That's not really the issue is it? People suffer from hunger and malnutrition in the US right now and there are plenty of calories. The real question is this - how many of us trust that the *economy* as we know it will be there, and that we will remain among the rich and priveleged people who always have enough money to buy food and medicine, shoes and dinner? The reality is that most ordinary people in the world are comparatively poor, and sometimes run into those hard choices - that the rich world mostly hasn't (and that mostly is an important note) is a product - of cheap energy. So if we choose not to have gardens, we are betting our lives that we're always going to be rich, that our pensions and kids will be there for us in old age, that we'll never experience an impoverishing medical crisis, and that we'll always have security. That seems like a risky bet to me personally.

Sharon