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Food Solutions

Introduction

Contributed by Lisa Perrine

Our far-flung food supply is the world’s biggest oil guzzler -- more than all of our cars and more than the military. According to a recent study done by the German-based Energy Watch Group, about 17% of US energy use goes into agriculture. As of 1994, it took 400 gallons of oil and equivalents to feed each US citizen, and that number has probably gone up considerably since then. One of the best things we can do to preserve our environment is to bring food production back home. Do you realize, for example, that the average item in your grocery store has traveled some 1300 miles before you purchase it? That means that many of the items have traveled much further than 1500 miles! (Think out-of-season fruits and veggies from Chile and New Zealand!) Another staggering statistic: by the time the average calorie of food is produced in North America, ten calories of fossil fuels have been utilized.


Many people do not understand the connection between peak oil and our food supply. Other than transportation costs for moving our foodstuffs long distances, what is this connection? The energy subsidies for agriculture are too numerous to mention. Fertilizers are made from natural gas; pesticides are made from oil. Oil is used at all stages of agricultural production, from tilling of the soil, to planting the seeds, cultivating the crops, power for irrigation, the application of pesticides and fertilizers, harvesting the crop, packaging, storage and refrigeration costs for the crop, and transportation to its final destination are just some of those energy costs. Without cheap energy, agribusiness (i.e., giant food producers such as Cargill) will gradually fail and finally become impossible. Without agribusiness, our country will find it increasingly difficult to feed our own people, much less send the surpluses to other countries in desperate need of food, as the U.S. has done many, many times in the past century. There will be no excess food production in the not-too-distant future, as energy limitations will limit that production.

"In 2007, people paid the highest prices ever for wheat and soy as increased demand for food and biofuel eroded the global surplus. Wheat crops from the United States, the Ukraine, Canada, and Australia suffered from unpredictable weather and lack of seasonal rainfall. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., record prices for most staple foods have led to 18% food price inflation in China, 13% in Indonesia and Pakistan, and 10% or more in Latin America, Russia and India. Meanwhile, farmers continue to pay the highest prices in history for inorganic fertilizers in order to secure competitive yields, as the cost of nitrogen fertilizer derived from natural gas has risen 130% from 2000-2006. For every calorie of food we bring to our plate it takes, on average, ten calories to produce it, with an average travel of 1500 miles from farm to fork." (--Post Carbon Institute)

The human population has expanded exponentially in the past 175 years, the years of cheap and accessible energy – first from coal, and then oil and natural gas. There are some amazing statistics on this population growth: The population of the entire world at the time of Rome’s height in the second century A.D. was about 200 million; about 400 million by the year 1500, when Europe reached the Americas; one billion people by 1825, at the start of the Coal Age; 2 billion by 1925, when the Oil Age gets underway; and 6 billion by the year 2000. Even more shocking than the growth is the rate of acceleration of that growth! Adding 200 million people after Rome’s zenith took thirteen centuries; adding the last 200 million took only three years! (Taken from “A Short History of Progress” by Ronald Wright, published in 2004) China now has a population of some 1.3 billion people and is already unable to feed its population due to energy issues as well as expanding desertification, huge pollution problems and the increasing scarcity of fresh water. India is expected to exceed China’s population within 15 years and the same issues prevail there. The critical issue is what will happen to all of those people once cheap energy is no longer available to enhance food production?

Most of us have forgotten about a simpler way of life that our parents and their parents experienced and took for granted. “Seventy-five years ago nearly everyone had a garden and grew at least a part of his or her own food supply. Our forebears were self-reliant because they had to be; it was their way of life. They were doing what generations before them had always done. They would have laughed at our diet of store-bought foods (and the quantities of junk food in particular).” (Paraphrased from “The Self-Sufficient Gardener” by John Seymour, written in 1979) We are now at the point in history where we will have to begin to resurrect a mode of living that resembles their way of life more than anything else we have experienced. Food production will become a hands-on activity for most of us, as the only food available will be that which is locally grown.

Helpful Guidance

Important Individual Actions
  • Localize purchases of food; no more “1500 mile Cesar salads”!
  • Support local farmers with your purchases; buy local products wherever possible.
  • Investigate availability of CSAs (community supported agriculture) in your area and sign up!
  • Plant a home garden and fruit trees; study organic gardening techniques
  • Take a permaculture class; learn about bio-intensive gardening
  • Learn how to can, freeze and dry foodstuffs
  • Make bulk food purchases of staples, such as beans, rice, powdered milk, etc.
  • Plan for long term food storage without refrigeration (i.e., a root cellar or food dehydration)
  • Maintain chickens or other animals if allowed; if necessary work with local govt. to change local ordinances to allow this.
  • Set up rainwater collection at your home
  • Build a compost pile. Compost is “black gold” in a gardener’s lexicon!
  • If you live in a condo or apartment, you might want to consider whether that is at all sustainable when food becomes scarce, and possibly look for a home with at least a small amount of land, or find a local community garden to join. (Available information tells us that it takes at least 1/10 to 1/4 acre of land, per person, to produce enough food for a year, the amount of space depending on the gardening techniques used. This amount of land would produce a simple, vegetarian diet.
  • Become a vegetarian or a vegan – it takes far less land and fossil fuels to grow sufficient vegetable foodstuffs than it does to raise animals for meat
  • When fossil fuels become truly scarce and very expensive, long distance trucking of foodstuff will cease. Food production will become a local, hands-on activity for most of us. Gaining knowledge on how to do that and exploring your options is essential
  • Support appropriate land use issues on the ballot to protect our remaining farmland from development. We will need all of it in the not-too-distant future if we are to feed ourselves.
Important Neighborhood Actions
  • Get to know your neighbors. Be prepared to work together on many projects in the future.
  • Become an activist on the subject of peak oil so that your neighbors will understand what you are doing and why, and will not be your enemy when food becomes scarce
  • Canvas neighbors to see what food resources already exist and encourage neighbors to grow food crops instead of lawns and ornamentals
  • If needed, work with your homeowner’s association to change rules to allow growing of food in the front yard, ro allowing small livestock on your property
  • Plan sharing arrangements for home grown surpluses
  • Establish a group relationship with local CSA farmers (community supported agriculture) who will agree to supply locally grown food to your neighborhood on a weekly basis. The opportunity to do this may be limited in time and scope. At this point in time there are not many local CSAs.
  • Establish a barter and trade system so that other services may be traded for food, especially for those who are too elderly or handicapped to grow food themselves
Important Community Actions
  • Become an activist on the subject of peak oil so that your community will understand what you are doing and why, and will not be your enemy when food becomes scarce.
  • Organize community gardens
  • Teach sustainable gardening practices such as permaculture, bio-intensive gardening and organic gardening methods
  • Organize bulk purchases of staples (i.e., through a food co-op)
  • Plan sharing arrangements for home grown surpluses through food co-op
  • Localize the economy so that community services can be offered in exchange for food grown by others (i.e., ride sharing, child care, home repair, sewing, canning produce, etc.)

Resources

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