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Re: Inflationary spiral could spell an end to era of cheap food
So it begins. This is just a taste of the future as Peak Oil induces an ever upward oil price spiral. The market's natural response to shortage, which is, to "ration by price". We've already experienced the spiral twice, after the OPEC Oil Embargo and after the Iranian Crisis. But, those were short term events and we muddled thru (unless you were a farmer who lost his farm or a worker who lost his career). We all gotta eat and the die back from demand destruction will be the result of business as usual when TSHTF. The only hope to minimize the damage is rationing and there's little hope we will see that in time, given the politics of the matter.
E. Swanson
What I find interesting is that people complain about the price of staples, like bread and pasta. But I suspect the greatest shock is yet to come - increases in the price of meat which I suppose would lead to more and more meals with no meat involved. Or perhaps reductions in the portion sizes, which our society could really use.
I tried to interest my girlfriend in a vegetarian restaurant that is nearby - I have tried it a couple of times on my own, and the things I have tried so far seem pretty good. Unfortunately she is a meat-and-potatoes kind of girl. The first time I brought it up, she suggested some other place where she could get ribs.
According to WorldWatch:
"The raising of animals for food is behind virtually every major category of environmental damage now threatening the future of humans - deforestation, erosion, fresh water scarcity, air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice, the destabilization of communities, and the spread of disease.”
They go on to say in this report that raising animals for food creates more
greenhouse gases than ALL OF THE CARS AND TRUCKS IN THE WORLD COMBINED.
The price of meat cannot go up fast enough, imho. It is perhaps more subsidized than even the automobile.
http://www.worldwatch.org/node/819
you might want to correct your statement.
it's not just raising animals for food, it's the modern industrialized version of doing it thats the problem.
You may want to clarify what it is you mean, and provide an actual argument.
I have never seen any evidence that livestock production anywhere near current scale could done in a way that improves on the status quo or is sustainable.
I deplore modern factory farming, but don't think there is any way to improve efficiencies in a non-industrial farming context. While it would be much better for the animals, it would likely be even more resource intensive.
Reducing the impact of livestock production on the climate can not be done without reducing the quantity of livestock raised and consumed.
Meat eating above a certain level is consumerism, just like using more oil than needed is.
I find it hypocritical that so many who point fingers blaming others for non-sustainable use of fuel so adamantly deny that they are equally complict with their non-sustainable consumption of meat.
You are right, there is no sensible way for most people to have meat with every meal after cheap fossil fuel.
Meat does however have a place in this world. On a small farm, an animal can inconspicuously graze grass or eat leftover human foods, and its meat is by far the most protein and nutrient dense, easily preservable food available to the small farmer.
Before agriculture, the same was true of herd animals who were hunted for their meat, skin and bones.
Chickens produce eggs and they'll eat whatever bugs don't have the sense to stay out of their way. Anything green and growing is fair game, too, so you've got to keep them out of the garden. Eggs and beans are going to be two key protein sources post peak.
The industrial farms won't survive and it'll go back to how it was when I was a kid. We'd get two hundred chicks at the beginning of spring. The males were promptly processed once they were large enough and a hundred surviving females hung out with one very busy rooster producing lots and lots of eggs. We sold a couple of dozen eggs a day at $0.50 a dozen after we'd eaten our fill. Their droppings were periodically spread on the neighbor's field, but I imagine those end up in my expanded garden going forward.
If the rest of the world can refrain from flying to bits I think things are going to be just fine here in the land that time forgot ...
"I think things are going to be just fine here in the land that time forgot ..."
Which is where? Just curious :)
"God is just an invisible friend for adults. Just-in-time techno fixes are their security blankets."
Another thing you won't see on an industrial farm....
http://bbsnews.net/article.php/20070916110536662
Cannabidiol May be Effective in Preventing Bovine Spongiforme Enzephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease)
It's worked for me.
I agree. I don't have any issue with meat consumption as such. I do have problems with the conditions animals are subjected to as well as the detruction of the environmnet and waste of energy that comes from meat heavy, processed foods.
I just don't think it is fair to cast cars as a great evil and give the microwave dinner a free pass. I think diminishing energy resources will change the way we eat as much as the way we move around.
We are going to have to get used to not being able to hop in the SUV everytime we want to go anywhere and not being able to pop into McDonald's when we want a bite to eat.
Actually, I see this as fairly optimistic. The massive waste implicit in our current lifestyles means that there is a lot of low hanging fruit on the consumption side of the equation.
I do wish we were better planners, but expect that the only way these changes will take place is when the energy-intensive activities become expensive.