[permaculture] Is permaculture easy? (was Peak Oil)
Toby Hemenway
toby at patternliteracy.com
Wed Jul 25 11:51:41 EDT 2007
Marjory wrote:
> The US became a NET IMPORTER of food in 2005. Please see
> http://www.agonist.org/node/10568/print for the full article.
>
Nope, the US is still a net food exporter. The article cited was a
prediction from a left-wing website, and it didn't come true. Gotta
watch those predictions! The real numbers, from the USDA are:
2005 Agricultural exports, in billions: $63.18 Imports: $59.3
2006 Exports: $70.9 Imports: $65.3
2007 through May, Exports: $33.0 Imports: $30.3
Source: USDA Economic Research Service,
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Data/FATUS/monthlysummary.htm
But I'm well aware that the US has a very stupid food system. No denying
that.
> There have been studies done for the local Austin area which indicated that
> providing the caloric needs for that city will be very, very, very, very
> difficult.
It would be nice to see a citation. The Cornell study I cited was at
http://crops.confex.com/crops/viewHandout.cgi?uploadid=226
> "there are not enough farmers
> in the entire DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) area to meet the needs of even one
> elementary school cafeteria"
That's very sad. Several schools in Portland have regular days in which
most of the cafeteria food comes from the school garden; we don't even
need to go to one of the many local farms.
But regardless, I've always thought that building large cities in the
desert is stupid. Dallas-Fort Worth is a nightmare, as are Phoenix,
Tucson,. Las Vegas, etc. Humans have created large settlements in
desert regions before, but I do think the SW US has overdone it
substantially. I can see why if you lived in a desert megalopolis you'd
be pretty worried.
Toby
>
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