dropped by 30 percent in the first month of using her solar oven about three times a week.

Solar ovens alone will not solve the energy crisis. A typical family of four consumes about 500 kilowatt-hours per year using an electric range and oven combination, which adds up to only around $65 a year on Bay Area utility bills. Still, it's a start.

"People look into installing solar panels or a solar water heater, and it's a sticker shock when they start to think about that initial investment," says Munsen. "Then they look at a $260 oven and it's a lot more immediate."

Munsen's company focuses primarily on getting solar ovens into the developing world, as does Sacramento organization Solar Cookers International, which promotes their use for impoverished people who lack access to cooking fuel (see "A tool for the developing world," this page).

The ovens work best in sunny climates like California's Central Valley and the American Southwest, but even those who live in cooler parts of the Bay Area also can take advantage of them on sunny or mostly sunny days year round, and on camping or boating trips.

Some people purchase them in the event that a major earthquake or hurricane -- not to mention terrorist attack -- wipes out power for days, or weeks. Solar cookers provide additional energy savings to those who use air-conditioning, because the air conditioner doesn't have to fight the heat produced by an indoor oven.

"We bought our house in Sonora, and it's so hot and I thought, 'I have to have one of those sun ovens,' says Sharon South, who recently moved from San Jose to Tuolumne County. "Because in the summer, who wants to turn the oven on?"

This spring, South started using her solar oven about three times a week and plans to buy a second one so she and her husband can cook more dishes at once when they have guests.

Solar cookers like the Sun Oven can maintain temperatures of 350 degrees or higher and start around $230. Less-insulated and simpler versions such as one called the CooKit cost about $32 and cook food in the low to mid 200 degrees -- hot enough to boil water, which is all you need for most cooking.

Most solar ovens rely on the greenhouse effect. The Sun Oven, for example, consists of a well-insulated box with a glass lid and four reflective panels that direct sunlight into the box. As the sunlight is absorbed by the oven's black interior and any dark-colored dishes place inside, it converts into heat, which is trapped inside by the glass lid. (For more on how solar ovens work, see graphic, F5)

There are disadvantages. Solar ovens don't work on super-foggy or rainy days. They also can't be used with recipes that require high heat or lots of stirring; heat escapes each time you open the oven or lid, adding another 15 minutes of cooking time. On the other hand, the ovens can't burn food because there aren't any hot spots.

Solar cooking typically takes two to three times as long as conventional cooking. But once you get used to the relaxed rhythm, it can be easy and convenient, kind of like using a Crock-Pot. If your backyard has sunlight all day, you can place a one-dish meal inside the oven in the morning, position it toward where the sun is at its height in the middle of the day, and come home from work to a fully cooked, warm dinner.

"Someone who likes precise cooking might be frustrated with these ovens," says Langford, a mother of twin preschool-age boys. But, partly because she works at home as a consultant, she says, "I'm not concerned with how long it takes. I see it as a different kind of cooking."

The Food section purchased a Sun Oven and conducted a range of tests on the roof of our often-sunny South of Market office, with surprisingly good results.

We found it perfect for low-and-slow cooking, such as a whole-grain rice pilaf. It also did a lovely job baking up corn bread and peach and blackberry cobbler, and cooked up sweet and tender baby beets and skewered shrimp.

It took us awhile to get the hang of the oven, and our results were better after we learned more about sun patterns. Box cookers like the Sun Oven are most effective when adjusted about once an hour so the glass top is always perpendicular to the sun's rays.

"What it is with the solar oven is you start to develop an intuitive sense. It's a little closer to nature," says Don Larson, assistant manager at Common Ground, a nonprofit organic garden supply and education center in Palo Alto, where he teaches classes on solar cooking and building solar ovens. "You notice, for example, if it's windy you leave it in 15 minutes longer."

Common Ground sells about eight solar ovens a month during spring and summer. At their San Jose home, Larson, his wife, Susan, and their two children have three homemade solar ovens. Larson first got interested in solar energy when visiting a technology expo as a junior high student. He went home and built a model solar heater out of a cigar box and has been hooked ever since.

"It's a very positive form of environmentalism," says Larson. "You're not out there protesting and marching. I'd rather be taking action, and this is a very social form of it. Everyone congregates around food."

Still, Larson insists that the primary reason he uses solar ovens is even simpler: "How it tastes when you get it all done."

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History of solar cooking
Ancient Greeks, Romans and Chinese experiment with the use of curved mirrors that could be angled toward the sun and cause objects to burst into flames, for military purposes.

16th century. The Dutch, French and English begin widespread use of greenhouses, which are heated when sunlight passes through glass and becomes trapped inside, to raise tropical plants.

1767. Swiss scientist Horace de Saussure develops a solar cooker using the greenhouse effect, in the form of several glass boxes set inside one another and placed on a dark surface.

19th century. French mathematician Augustin Mouchot uses curved mirrors to angle the sun's rays into an insulated box that traps heat.

1894. A restaurant in China serves solar-cooked food.

1950s. Maria Telkes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology develops the present-day box solar cooker, an insulated, glass-topped box with four reflectors to direct light into the box. The United Nations and other agencies begin studying how to bring solar cooking to countries where fuel is scarce; early programs do not take off.

1973. The first solar cooking convention is held in China, where solar cooking has become widespread.

1992. China reports the use of 100,000 solar box cookers.

Source: solarcooking.org

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A tool for the developing world
Over 2 billion people, a third of the world's population, rely on wood-fueled fires to cook food. Of these people, around 500 million frequently encounter fuel shortages yet live in ideal climates for solar cooking, says Kevin Porter of Solar Cookers International (SCI) in Sacramento.

Many women, especially refugees, trek miles to obtain cooking fuel, and the reliance on wood for fuel has led to deforestation in many areas.

SCI and other organizations help impoverished communities gain access to solar ovens to cook food, pasteurize water and sterilize medical equipment. Since 1995, SCI has taught 30,000 families in eastern and southern Africa how to use solar ovens and has helped establish solar businesses in refugee communities.

The majority of funding comes from individual donors; to donate or learn more, visit solarcookers.org.

-- Tara Duggan

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Where to find solar ovens
The following organizations and companies sell solar ovens; some offer lots of online resources:

ClearDome Solar Thermal. (888) 277-7547, Ext. 3427, or www.cleardomesolar.com.

Common Ground Organic Garden Supply and Education Center. 559 College Ave., Palo Alto; (650) 493-6072 or www.commongroundinpaloalto.org.

Solar Cookers International. (916) 455-4499 or www.solarcookers.org.

Solar Living Institute/Real Goods. 13771 S. Hwy. 101, Hopland; (707) 744-2017 or www.solarliving.org.

Sun Ovens International. (800) 408-7919 or www.sunoven.com.

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Baby Beet Salad with Feta, Walnuts & Arugula
Serves 4-6

This recipe comes from Lynn Langford of Ross, who grows baby beets, herbs and nasturtiums in her garden. Baby beets, which are about 2 inches across, are sweeter and more tender than mature ones and take less time to cook.

INGREDIENTS:
24 baby beets, or about 14 ounces loose beets (without greens), scrubbed and trimmed

Salt to taste

3/4 cup walnut pieces

2 tablespoons minced mint

2 tablespoons minced chives

3 tablespoons champagne or white wine vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil plus more to drizzle

Freshly ground pepper to taste

6 cups baby arugula, lightly packed

3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

Nasturtium flower petals (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:
Instructions: If using large beets, cut into halves or quarters.

Solar cooking directions: Preheat solar oven for 30 minutes.

Place enough salted water to just cover the beets, about 2 quarts, in a black, lightweight covered pot and place in the solar oven. When the water comes to a simmer, about 30 minutes, add the beets. Cook until fork-tender, 1 to 2 1/2 hours, depending on oven temperature.

Wrap walnuts loosely in parchment paper. Tuck into the oven at some point when you open the door. Toast 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Conventional cooking directions: Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and cook beets until fork-tender, 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375° and place the walnuts on a pan. Toast until fragrant, 8 minutes. Let cool.

To finish the salad: Drain and let the beets cool. Peel skins with your fingers or a cloth (use gloves to avoid staining from red beets). Cut the beets in half lengthwise. Toss in the mint, chives and vinegar. Set aside until most of the moisture is absorbed, 5 minutes or as long as you like. Toss in the olive oil and season with plenty of salt and pepper to taste.

Place the arugula in a round on a large plate. Mound the beets in the center, and drizzle any extra oil and vinegar from the beets on the arugula. Season the arugula with salt and drizzle with a little olive oil. Scatter the top with the nuts, feta and nasturtium flowers.

Per serving: 215 calories, 7 g protein, 11 g carbohydrate, 17 g fat (4 g saturated), 17 mg cholesterol, 287 mg sodium, 3 g fiber.

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Buttermilk Cornbread
Makes 9 pieces

Adapted from "Cooking with Sunshine" (Marlowe & Co., 2006), by Lorraine Anderson and Rick Palkovic. Those who like sweet cornbread may want to double the amount of syrup or honey.

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup cornmeal

1 cup unbleached white flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey

2/3 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup milk (for conventional cooking only)

1/3 cup melted butter

1 egg

1 cup corn kernels, frozen and thawed or fresh and cooked

INSTRUCTIONS:
Solar cooking directions: Preheat a solar oven for 20 minutes. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan; it should be a dark one for a solar oven.

In a large bowl, stir together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup, buttermilk, butter, egg and corn. Gently stir the liquid mixture into the flour mixture.

Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Cover pan with a clear or dark lid, and place in the solar oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 1 to 2 hours. Cool and cut into 3-inch squares.

Conventional cooking directions: Preheat oven to 400°. Grease a 9-inch round baking pan. Prepare the batter as directed above, adding the milk to the liquid ingredients. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Per piece: 200 calories, 5 g protein, 28 g carbohydrate, 8 g fat (5 g saturated), 43 mg cholesterol, 291 mg sodium, 2 g fiber.

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Peach & Blackberry Cobbler
Serves 6

Adapted from a recipe by Susan and Don Larson of San Jose. Don Larson teaches solar cooking at Common Ground in Palo Alto.

INGREDIENTS:
For top crust:

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces

2 ounces chilled cream cheese, cut into small pieces

For fruit filling:

2 pounds peaches, or about 4 cups peeled, pitted and sliced peaches

3 cups blackberries, washed

1/4 cup quick tapioca

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Ice cream or whipped cream, to serve

INSTRUCTIONS:
Instructions: To prepare the top crust (can be done by hand or food processor): Combine flour, salt, nutmeg and sugar and stir or process until blended.

Add small chunks of butter and cream cheese, and stir or process until moist clumps form.

Form into ball, flatten slightly, wrap loosely and chill for 1-2 hours.

Solar cooking directions: Preheat the solar oven for 30 minutes. Butter a dark 8- or 9-inch round casserole with a lid. You can also use an 8-by-8-inch pan and cover it loosely with a dark or black pan, even a round one, as long as it covers most of the pan.

Place dough on a lightly floured cool surface and roll out into a pie crust that will fit over your chosen pan or use large cookie cutters to cut into decorative shapes. Alternatively, cut into strips to make a lattice top.

In a large bowl, gently combine the peaches, blackberries, tapioca, sugar and cinnamon. Place the fruit in the prepared pan and top with the crust or cut shapes. If using a large crust, poke holes in it to allow steam to release.

Cover the dish. Bake in solar oven until crust is cooked through and lightly browned, about 1 1/2-2 hours. Uncover during the last 1/2 hour of cooking if using a tight-fitting lid. Cool at least 20 minutes before serving. Serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream.

Conventional cooking directions: Preheat oven to 400°. Butter an 8-by-8-inch glass or metal baking pan. Prepare the dough and fruit as directed above. Bake 30 to 35 minutes.

Per cake serving: 330 calories, 4 g protein, 47 g carbohydrate, 15 g fat (9 g saturated), 41 mg cholesterol, 119 mg sodium, 7 g fiber.

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Rice Pilaf
Serves 8-10

From Susan and Don Larson of San Jose. Short-grain brown rice, available at health food stores, makes the pilaf satisfyingly sticky, but long-grain rice works, too.

INGREDIENTS:
1/4 cup olive oil

2 cups finely diced onions

5 to 6 cloves garlic, minced

2 leaves greens, stalks removed and torn into small pieces, such as mustard greens, collard greens, Swiss chard or kale

2 stalks celery, finely minced

2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped

2 cups short-grain brown rice

1/2 cup barley

1/2 cup millet

6 cups low-sodium chicken stock or a combination of stock and water

2 to 3 umeboshi plums (optional; see note)

Salt to taste

2 teaspoons whole coriander seed, toasted

INSTRUCTIONS:
Solar cooking directions: Preheat a solar oven for 30 minutes.

In a dark-colored (for solar cooking) Dutch oven or large skillet on the stove, heat olive oil, then saute onions and garlic until crisp-tender, about 8 minutes. Add greens, celery and carrots and continue cooking until tender, about 8 minutes.

Stir in rice, barley, millet and stock. Bring to a full boil. Add umeboshi plums, if using, and salt. If using a skillet, transfer immediately to a shallow, dark-colored (for solar cooking), covered baking pan and bake in a solar oven for 1 1/2-2 hours. Stir in the coriander then bake an additional 30 minutes.

Remove pits from umeboshi plums, if using, and cut into smaller pieces, then stir into the rice. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt.

Conventional cooking directions: Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare pilaf as directed above and transfer to a covered casserole dish. Cook for 1 hour, stir in the coriander then bake an additional 15 minutes. Remove pits from umeboshi plums, if using, and cut into smaller pieces, then stir into the rice. Adjust seasoning with salt.

Note: Umeboshi or pickled plums are available in Japanese and health food markets.

Per serving: 355 calories, 11 g protein, 61 g carbohydrate, 8 g fat (1 g saturated), 0 cholesterol, 80 mg sodium, 6 g fiber.

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Wheatless Apricot Cake
Serves 8

INGREDIENTS:
3/4 cup soft butter

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup honey

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

4 large eggs

1 cup rye flour

1/2 cup rice flour

8 to 10 apricots (washed and halved)

Vanilla ice cream (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:
Solar cooking directions: Preheat solar oven. Butter an 8-by-8 inch glass pan or other solar oven pan.

In a medium bowl, add ingredients in order listed, mixing well after each ingredient. Spread batter evenly in the pan and top with fresh apricot halves. Bake for 2 1/2 to 3 hours in solar oven. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if desired.

Conventional cooking directions: Follow directions above and bake in a preheated 350° oven for 1 hour.

Per serving: 385 calories, 5 g protein, 50 g carbohydrate, 20 g fat (11 g saturated), 126 mg cholesterol, 72 mg sodium, 3 g fiber.

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Shrimp & Lemon Skewers
Makes 12

Lynn Langford maximizes space in her solar oven by cooking beets for the salad in her favorite black metal pot and flipping over the lid to use as a shelf for several skewers.

INGREDIENTS:
12 wooden skewers

1 1/2 pounds or about 36 large shell-on shrimp

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes

1/2 teaspoon fresh minced oregano (about 1/4 teaspoon dried)

1/2 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt, or to taste

3 Meyer lemons, cut into eighths lengthwise

INSTRUCTIONS:
Solar cooking directions: Preheat solar oven for 30 minutes.

Place shrimp in a bowl and toss with olive oil, red chile flakes, oregano and salt. Marinate briefly. Thread three on each skewer, alternating with a lemon wedge.

Place shrimp skewers in one layer on a dark baking pan that will fit in your solar oven. Cook until shrimp is pink on top or curled up, about 10 minutes. Flip and cook until pink on top and opaque in the center, another 5-10 minutes.

Conventional cooking directions: Soak skewers in water 30 minutes before cooking. Marinate the shrimp as directed above. Preheat a grill to medium or turn on the broiler. Thread the marinated shrimp onto the skewers. If grilling, oil the grill and cook skewers for 3-4 minutes per side. To broil, place skewers on a baking sheet in one layer and place pan a few inches from the cooking element. Cook for 3-4 minutes, then flip and finish on the other side. Serve immediately.

The calories and other nutrients absorbed from marinades vary and are difficult to estimate. Variables include the type of food, marinating time and amount of surface area. Therefore, this recipe contains no analysis.

E-mail Tara Duggan at tduggan@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/11/FDG6BQROHD1.DTL

This article appeared on page F - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle

Hello all,

My name is Bob Blurton and I live near downtown in SE Boise.

I protested the Iraq invasion, went Green Party, ran for Boise City Council, went radical enviro, started studying energy, then discovered Peak Oil:(

My current thought is that folks concerned about Peak Oil should form an action group to start studying our situation and making plans so that when / if the time comes for action somebody will have a plan.

Also... Perhaps a large group with well known members could also speed up PO knowledge dissemination to the local community.

Every time I turn around I find another respected member of the community that is PO aware but not saying anything publicly.

Bob