To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Is permaculture easy? (was Peak Oil)
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:53:19 -0500
Hello Everyone,
Well Toby, you are certainly demonstrating optimism. Let me correct a few
mistakes in your previous post. The current situaition is much worse than
your post indicated.
Any intelligent person knows that grain reserves are cyclical, and the 57
days of consumption are based on end-of-harvest reserves. Please see:
http://www.earth-policy.org/Indicators/Grain/2006.htm for the full report.
Chicken and cattle feed in my area has gone up between 50% and 100% since
last year.
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. Aside from land, seeds, and experience requirements (which are
all in very short supply) the limiting factor was compost material.
To quote Steve Bridges, the president of TOFGA (Texas Organic Farmers and
Gardenes Assoc), in the Summer 2006 newsletter "there are not enough farmers
in the entire DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) area to meet the needs of even one
elementary school cafeteria".
We've just gone through a lengthy discussion where I think we all agreed
that implementing food systems is a long hard development process. The time
to start working at the food situaion is right now - not in another five
years. And while there is defiantely some progress in the development of
local food sources in this area... I am deeply concerned that without
enough lead time, the transition will not be smooth. I know how difficult
it is to learn to grow food under the current conditions which are
excellent. Yes, people do rally and come up with amazing innovations in
hard times. They also revert to crime. There is also a whole lot of guns,
ammunition, and a generation raised on action movies and violent video games
(unlike the depression era). Please visit this link for an eye-opening
insiders perspective at what happened during the Argentinian economic
collapse which occured in 2001
http://www.buildanark.net/survival_stories.html
I consider myself a realist, which may come across as gloom and doom. My
motto is: Hope for the Best and Prepare for the Worst. Our current
situation is very dire. Hopefully the market demand for locally grown food
will force an easier transition before any major calamity occurs.
Persoanlly, I cannot stake my life, and the lives of my family, on hoping
the market will come through. I am doing what I can to get my family and
community ready now.