Sorry if I got a bit snippy yesterday but my father in-law just bought a new F250 to drive his 20 min. commute, alone, in his 3 piece suit, to his office, from his McVilla in the burbs.
Not that I think the prius will save us but man, hows that for "in your face dude".
I have decided to start spelling my name with only one F.
Jef
Doing my part.
Just think of all the energy the world could save if...
Well, look at the "bright" side. When his truck is repossessed and his McVilla is foreclosed, he will be moving in with you.
Sharon Astyk called it the "brother-in-law on the couch" syndrome. This is actually a good reason to have a small garden/farm. You can put the in-laws to work if they want to move in with you.
The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering.
Barbara Kingsolver's year of localizing her family's food supply. I'm getting pressed into the reading chair from both sides right now.. and I'm also due to finish Eliot Coleman's
'4-Season Garden',
about keeping fresh garden produce coming in to the larder all year round. (He does this in Maine, as does one of the Oil Awareness Meetup Organizers I met last night)
Currently working my way through it. Much more practical approach than more hobby oriented books.
However he still assumes you have a infrastructure available. I'd classify it as "farming for the poor" rather than "farming for post peak".
Still it's probably the best available.
IMHO a minimum library would be:
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times
The Encyclopedia of country living
Putting food by
Solar Gardening
Four Season harvest.
But if you don't have the tools, seeds, fertilizer and plastic sheets prior to an event you are still S.O.L.
A new edition of Seymour is supposed to be coming out any day now. Hunt & Bortz are o.o.p., but you can probably still find a used copy.
Seymour writes mainly from an English perspective, but the English are avid, experienced gardeners. He has some good stuff in there that you don't see in American gardening books.
Seymour gives you the necessary breadth, I see Coleman on the one hand and Hunt & Bortz on the other as providing the necessary two dimensions: stretching out your harvest over twelve months, and bringing in as much harvest as you can. You really need to be thinking about both.
WT...your post got me thinking...many of us have had gardens for awhile and several of us started gardens pretty recently (me, last year). It would be nice with spring around the corner if TOD could pull together a "Building/Maintaining Your Own Garden" article and have the experienced green thumbs help the newbies. I know we've had many posts concerning gardening tips and such, but nothing put together in a more structured article. Home grown food for thought.
Seconded. I am going bonkers trying to figure out how to make 1/4 acre support a family year round in a four season environment... 'cause that's alls I's gots for now. And trying to figure out how to build a comfortable home (meaning off-grid, not necessarily 75 degrees year-round, but maybe between 50 and 80...) for next to nothing. I'm thinking the non-linear nature of things (O, Chaos, Thou dost press upon mine heart, mind and soul...!) is about to get very real for the world.
You are possibly going bonkers with the realisation that 0.25 acres is simply not enough - about one hectare (2.4 acres) could be considered the minimum, unless you lived in a highly productive tropical or semi-tropical region. Doesn't matter how much you wish something to be so, if it ain't going to be so ...
Just concentrating on growing potatoes might be your best bet as you get a lot per acre, and hope to swap some for a more varied diet.
At least that is what the Irish peasantry did when they had to make do with tiny plots, although of course we all know what happened there.
I am not enough of a gardener to know, but perhaps cloches and greenhouses would help?
Another alternative where you might be able to barter work for more space might be to strengthen your walls sufficiently to support a roof garden.
Both thickening your walls and making a roof garden would also go some way towards insulating your house and reaching your objectives.
Passivhaus technology makes the house very air-tight, and relies on mechanical extraction to change the small amount of air needed, although an alternative might be to build your greenhouses as conservatories which would improve temperatures in the main house.
I also live on a 1/4 acre small town lot. I've got no illusions about being able to produce all of our own food just on that land. I think that with a few year's effort I could reasonably get up to maybe 50% or so. My first priority is to get the fruit and perennial vegies (asparagus & sunchokes) planted, as those take several years to get into production. I'm also going to beekeeping school right now; bees don't have to depend just on what I'm growing in my yard, so the honey they produce will be a lot of "free" extra calories produced on my land. Rabbits are a couple of years down the line, chickens maybe a couple more years after that - I've got the outbuilding and space for them, but I've got some work to do in reconfiguring it. Much of my yard right now is in shade trees, I'll have to gradually take most of them down (except for the two sugar maples in front, which provide afternoon shade as well as eventually syrup) to make more garden space.
One thing I'm doing to increase my production is to garden in containers on our deck. The deck is the sunniest place on our property right now, and I'm not going to let that sunlight go to waste.
I do also rent two 400 s.f. plots at our local community garden, though, so that gives me quite a bit more land to work with. I grow all of my root vegies there (less likely to be stolen), all of my brassicas (cabbage family), corn (with pole beans on the stalks - even if I lose the corn to animal or human thieves, I'll still have something to harvest), and winter squash; I've got these set up on a four-year rotation.
If (when) times get really hard and food gets really expensive, another option will be garden share-cropping. By equipping oneself with the necessary tools and supplies now and proceeding up the learning curve, one will be ready when a lot of one's neighbors are hungry and can't afford food, look out at their vast expanse of lawns, but don't have a clue as to what to do. Offering to do it for them in exchange for half the produce is going to look like a pretty good deal for a lot of them. Under that strategy, you got only close the gap to 100% self-sufficiency, you also can have enough of a surplus to be a regular seller at your local farmer's market.
If you can't realistically move, store a large amount of white rice. Get some surplus plastic 55-gallon barrels, seal them shut, and bury them. Cheap to do, and will keep for decades. Just a suggestion.
Thanks to all for your comments. I wasn't expecting any, so this is a great surprise. Some great suggestions. The rice one is nice. Sounds like a good emergency store regardless of any/all other choices. Rice is gawdawful expensive here in Korea, ironically enough.
I was, in fact, thinking of greenhouses due to the limited space. I was incorrect: we have almost a half acre. Looking at some of the intensive programs, such as the fellow in the Bay area (sorry, can't locate the link just now... need to tidy them up) who claims 4,000 sq. ft./person is possible. Under those conditions, I can build a small home and have enough land to feed 3 - 4 people. I am also going to look into hydroponics given the high yields, limited space and good rainfall here.
As ever, money and time. And timing. To go from living in an apartment in the city to a sustainable homestead... daunting. I see it as being my only option if I want to ensure, to the highest degree possible, my family's welfare.
I am in the process of reading the book right now. It's a very interesting departure from the double digging, intensive gardening method. Some time ago I had read an article in Mother Earth News about soil fertility with a recipe for organic fertlizer. I clipped it out and lo and behold, it was Steve Solomon's recipe. I have located a local crop service company which will mix and bag the fertilizer for use on our 13 acres of vegetables.
I am also in the middle of The End of Food by Thomas Pawlick. Both he and Solomon are in agreement that the demise of our food supply is directly related to the demise of the soil. As an example, a potato grown conventionally (using nitrogen fertlizer) has lost 100 percent of vitamin A, 57 percent of vitamin C and iron, 28 percent of calcium, 50 percent of riboflavin and 18 percent of thiamine. The story is similar for most fruits and vegetables. Also, it was discovered that vegetables grown with organic fertlizers retain more of their original vitamins and accumulated less nitrate during storage than those grown with inorganic fertlizers. Pawlick sites a book that is next on my list: Plant Vitamins: Agronomic, Physiological, and Nutritional Aspects written by soil scientist Dr. Ahmad Mozafar of the Swiss Federal Institue of Technology.
Last summer my husband and I ate exclusively vegetables and fruit that we had grown organically. And our purchases of meat, eggs, honey and cheese were all from local sources. We found that because of the nutritional density of the food, we were eating far less and felt so much healthier. Even though the raw-milk cheese was $20 a pound, once we ate it we could never go back to buying cheese from the grocery store. And a little slice of that cheese went a long way. Just like I haven't purchased a tomato from the grocery store in more than 10 years. Well, maybe a couple. And we are still eating potatoes, onions and squash from our root celler and tomatoes, corn and herbs from our freezer and lots of dried beans from the garden.
This is why I think that Stuart Staniford is incorrect in his hypothesis that industrial agriculture will continue unabated. As more people begin eating real food grown in real soil, there is no going back. There isn't a way to produce this nutrient rich, wonderful tasting food and that includes vegetables, meat, fruit and dairy products on a large scale.
As more people begin eating real food grown in real soil, there is no going back. There isn't a way to produce this nutrient rich, wonderful tasting food and that includes vegetables, meat, fruit and dairy products on a large scale.
I think you're wrong about that. Sure, some people are willing to grow their own food (or pay for someone else to do it) just because it tastes better. But most people are perfectly willing to sacrifice taste for convenience. They're busy, and the last thing they want to do is cook, let alone grow their food.
However, I think you're right about the soil. This article argues that the lack of minerals in modern farmland is causing mental illness. They've had success treated depression and other disorders with high doses of minerals.
Curiously, the idea for the treatment came from a hog farmer. Apparently, hog farmers know that if a pig starts to act crazy, the cure is mineral supplements.
It reminded of the poster here who said that farmers feed pigs skim milk in order to make them fat; they won't get fat on whole milk. (In the discussion about whether it's eating fat or carbs that makes you fat.) Pigs are omnivores, like humans, and, diet-wise, are probably the best substitute for humans in experiments and such.
I think you're wrong about that. Sure, some people are willing to grow their own food (or pay for someone else to do it) just because it tastes better. But most people are perfectly willing to sacrifice taste for convenience. They're busy, and the last thing they want to do is cook, let alone grow their food.
People, in my estimation, are about to get a lot less busy. The thing about the doomsday scenarios is that they are possible, and probable, because things truly are just too complex to remain coherent in the face of multiple singularities and their resulting non-linear results.
IF it is too late to reign in climate change unless there is a massive, coordinated, world-wide response (Hansen), and IF it is too late to mitigate Peak Oil (less than 5-10 years to peak) unless there is a massive, coordinated, world-wide response (Hirsch), AND there actually is no massive, coordinated, world-wide response as is th current case, then how in hell is all hell NOT going to break loose?
Localized use of large farms, yes. Current agribusiness? Maybe not.
If it's climate change that's driving the chaos, then it will affect everyone growing food. Agribusiness, small local farmers, people gardening in their backyards.
This is why I think climate change could turn out to be worst than peak oil. Nothing is worse for a farmer than unpredictable weather.
Weather is always unpredicable except in short periods of 2-3 days. Even then predictions are often wrong. Experienced farmers are dealing with this all the time. I doubt climate change will make much difference and may even make it an easier problem in some areas where weather is especially violent like the Midwest. Right now I have both my corn stoves running plus the backup LP heater. It's 10 below with a wind chill in the area of 30-40 below zero. Global warming sounds pretty good.
Many researchers are predicting that the weather will become more extreme, as we settle into a new climate. Drought, floods, more powerful storms, etc. I don't think any farmer will say that's a good thing.
"Experienced" farmers may find their experience leads them wrong. And people who have carefully saved seeds that grow in their climate may find those seeds no longer grow there.
If we find ourselves with less energy to do the work for us then one logical consequence is that we will have to do more manual labor ourselves. In a nutshell: We will become more busy.
"I leaned in towards those pictures to get a better look at one
When I heard a voice behind me say "Now, ain't she something, son?"
I said "Yes, she quite a woman" and he just stared at me
Then I realized that in his eyes she would always be
Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
In her eyes i'm Prince Charming
But to him i'm just some fella riding in and stealing Cinderella
He slapped me on the shoulder
Then he called her in the room
When she threw her arms around him
That's when I could see it too
She was Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
If he gives me a hard time
I can't blame the fella
I'm the one who's stealing Cinderella"
At least, he will have a nice place to live (the F250, that is) when everything goes tits up.
....The homeowners cringing in the media rooms of their 5000-square-foot personal family resorts don't know how long they can stay put microwaving pepperoni hot pockets with the default clock ticking. The mortgage "servicers" don't know how they will persuade interested parties like, say, the Illinois State Cafeteria Workers' Pension Fund (holder of X-amount of mortgage-backed securities underwritten by, say, Merrill Lynch or Deutsche Bank) to foreclose on properties scattered everywhere from Key West to Bainbridge Island -- or if there is actually any legal mechanism known to man that would make it possible to "work out" the sliced-and-diced collateral.....
Well, how do you measure a carbon footprint and/or the amount of fuel you are responsible for?? I drive an Escalade and my wife drives a gas guzzler Jaguar. We live in a 4,000 square foot house. But, before you kill me, let me explain. We have been married for 41 years and have no children. Graduated high school in 1959, and my 240 classmates probably average 3 children, 6 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. So, my wife and I saved the children cost and can afford more than the average. But, now which would you rather have: (1) the over indulgence of 2 people in 2008 or (2) eleven more individuals on earth who live ELP lives, but who in several generations will turn into hundreds of more people on earth? From my perspective, I deserve the "carbon credits" for not having children that I would have been allocated back in 1959 if such a program had been in effect back then.
Since it was your father-in-law, you are married. Do you have any children or do you plan on having any? If so, with the best of intentions, they will still have a far more negative impact on the earth than one F250.
I think the truth, as Daniel Quinn told us when we interviewed him for What A Way To Go, is this: there is a secret plan in place. I t’s a secret plan that we don’t talk about because, well, it’s a secret, and we want to keep the secret. That’s what we’ve been taught to do.
This is the secret plan: we are going to continue on this way until we can’t anymore.
That’s the plan. And that’s what person after person told us when we interviewed them for What A Way To Go. We asked everyone we talked to, “What’s it going to take for people to change?” And what person after person said was, “It’s going to take a catastrophe. It’s going to take a catastrophe before people will wake up.”
Jblunt--
You were forced to drink the Kool Aide if you graduated in 1959, after coming of age in the 50's and the time of the man in the grey flannel suit. So no children is a positive, and less impact. You could of been a Dharma Bum, but they numbered below a thousand.
And the Esclade will make nice living quarters, and supply low entropy building materials for the survivors (if any).
I see your point. You have left less of a foot print.
Since demand worldwide is voracious, I am not advocating ELP because it will save energy, I am advocating it so people will be better prepared for much more expensive, and scarce, food and energy supplies. The key point is to assume a 50% drop in income and $8 plus gasoline. Also, it won't be a good idea to advertise wealth.
West ,my grandfather continued raising the food I ate for the majority of my youth,even when it became cheaper to purchase veggies at the store.I was raised to expect a quality of food most people never see,eating out of stores and "mcfood"
ELM can be a improvement to the quality of what one has on their plate if done right We have not pushed the small scale ag the way it will have to be to be effective.
One answer to "downsizeing"your life is to increase your garden size
8$+gas will blow this economy out of the water,as anything not essential will go away.No more 100 mile trips to the beach,20mile trips to the kids dancing class etc.A complete re-structuring will be in order.Many have said that a depression is how all the old structures in a society are replaced with new ones that can withstand the new environment that exist
Whats for sure is the change is coming soon.Here in Oregon,construction has continued at a blistering pace .... Until now.When talking with a small steelfab company I know to be a favorite of contractors I learned the workload for them is dropping to nothing in March this is true with 4 outfits I have spoke with in casual conversation the last week.What has been happening all over the country just came here.
Yes but some idiots in North America commute to work the width of Sweden. Of course even that may not derail the economy, but sitting that long in one's car knowing one is burning eight a gallon buck gas may produce peak dementia and won't that be a scream.
Took a minute or two to figure out a reply and what I figured out was that, if you could quite cleverly figure the way you do, I would rather you would have had one child and then quite as cleverly figured you had some stake in the future of the planet. Go figure, eh?:)
Yes, this is the problem. A lot of people outside the US know we have a "car culture", but they don't understand that the choices we have made - or had made for us (Who killed the electric car, damnit?!) - make those cars largely necessary. For most people, there is no short cut. And this is the crux of the problem. Knowing that and knowing that Americans essentially have no savings are all you need to really know to understand why the US will be damned lucky if the economy doesn't completely collapse.
Well, most people here commute 20-40km (approx 15-30 miles or something) to work. My wife commutes 45km to work and 45km back again. I've had coworkers commuting 100km at 9 USD for a gallon of petrol.
Big deal.
Oil prices have to go much, much, much higher to affect anything. People will complain, but they won't stop.
I figure that the oil price will reach four figures a couple of years downslope peak oil, unless you see goobermint intervention, price controls and rationing before thtat.
Sorry if I got a bit snippy yesterday but my father in-law just bought a new F250 to drive his 20 min. commute, alone, in his 3 piece suit, to his office, from his McVilla in the burbs.
Not that I think the prius will save us but man, hows that for "in your face dude".
I have decided to start spelling my name with only one F.
Jef
Doing my part.
Just think of all the energy the world could save if...
Well, look at the "bright" side. When his truck is repossessed and his McVilla is foreclosed, he will be moving in with you.
Sharon Astyk called it the "brother-in-law on the couch" syndrome. This is actually a good reason to have a small garden/farm. You can put the in-laws to work if they want to move in with you.
Anyone read this?
http://www.amazon.com/dp/086571553X/ref=pe_606_8324800_pe_ar_d1
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)
This book has been discussed here before, though I haven't read it.
Top shelf read.It gives some real good info on seed companies,and a different outlook on intensive bed cultivation
Thanks for the Reference, WT.
My wife and mom just finished reading
'Animal, Vegetable, Miracle',
Barbara Kingsolver's year of localizing her family's food supply. I'm getting pressed into the reading chair from both sides right now.. and I'm also due to finish Eliot Coleman's
'4-Season Garden',
about keeping fresh garden produce coming in to the larder all year round. (He does this in Maine, as does one of the Oil Awareness Meetup Organizers I met last night)
Bob Fiske
Both good books, Coleman's is an essential reference, Kingsolver more inspirational.
Currently working my way through it. Much more practical approach than more hobby oriented books.
However he still assumes you have a infrastructure available. I'd classify it as "farming for the poor" rather than "farming for post peak".
Still it's probably the best available.
IMHO a minimum library would be:
Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times
The Encyclopedia of country living
Putting food by
Solar Gardening
Four Season harvest.
But if you don't have the tools, seeds, fertilizer and plastic sheets prior to an event you are still S.O.L.
"I'd classify it as "farming for the poor" rather than "farming for post peak"."
post peak and poor might be synonymos.
A couple more I'd recommend:
J. Seymour, The Self-Sufficient Gardener
Hunt & Bortz, High Yield Gardening
A new edition of Seymour is supposed to be coming out any day now. Hunt & Bortz are o.o.p., but you can probably still find a used copy.
Seymour writes mainly from an English perspective, but the English are avid, experienced gardeners. He has some good stuff in there that you don't see in American gardening books.
Seymour gives you the necessary breadth, I see Coleman on the one hand and Hunt & Bortz on the other as providing the necessary two dimensions: stretching out your harvest over twelve months, and bringing in as much harvest as you can. You really need to be thinking about both.
WT...your post got me thinking...many of us have had gardens for awhile and several of us started gardens pretty recently (me, last year). It would be nice with spring around the corner if TOD could pull together a "Building/Maintaining Your Own Garden" article and have the experienced green thumbs help the newbies. I know we've had many posts concerning gardening tips and such, but nothing put together in a more structured article. Home grown food for thought.
Seconded. I am going bonkers trying to figure out how to make 1/4 acre support a family year round in a four season environment... 'cause that's alls I's gots for now. And trying to figure out how to build a comfortable home (meaning off-grid, not necessarily 75 degrees year-round, but maybe between 50 and 80...) for next to nothing. I'm thinking the non-linear nature of things (O, Chaos, Thou dost press upon mine heart, mind and soul...!) is about to get very real for the world.
I am not a happy puppy.
Cheers
You are possibly going bonkers with the realisation that 0.25 acres is simply not enough - about one hectare (2.4 acres) could be considered the minimum, unless you lived in a highly productive tropical or semi-tropical region. Doesn't matter how much you wish something to be so, if it ain't going to be so ...
Just concentrating on growing potatoes might be your best bet as you get a lot per acre, and hope to swap some for a more varied diet.
At least that is what the Irish peasantry did when they had to make do with tiny plots, although of course we all know what happened there.
I am not enough of a gardener to know, but perhaps cloches and greenhouses would help?
Another alternative where you might be able to barter work for more space might be to strengthen your walls sufficiently to support a roof garden.
Both thickening your walls and making a roof garden would also go some way towards insulating your house and reaching your objectives.
Passivhaus technology makes the house very air-tight, and relies on mechanical extraction to change the small amount of air needed, although an alternative might be to build your greenhouses as conservatories which would improve temperatures in the main house.
I also live on a 1/4 acre small town lot. I've got no illusions about being able to produce all of our own food just on that land. I think that with a few year's effort I could reasonably get up to maybe 50% or so. My first priority is to get the fruit and perennial vegies (asparagus & sunchokes) planted, as those take several years to get into production. I'm also going to beekeeping school right now; bees don't have to depend just on what I'm growing in my yard, so the honey they produce will be a lot of "free" extra calories produced on my land. Rabbits are a couple of years down the line, chickens maybe a couple more years after that - I've got the outbuilding and space for them, but I've got some work to do in reconfiguring it. Much of my yard right now is in shade trees, I'll have to gradually take most of them down (except for the two sugar maples in front, which provide afternoon shade as well as eventually syrup) to make more garden space.
One thing I'm doing to increase my production is to garden in containers on our deck. The deck is the sunniest place on our property right now, and I'm not going to let that sunlight go to waste.
I do also rent two 400 s.f. plots at our local community garden, though, so that gives me quite a bit more land to work with. I grow all of my root vegies there (less likely to be stolen), all of my brassicas (cabbage family), corn (with pole beans on the stalks - even if I lose the corn to animal or human thieves, I'll still have something to harvest), and winter squash; I've got these set up on a four-year rotation.
If (when) times get really hard and food gets really expensive, another option will be garden share-cropping. By equipping oneself with the necessary tools and supplies now and proceeding up the learning curve, one will be ready when a lot of one's neighbors are hungry and can't afford food, look out at their vast expanse of lawns, but don't have a clue as to what to do. Offering to do it for them in exchange for half the produce is going to look like a pretty good deal for a lot of them. Under that strategy, you got only close the gap to 100% self-sufficiency, you also can have enough of a surplus to be a regular seller at your local farmer's market.
If you can't realistically move, store a large amount of white rice. Get some surplus plastic 55-gallon barrels, seal them shut, and bury them. Cheap to do, and will keep for decades. Just a suggestion.
Thanks to all for your comments. I wasn't expecting any, so this is a great surprise. Some great suggestions. The rice one is nice. Sounds like a good emergency store regardless of any/all other choices. Rice is gawdawful expensive here in Korea, ironically enough.
I was, in fact, thinking of greenhouses due to the limited space. I was incorrect: we have almost a half acre. Looking at some of the intensive programs, such as the fellow in the Bay area (sorry, can't locate the link just now... need to tidy them up) who claims 4,000 sq. ft./person is possible. Under those conditions, I can build a small home and have enough land to feed 3 - 4 people. I am also going to look into hydroponics given the high yields, limited space and good rainfall here.
As ever, money and time. And timing. To go from living in an apartment in the city to a sustainable homestead... daunting. I see it as being my only option if I want to ensure, to the highest degree possible, my family's welfare.
Cheers
I am in the process of reading the book right now. It's a very interesting departure from the double digging, intensive gardening method. Some time ago I had read an article in Mother Earth News about soil fertility with a recipe for organic fertlizer. I clipped it out and lo and behold, it was Steve Solomon's recipe. I have located a local crop service company which will mix and bag the fertilizer for use on our 13 acres of vegetables.
I am also in the middle of The End of Food by Thomas Pawlick. Both he and Solomon are in agreement that the demise of our food supply is directly related to the demise of the soil. As an example, a potato grown conventionally (using nitrogen fertlizer) has lost 100 percent of vitamin A, 57 percent of vitamin C and iron, 28 percent of calcium, 50 percent of riboflavin and 18 percent of thiamine. The story is similar for most fruits and vegetables. Also, it was discovered that vegetables grown with organic fertlizers retain more of their original vitamins and accumulated less nitrate during storage than those grown with inorganic fertlizers. Pawlick sites a book that is next on my list: Plant Vitamins: Agronomic, Physiological, and Nutritional Aspects written by soil scientist Dr. Ahmad Mozafar of the Swiss Federal Institue of Technology.
Last summer my husband and I ate exclusively vegetables and fruit that we had grown organically. And our purchases of meat, eggs, honey and cheese were all from local sources. We found that because of the nutritional density of the food, we were eating far less and felt so much healthier. Even though the raw-milk cheese was $20 a pound, once we ate it we could never go back to buying cheese from the grocery store. And a little slice of that cheese went a long way. Just like I haven't purchased a tomato from the grocery store in more than 10 years. Well, maybe a couple. And we are still eating potatoes, onions and squash from our root celler and tomatoes, corn and herbs from our freezer and lots of dried beans from the garden.
This is why I think that Stuart Staniford is incorrect in his hypothesis that industrial agriculture will continue unabated. As more people begin eating real food grown in real soil, there is no going back. There isn't a way to produce this nutrient rich, wonderful tasting food and that includes vegetables, meat, fruit and dairy products on a large scale.
I think you're wrong about that. Sure, some people are willing to grow their own food (or pay for someone else to do it) just because it tastes better. But most people are perfectly willing to sacrifice taste for convenience. They're busy, and the last thing they want to do is cook, let alone grow their food.
However, I think you're right about the soil. This article argues that the lack of minerals in modern farmland is causing mental illness. They've had success treated depression and other disorders with high doses of minerals.
Curiously, the idea for the treatment came from a hog farmer. Apparently, hog farmers know that if a pig starts to act crazy, the cure is mineral supplements.
It reminded of the poster here who said that farmers feed pigs skim milk in order to make them fat; they won't get fat on whole milk. (In the discussion about whether it's eating fat or carbs that makes you fat.) Pigs are omnivores, like humans, and, diet-wise, are probably the best substitute for humans in experiments and such.
or sacrifice taste just to eat.
Been trying out your doomer chops today eh?
Nah his wife just put him on a low carb diet
People, in my estimation, are about to get a lot less busy. The thing about the doomsday scenarios is that they are possible, and probable, because things truly are just too complex to remain coherent in the face of multiple singularities and their resulting non-linear results.
IF it is too late to reign in climate change unless there is a massive, coordinated, world-wide response (Hansen), and IF it is too late to mitigate Peak Oil (less than 5-10 years to peak) unless there is a massive, coordinated, world-wide response (Hirsch), AND there actually is no massive, coordinated, world-wide response as is th current case, then how in hell is all hell NOT going to break loose?
Localized use of large farms, yes. Current agribusiness? Maybe not.
Sorry: no links, just my 2c.
Cheers
If it's climate change that's driving the chaos, then it will affect everyone growing food. Agribusiness, small local farmers, people gardening in their backyards.
This is why I think climate change could turn out to be worst than peak oil. Nothing is worse for a farmer than unpredictable weather.
Weather is always unpredicable except in short periods of 2-3 days. Even then predictions are often wrong. Experienced farmers are dealing with this all the time. I doubt climate change will make much difference and may even make it an easier problem in some areas where weather is especially violent like the Midwest. Right now I have both my corn stoves running plus the backup LP heater. It's 10 below with a wind chill in the area of 30-40 below zero. Global warming sounds pretty good.
Many researchers are predicting that the weather will become more extreme, as we settle into a new climate. Drought, floods, more powerful storms, etc. I don't think any farmer will say that's a good thing.
"Experienced" farmers may find their experience leads them wrong. And people who have carefully saved seeds that grow in their climate may find those seeds no longer grow there.
If we find ourselves with less energy to do the work for us then one logical consequence is that we will have to do more manual labor ourselves. In a nutshell: We will become more busy.
Hi soup,
re: "he will be moving in with you."
And you'll figure out a way to allow him to save face, while he'll realize he's one very lucky man.
re: "father in-law just bought a new F250 to drive his 20 min. commute, alone,"
Not alone for long, though.
HI again, Soup,
Meanwhile, recommend a dose of Chuck Wicks:
last half of "Stealing Cinderella":
"I leaned in towards those pictures to get a better look at one
When I heard a voice behind me say "Now, ain't she something, son?"
I said "Yes, she quite a woman" and he just stared at me
Then I realized that in his eyes she would always be
Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
In her eyes i'm Prince Charming
But to him i'm just some fella riding in and stealing Cinderella
He slapped me on the shoulder
Then he called her in the room
When she threw her arms around him
That's when I could see it too
She was Playing Cinderella
Riding her first bike
Bouncing on the bed and looking for a pillow fight
Running through the sprinkler with a big popsicle grin
Dancing with her dad, looking up at him
If he gives me a hard time
I can't blame the fella
I'm the one who's stealing Cinderella"
At least, he will have a nice place to live (the F250, that is) when everything goes tits up.
http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/2008/01/fullbl...
By some standards, that might be called "modest." Apparently it is now cool to drive your Navistar Class 8 tractor to the Country Club. http://www.popularmechanics.com/blogs/automotive_news/4248351.html
souperman2/Jef -
Well, how do you measure a carbon footprint and/or the amount of fuel you are responsible for?? I drive an Escalade and my wife drives a gas guzzler Jaguar. We live in a 4,000 square foot house. But, before you kill me, let me explain. We have been married for 41 years and have no children. Graduated high school in 1959, and my 240 classmates probably average 3 children, 6 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. So, my wife and I saved the children cost and can afford more than the average. But, now which would you rather have: (1) the over indulgence of 2 people in 2008 or (2) eleven more individuals on earth who live ELP lives, but who in several generations will turn into hundreds of more people on earth? From my perspective, I deserve the "carbon credits" for not having children that I would have been allocated back in 1959 if such a program had been in effect back then.
Since it was your father-in-law, you are married. Do you have any children or do you plan on having any? If so, with the best of intentions, they will still have a far more negative impact on the earth than one F250.
There is a secret plan.
I think the truth, as Daniel Quinn told us when we interviewed him for What A Way To Go, is this: there is a secret plan in place. I t’s a secret plan that we don’t talk about because, well, it’s a secret, and we want to keep the secret. That’s what we’ve been taught to do.
This is the secret plan: we are going to continue on this way until we can’t anymore.
That’s the plan. And that’s what person after person told us when we interviewed them for What A Way To Go. We asked everyone we talked to, “What’s it going to take for people to change?” And what person after person said was, “It’s going to take a catastrophe. It’s going to take a catastrophe before people will wake up.”
http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/318/
Jblunt--
You were forced to drink the Kool Aide if you graduated in 1959, after coming of age in the 50's and the time of the man in the grey flannel suit. So no children is a positive, and less impact. You could of been a Dharma Bum, but they numbered below a thousand.
And the Esclade will make nice living quarters, and supply low entropy building materials for the survivors (if any).
I see your point. You have left less of a foot print.
Since demand worldwide is voracious, I am not advocating ELP because it will save energy, I am advocating it so people will be better prepared for much more expensive, and scarce, food and energy supplies. The key point is to assume a 50% drop in income and $8 plus gasoline. Also, it won't be a good idea to advertise wealth.
West ,my grandfather continued raising the food I ate for the majority of my youth,even when it became cheaper to purchase veggies at the store.I was raised to expect a quality of food most people never see,eating out of stores and "mcfood"
ELM can be a improvement to the quality of what one has on their plate if done right We have not pushed the small scale ag the way it will have to be to be effective.
One answer to "downsizeing"your life is to increase your garden size
8$+gas will blow this economy out of the water,as anything not essential will go away.No more 100 mile trips to the beach,20mile trips to the kids dancing class etc.A complete re-structuring will be in order.Many have said that a depression is how all the old structures in a society are replaced with new ones that can withstand the new environment that exist
Whats for sure is the change is coming soon.Here in Oregon,construction has continued at a blistering pace .... Until now.When talking with a small steelfab company I know to be a favorite of contractors I learned the workload for them is dropping to nothing in March this is true with 4 outfits I have spoke with in casual conversation the last week.What has been happening all over the country just came here.
Here in Europe/Sweden we already pay $8+ for a gallon of gas. Hasn't hurt our economy. And we have lower incomes and higher taxes too.
Yes but some idiots in North America commute to work the width of Sweden. Of course even that may not derail the economy, but sitting that long in one's car knowing one is burning eight a gallon buck gas may produce peak dementia and won't that be a scream.
jbunt
Took a minute or two to figure out a reply and what I figured out was that, if you could quite cleverly figure the way you do, I would rather you would have had one child and then quite as cleverly figured you had some stake in the future of the planet. Go figure, eh?:)
Yes, this is the problem. A lot of people outside the US know we have a "car culture", but they don't understand that the choices we have made - or had made for us (Who killed the electric car, damnit?!) - make those cars largely necessary. For most people, there is no short cut. And this is the crux of the problem. Knowing that and knowing that Americans essentially have no savings are all you need to really know to understand why the US will be damned lucky if the economy doesn't completely collapse.
Cheers
Well, most people here commute 20-40km (approx 15-30 miles or something) to work. My wife commutes 45km to work and 45km back again. I've had coworkers commuting 100km at 9 USD for a gallon of petrol.
Big deal.
Oil prices have to go much, much, much higher to affect anything. People will complain, but they won't stop.
I figure that the oil price will reach four figures a couple of years downslope peak oil, unless you see goobermint intervention, price controls and rationing before thtat.
And your income level is....? Better yet, disposable income....? Savings? Inde