[permaculture] conservatism/food/references requested
Toby Hemenway
toby at patternliteracy.com
Tue Feb 19 00:27:18 EST 2008
John & Maia O'Brien wrote:
> I would like to see the references.
> Do any come from Cuba's "special period" experience?
All the data come from the US, but thanks for mentioning Cuba. Cuba's
ability to feed itself with little oil is the shining indicator that
food is not the problem some think it is. Cuba also had a very abrupt
transition, and the transition for much of the world will most likely be
more gradual, so perhaps less stressful than Cuba's. To my knowledge,
Cuba is the only nation to face a near-complete loss of oil, and they
did it successfully. So one could say, with only a little statistical
chicanery, that 100% of the nations that have faced a major oil
shortfall have made it through successfully. Take that, doomers!
references:
10% of US oil used for food system:
http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/FoodReview/DEC2002/frvol25i3a.pdf
Cornell foodshed research:
http://crops.confex.com/crops/viewHandout.cgi?uploadid=226
H.T. Odum emergy data for food vs. electricity, banking, etc:
Odum, Howard T. "A Prosperous Way Down"
Toby
http://patternliteracy.com
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