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  • From: Marjory <forestgarden@gvtc.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] The US is no longer food self-reliant?
  • Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2012 12:40:20 -0500

Hi Everyone,

I just had this grim realization.

This blows up that 'Bread Basket To The World" story.

With very few exceptions, every bite of every American meal comes from big Ag. And big Ag just coulndn't produce without massive amounts of oil and natrual gas.

From Wikipedia, the US imports about 65% of the oil it uses.

So could the US produce enough food to feed it's population without imported oil? It doesn't look likely.

I know each of us is all about change towards local sustainability, but as it stands /today/, the US is *not food self-reliant.*

Is there some problem with the logic here?

The US does export about 15%-20% of the biggest crop it produces - corn. But we also import a lot of other food stuffs (fruits and vegetables) The US is not really a big net exporter.

Am I missing something here...

Marjory






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