The Need For Sustainable
Food Sources
by Arcqiel
This year we have seen dozens of countries in revolt against their governments from North Africa, the Middle East, and countries in the EU like Spain and Greece.
Although all these countries have similar problems, including government corruption, the mobilization is primarily because of high unemployment and the unaffordability of food. [1] In Egypt alone, food prices leaped twenty percent in 2010.
The same is happening here in the United States. The USDA released a statement saying, “Retail food prices are rising at a rate not seen in twenty years and that trend does not show signs of slowing down.” [2]
Taking a wider perspective, food has been increasing because of the gradual rise in the price of crude oil. This non-renewable resource runs everything involved with food production, from the farm equipment to the synthetic fertilizer topsoils to the trucks that drive the product to the store, sometimes thousands of miles away.
In 1956, geoscientist M. King Hubbert, working for Shell’s research lab in Houston, Texas, forecasted that the world would start running out of oil in a few short decades. He proposed this by taking all the known worldwide reserves of oil and took into account the world’s forecasted growth and its thirst for this non-renewable resource. The graph looks somewhat like a high steeped bell curve as it exponentially increased, then has a similar drop as time goes on.
Hubbert coined it Peak Oil. Peak Oil is the point at which, on a global level, we will never have the ability to extract the same quantity of oil as previously had been done. To meet continued demand, other lesser quality sources of crude oil like shale or tar sands can be mined, or more expensive machines can be built to offset this depletion, but this is still a dire scenario, for these substitutions still increase the price of oil because it now takes more energy and capital to extract as compared to when oil reserves were plentiful.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said that conventional crude oil peaked in 2006. [3] To make the case, in the first two quarters of 2008, there were signs that a global recession had been made worse by a series of record-breaking oil prices. [4]
Every major economy runs on oil. Our economic systems were purposely designed from the onset to run solely on this non-renewable resource. For so long it afforded such great returns for our parents and our parents’ parents. But today is not that world in which they had. Presently, the curtains are falling on the story of oil and how it was once a bountiful and cheap source of energy.
The movie ‘Escape From Suburbia,” shows a vivid shift of how our current way of life is no longer working. We are on the teetering point of the collapse of our “modern” thinking. Our expectation has always been that there will always be more land, more food, more wealth, more expanding markets, and of course, more energy. We are finally bumping up to this wall of limits and it is a hard dose of truth to take.
How to Create a more sustainable solution
What can we do about this now? Realistically we can’t change the price of oil. We could outlaw the ability of oil speculation of oil futures, which would decrease the price as it would remove an unnecessary middleman who is passing on costs to us so they can make a buck but that in and of itself is a whole other story. Another attempt would be to have a complete shift to alternative energy sources such as electric cars but electricity is primarily run off of coal. [5] Solar is promising but currently does not have the slightest capacity to offset the power needs of our current mass-consuming society.
One way is to buy your produce from locally grown farms that use sustainable methods. Sustainable methods produce organic foods to eat, which is a plus, but the feelings about organic food is that they are too expensive. Currently, many organic foods are grown far away and still have lofty packaging costs. So to enhance the effectiveness of buying organic by keeping prices as affordable as possible, we would have to participate by purchasing from local Farmer’s Markets to cut out these inefficiencies. At Farmer’s Markets prices aren’t as steep for many items you would find in chain supermarkets, and are usually more fresh and offer a much wider array of healthy choices.
The North Park Farmer’s Market here in San Diego has comparable prices on staples like Organic Romaine Lettuce for $2.00/head and Organic Fuji Apples for $2.50/lb. There are other benefits as well besides economic. A great movie that covers this is “Food Inc.” which is a mind-opener to say the least.
Alongside buying from Farmer’s Markets, we can strengthen our strategy by growing some of our own food. This parallel solution would dampen potential food price spikes and help us from running into similar situations like the many countries that have been mentioned are facing.
Sustainable Resources
To get started takes little investment. For starters, you begin start with your soil. There should be compost at your county or city landfill that you can get for free. For instance, San Diego County residents can go to the Miramar Landfill so long as it’s self-loaded. You can also search Craigslist to find free stone and other materials you may like to start off with. Bartering and trading is another avenue to think about.
Once your soil and basics are all set, there are volunteer groups that help you get organic gardens up and running, such as the San Diego County Master Gardeners Association or Victory Gardens. victorygardenssandiego.com
Great books to learn more about sustainability include “Introduction to Permaculture” by Bill Mollison, “Gaia’s Garden” by Toby Hemenway, and “Creating a Life Together” by Diana Leafe Christian.
For Non-GMO and untreated seeds along with garden tools I recommend Johnny Seeds. johnnyseeds.com
For an example of locally grown gardens, check out how NYC rooftops are being converted to grow food, bringing fresh foods to local restaurants and kitchens in the very same buildings. vimeo.com
The Intentional Communities web site is a proactive online resource dedicated to bringing together people in locations throughout the world who are growing sustainably or want to get involved. It’s a great free resource to learn more about sustainability. ic.org
Meetup.com is another great resource. San Diego Permaculture has classes about every week that cover everything related to sustainability, such as growing food locally, setting up solar, grey water systems, and using sustainable methods and materials for building construction. meetup.com
Start small and don’t be overwhelmed. It’s better to have a small successful garden so you can add more in future planting successions. Even growing a row or two of vegetables to start off with will be a huge catalyst to a more sustainable future.
Sources:
1 slate.com
2 usda.gov
3 “Is ‘Peak Oil’ Behind Us?”. The New York Times. November 14, 2010
4 Bruno, Joe Bel (2008-03-08). “Oil Rally May Be Economy’s Undoing”. USA Today. Associated Press.
5 en.wikipedia.org
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