permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Rain Tenaqiya wrote:

> I haven't done much research, but doesn't it make sense that the end of cheap oil will radically reduce the size of the middle class in the US? 

Not really a reply to your post but some thoughts of mine on conserving energy, building community, keeping money in 
local economies and contributing significantly to environmental quality in any given bioregion:

Part of a reply to a post suggesting doing a study on local vs. distant food 
production for local sales:

-
The ONLY problem is that any doubt might exist in anyone's mind that growing 
and marketing crops locally for local sales
is more efficient and worthwhile than buying goods from some vertically integrated agribusiness outlet that have 
traveled many hundreds or thousands of miles prior to sale. I am talking LOCAL, farms selling to their nearest 
community, town or city, for starters. Significant advantages to buying locally-grown include:

1) Contributes to local economies and communities and having the security of 
a stable local foodshed.
2) Diversifying production among many small carefully-managed farms, 
providing enormous environmental
   benefits to their regions
3) The customer can get to know the farmer and learn how their food is grown

All people have to do is join a CSA, go to a Farmer's Market or go to a natural foods store that advertises that they 
buy from local producers. Selecting any of those options assures them that they are getting the most for their money and 
using less energy in the process. Short of that they can simply shuffle on over to the local supermarket.

If they were really serious about decreasing the costs of long distance shipping of food goods they would build a 
canal/river/inland waterway network and fix up the railway system.