Thinking About Your Food Supply

In North America, most people I observe live by a very dangerous assumption.  It’s not surprising since the generation that we call the Baby Boomers are currently our private and public leaders.  And I doubt any other generation in the history of humanity has ever had the luxury of this assumption.

By the title of this post you’ve probably guessed the assumption I’m talking about is continual access to abundant food supplies.  Imagine how many generations of our ancestors understood that they couldn’t take food for granted.  We live as if it’s a normal state of affairs.  What a unique period of human history we inhabit!  And the reason we have this luxury is due to our exploitation of oil.

Try this little exercise.  I did it with a friend, recently.  Get a map of your bioregion.  Trace the flow of food produced within a few hundred miles of where you live.  From field to table.  Now imagine what would happen if diesel was so expensive that truckers quit driving.  (Remember, it’s happening right now in other parts of the world.)

Kind of scary?  Even if the truckers keep driving, food is guaranteed to be more expensive to cover their costs.  Way more expensive.  If it gets to your local grocery store at all.

The next step was to look for the least energy intensive routes for food delivery.  Trains and waterways, primarily around here.  Tracing along those paths I found an interesting opportunity.  There were cities perfectly positioned to be first in line for the food after it left the farmer’s fields.

And that, my friend, is a starting point for food security and opportunity in a fast approaching new world.  For both you and your grandchildren.

Later, I’ll review some books I’m reading about edible forest gardening.  A form of permaculture with amazing productions yields on small acreages.  Just the thing for generating surplus food to trade in the gateway cities of the future.