Tompkins County Relocalization Project

[Tompkins County Relocalization Project <tcrp-news AT lists.ibiblio.org>]

As its name implies, TCLocal usually focuses on the energy descent
problem in terms of the challenges we will face here in Tompkins
County and the resources we have available in the county to meet
those challenges.  This month's tclocal.org article goes beyond
the county for a moment to look at the concept of "local food" as
it applies to the whole state of New York.

While the local food movement has gained a great deal of attention
in the last couple of years, surprisingly little formal research
has gone into understanding just what we mean by "local" in this
context and into exploring the connection between food miles,
dietary choices, and carrying capacity.  An outstanding exception
has been the research carried out by teams at Cornell led by
Dr. Christian Peters and reported in two studies published in the
journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems.  These articles
are of special interest to us because they use New York State as
the case study.  Unfortunately, the publications in which they
appear are inaccessible to the general public, and the results
have therefore not yet entered into the wider discussion of these
subjects.

To make the groundbreaking Cornell studies available to a wider
audience, we have summarized their results in this month's TCLocal
article, "Can New York State Feed Itself?"  You can find it on the
tclocal.org site at

http://tclocal.org/2009/06/can_new_york_state_feed_itself.html

The findings summarized in the article will surprise some people,
and we're expecting more than the usual number of comments.  Since
this notice goes to several different mail lists, we urge people
wishing to discuss these issues to use the comment form at the
bottom of the article rather than posting to separate mail lists
in order to keep the discussion visible to everyone.  Given the
statewide implications of the Cornell studies, people should feel
free to forward the URL above to other interested NYS groups.

ABOUT TCLOCAL

Every month (on average) TCLocal brings you another in our series
of articles addressing various aspects of energy descent in
Tompkins County.  Contributors to TCLocal are members of the
community committed to helping prepare for a future with less
available energy. Articles that have appeared so far in this
series can be found at tclocal.org. They include:

   Examining the potential local foodshed of Tompkins County
      by Christian Peters (March 2009)
      http://tclocal.org/2009/03/examining_the_potential_local.html

   Food Processing in Tompkins County
      by Persephone Doliner (February 2009)
      http://tclocal.org/2009/02/food_processing_in_tompkins_co.html

   Wasting in the Energy Descent: An Outline for the Future
      by Tom Shelley (January 2009)
      http://tclocal.org/2009/01/wasting_in_the_energy_descent.html

   Local and Urban Small Livestock and Poultry
      by Angelika St. Laurent (December 2008)
      http://tclocal.org/2008/12/local_and_urban_small_livestoc.html

   Health Care in an Energy-Constrained Environment (Part 1)
      by Bethany Schroeder (October 2008)
      http://tclocal.org/2008/10/health_care_in_an_energyconstr.html

   Preparedness Basics (Part 1)
      by Katie Quinn-Jacobs (September 2008)
      http://tclocal.org/2008/09/preparedness_basics.html

   Post-Peak Land Use Part 1: Ecocities and
   Post-Peak Land Use Part 2: The Country
      by Josh Dolan (July 2008)
      http://tclocal.org/2008/07/postpeak_land_use_part_1_ecoci.html
      http://tclocal.org/2008/07/postpeak_land_use_part_2_the_c.html

   Water Treatment, Water Power
      by Jon Bosak (May 2008)
      http://tclocal.org/2008/05/water_treatment_water_power.html

   Roads and Bridges in a Post-peak Tompkins County
      by Simon St. Laurent (March 2008)
      http://tclocal.org/2008/03/roads_and_bridges_in_a_postpea.html

   Fruits in a Post-Peak Tompkins County
      by Angelika St. Laurent (January 2008)
      http://tclocal.org/2008/01/fruits_in_a_postpeak_tompkins_1.html

Other articles scheduled for publication in 2009 include:

   Health care resources, Part 2 (Bethany Schroeder)
   Food production systems (Karl North)
   Aspects of Sustainable Agricultural Design (Karl North)
   Biomass options (Krys Cail)
   Local wood heat (Tony Nekut)
   Local biofuel production (Tycho Dan)

Articles appearing at tclocal.org are published under the Creative
Commons license and are owned and managed by the contributors as a
group. People interested in becoming TCLocal contributors should
first check the Terms of Reference at

http://ibiblio.org/tcrp/process/terms.htm

and then contact the TCLocal editor at the address below to sign
up.

Jon Bosak
Editor, TCLocal
bosak AT pinax.com