Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
TechnoratiNational food policy should give priority to local agriculture over globalized agribusiness
Our mothers always told us to eat our greens. Today, the injunction should be to eat green.
Eating is many things -- a necessity, a pleasure, part of our culture -- but it is also an environmental act.
Industrial agriculture, the current structure of the North American food system, is based on low prices to farmers, high usage of chemicals and copious amounts of oil. These factors must be altered if Canada is to have plentiful, safe and nutritious food in the future.
With oil now costing $120 (U.S.) a barrel, we are entering an era of peak oil prices. Gas is approaching the record of $1.26 (Canadian.) a litre in Ontario and many forecast it will reach $1.40 by the summer. This surge in the cost of fossil fuels will have profound impacts in a host of areas, not least in the way we organize our food supply.
Strawberries in December will soon become a luxury few can afford. It takes 35 gallons of oil, or the equivalent of a barrel, to raise a steer to go to market. Twenty per cent of American petroleum is consumed in the producing and moving of food.
Michael Pollan, an award-winning journalist for The New York Times, writes that America's "food chain is powered by fossil fuel."
Ingeborg Boyens' book, Another Season's Promise, makes a similar point about Canadian farming: "The amount of energy required to produce a calorie of food is constantly increasing. At issue is not just the food required to do all the mechanical work on the farm: energy is also needed to manufacture fertilizer and chemicals at the front end of the process and to transport and refrigerate food in the final stages of its delivery to the consumer."
Peak oil is already turning Canadians away from giant SUVs and towards compact cars. We need a similar turn away from factory farms and towards local food producers.
Wendell Berry is a farmer and writer who has authored more than 40 books imploring North America to re-establish a balance between ecology and agriculture.
He begins with the sober reflection that the "qualities that make humans the most astonishing of all the families of creatures -- our intelligence, our ambition, and our power -- have made us also by far the destructive of all creatures ... " Agriculture's mission is to "maintain its people in health, and this applies equally to the people who eat and to the people who produce the food."
Canada's current system of agriculture is far from healthy. But not so long ago farming was at least in harmony with nature. Farms used to waste nothing. My grandfather and uncle farmed grain in Saskatchewan but their farm, like their neighbours', was mixed with lots of animals to graze, provide manure and ultimately food. The sun provided energy to the crops, the animals fed on the grass (what we now call free range) and their waste, in turn, provided nutrients to plow back into the soil.
In contrast we now have mega-mechanical farms requiring huge amounts of capital, chemicals and fossil fuel.
We have not had a national policy to help the family farm since Eugene Whelan was minister of agriculture in the 1970s. Ever since, we have had a policy of industrial farming, consolidation, agribusiness and globalization. But this policy rests on the fatal flaw of cheap energy. That era is over. We must return to a policy of local food through the family farm.
The recent 2006 Statistics Canada Census on Agriculture paints an unhappy picture of the stress that affects farm families. Canadians pay 12 per cent of their national income on food, only half the percentage their parents paid in the 1950s. As food prices have gone up, farmers have not benefited. The census reveals that inflation has gone up 8.6 per cent for farming inputs (machinery, chemicals, etc.) compared to only 1.7 per cent for products sold. In 2006, 37 per cent of the farmers in the census had receipts under $25,000. Not surprisingly, 71 per cent of these farmers did not make enough to cover expenses.
With farmers squeezed by low prices and high costs, half of the farm families had one or both partners working off the farm to make ends meet, though farming is more than a full-time job. As a result, farmers are leaving their profession in droves: in 1991 there were 390,000 Canadians in farming but by 2006 there were only 327,000. In 1991, there were 78,000 young farmers taking over from their parents, in 2006 only 30,000. If the trend continues, who will be left to grow the food?
We need a national food policy that relies on the family farm to produce local supplies.
School boards should purchase food for their lunch programs from local farmers, just as St. Lawrence College in Kingston is doing. Queen's University should follow this example.
Agriculture Canada should encourage farmers' markets. Where possible, individual consumers should buy direct from the farmer. Regulations should be eased to accommodate the 100-mile diet.
Most of all we need an alliance between the city and the farm. Earth Day was celebrated last week with marches and park cleanups. A month earlier, Earth Hour saw hundreds of thousands of Torontonians turning off the lights. These are welcome symbols but we need daily action.
One way is to follow Wendell Berry's advice and "eat responsibly." When we purchase food we should ask: "Where does it come from? How was it made? What chemicals were used? Methods of slaughter?"
Denmark is experimenting with a barcode that can tell consumers about the history of the produce as well as the price. We need the same here.
Industrial agriculture has brought us mad-cow disease, soil erosion, pollution by toxic chemicals, depletion of aquifers, animal abuse, and long-distance transportation of food stuffs. This model must be transformed into sustainable agriculture.
The local food movement is a start. Every day could be Earth Day if we started to eat responsibly.
Thomas S. Axworthy is chair for the Study of Democracy at Queen's University.
© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2008
55 Comments so far
Show All"Modern ag has made corn yields (U.S.) go from 60 bu/acre in 1960 to 180 bu/acre in 2007 with a huge decrease in labor."
In labour, yes. In energy, no. The fact that you are alive today is due to a positive balance for energy returned on energy invested in traditional farming. In other words, it took less than one calorie of input energy to create one calorie of food energy. Today, industrial farming puts 10 calories in to get one calorie of food energy. What we "want farmers to do" is irrelevant. Farming will change and in the not to distant future. Change now, by choice and you'll have an easier go. If you wait until reality forces you to change, you will not enjoy it one bit.
Prepare for life without the grid, ocean commerce, air travel or readily available oil/gas. Set up solar and wind at the neighborhood level. Water gathering and filters, composting waste methods, communal resources and tools. And there probably will be no internet or cell phones for ordinary folks. Get a way to charge batteries by solar or wind. I think we have about three years until an undeniable environmental event occurs, after which everything changes. Call me Noah, call me snydly, call me whatever you want, but don't call me late for the survival party…
cheers.
for apt. composting try this: buy an old blender at a flea market (glass container won't discolor). Put all your veggie scraps (esp. if organic) and add water. When it is half-full, blend it up good and then add to your balcony plants' soil. The blender grinds up the seeds (so you don't all sorts of things growing) and the sealed blender keeps the bugs from appearing in your kitchen.
wilmoor, you don't say how big your yard is, but have you considered raised beds? Get a truckload of dirt and build the beds with timbers or concrete blocks. Then you can garden to your heart's content. I have raised beds, though they're not very tall. I'm considering making them taller since I'm not as young as I once was, so I don't have to bend and stoop.
"Unfortunately, as the apartment dwelling person on limited means suggested, there are a lot of folks who don't have significant options."
agronomo,
Might there be a community garden in your neighborhood? If not, is there a chance you could start one?
As an agronomist working with small farmers in other countries, couldn't you also have some influence right here in the U.S.? It seems as if we have a screaming need right here to re-develop small scale farming and back-yard gardening. I think it's the only way forward.
Rich Griffin:
I wrote an article on "Fighting Food Inflation In Retirement". It gives some suggestions such as planting a garden, joining a food coop, grocery coupons, buying in bulk. There are links to resources.
http://www.iplanretirement/retirementblog
Hope it helps you get through the coming months.
On a positive note, a silver lining, we may see the price differential between organic and non-organic food narrowing. Modern agriculture uses a lot more oil per unit than organic. Machinery, pesticides and fertilizers, transportation.
It doesn't mean that organic will get cheaper, only that the price difference will be smaller, making it an easier financial decision to purchase organic.
Ramsay
Very nice article. I am pleased to see the varied responses. There seem to be an ever increasing number of "Greens" ("GreenBeings"?) out there doing whatever they can to improve their diets and reduce their carbon footprints. Unfortunately, as the apartment dwelling person on limited means suggested, there are a lot of folks who don't have significant options. I am afraid that the need for change will outpace our capability of identifying and adopting appropriate and meaningful adjustments to agricultural production.
While many of us in N. America are beginning to feel the pinch, there are millions on the verge of starvation in the rest of the world whose deteriorating situations are a consequence of the "success" of our agricultural model. It has long been of concern to me as an agronomist who works with small-farmers in the "developing world" that our agricultural assistance programs often result in depressed local prices and production through sale of our subsidized surplus commodities and that in exchange for opening their markets we offer access to our highly competitive market for "niche" crops with modest profit margins that mostly benefit middlemen exporters, and which are now non-existent because of increased transportation costs.
"Sadly the experience of victory gardens in WWII does not fill people like me with a great deal of hope for the future, but we must keep trying."
lexington,
I'm not sure why the success of victory gardens wouldn't fill you with hope. Victory gardens supplied America with 40 percent of it's vegetables during WWII. It took a concerted effort by the government to teach people how to garden and a willing public to do so, but it happened.
Maybe it's the "willing public" that makes you doubt...? If so, Americans (like anyone else) will be more willing when the price of food is so expensive that growing their own becomes more cost-effective. It is sad that it seems to take a hit to the wallet for modern Americans to act, but that hit is here.
Galen April 27th, 2008 6:52 pm
"I would also suggest laying your hands on a copy 'When Technology Fails'…"
Thanks for the suggestion, found it on half.com, should be here by Thursday.
"picking some lamb's quarters and eating it."
I pick the purslane, it's the highest vegatable source of Omega 3 fatty acids.
"some morels that a neighbour gave us"
Generous!
quousque --
I sell at our local Farmers Market (Fairbanks AK) and we are constantly having discussions about fees and how to maintain equitable access. Would be interested to hear what you have to say about 'fees and structures' which prevent local producers from participating ?
We have to limit the number of craft vendors but NEVER turn away produce vendors. Fee structure is a set table fee of $10 - $20 per day (depending on size of table) plus 10% of gross sales. And a $20 yearly membership fee.
This seems to work very well for us, it is on the honor system as far as reporting the 10% but that doesn't seem to be a problem. We have looked into other options but nothing else would give us the flexibility we need to accommodate different vendors throughout the season. We are a fairly large Market and have recently bought our own 6 1/2 acre site.
The main problem Farmers Markets have is that they are NOT non-profit corporations in the eyes of the IRS, although many are organized as non-profits at the state level. The IRS figures that, since the sellers are there to make money, the Market as a whole must be too. Of course. So all the grants available to 501C-3 organizations are not available to Markets unless you do some pretty fancy footwork and have an educational focus, etc. etc. It's frustrating to get info on all kinds of agricultural grants and know you can't even apply for them.
It costs money to run a Market. I think you can thank the IRS for the high user fees.
In Europe, Farmers Markets are supported by the local municipality.
Oh, by the way, we do not allow sales of any item not "made, grown or produced in Alaska." I can see where Markets that allow big vendors to truck in van loads of produce from out of state would totally squeeze out local producers. In lots of states, even in-state big growers could squeeze out the locals. We have a limit on the number of employees a person can have and still sell at the Market. If big growers are the problem, maybe the 'locals' should start their own Market.
It all depends on how you set your standards.
Terrific article and thoughtful solutions.
On a related subject, since even local agriculture requires fuel, too:
"The US Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest oil consuming government body in the US and in the world."
See: http://www.energybulletin.net/13199.html
What are our priorities?
... encourage farmers' markets.
Most of the current "farmers markets" are a hoax that keep by their fees and structures 90%+ of local producers unable to participate!
for ridding your garden of pests, there are many organic and natural alternatives. For slugs, broken shells from oysters or clams work quite well because the sharp edges discourage them. Aphids can be kept at a minimum by checking susceptible plants fairly often crushing any found immediately. If the infestation is worse, put the dirty soapy dishwater in a spray bottle and spray the aphids with that. If they are widespread, buy either ladybugs or praying mantis from your local garden shop, they will eat the pests in no time. They do leave though once they have done their job. Marigolds do keep some pests away and so does lavender, especially mosquitoes. Some bugs are good for pest control so don't kill them all. Snakes and frogs are good garden guards too. For keeping cabbage moths from laying eggs on your brassicas, put wooden stakes around the small plant and stretch a nylon stocking over the stakes. The moths cannot access the plants to lay the eggs but sunshine, water and air can get at the plants. Cayenne pepper works to keep woodbugs away from plant stalks and keeps cats out too. It just has to be replenished after a heavy rainfall or watering. There is a lot more too...such as a good fence to keep out the deer.
Rich Griffin-well of course we should be pushing for subsidies for HEALTHY food choices, but that's not very "sexy". Struggling for grocery money sucks-I remember having all of $15 a week to feed our family of three when we were first married. I actually was able to plant some tomatoes and beans in a small area of our rental unit's yard.
Hey-as for clothing-if you don't already, haunt the thrift stores or yard sales for clothing purchased and discarded by other folks. It's the ultimate in reuse.
I have $5 left this month and 3 more days to struggle through before any more money arrives. My food costs have skyrocketed but I have the same amount of money ($780 a month). I would love to eat more organic produce (I'm 99% vegan), I would love to buy vegan shoes & clothing and not have to buy slave-labor cheap materials; why do the prices of these products have to be so incredibly high?? Shouldn't we be pushing for subsidies for HEALTHY food choices, which will also help with health care costs??
BTW, I'm eating wild morels gathered locally as I type. Very expensive when you can find them, I look for them every year in the woods.
"Thomas More- Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening is a must if you are city dweller "
Yeah, he had a brief but interesting PBS series, and a book. It's a good intro to intensive planting methods. There are some ways this can be adapted to containers. It's great for a beginner because it makes you think small first, which is a good approach when you are just starting gardening.
Look into raised beds using similar intensive methods, I think Rodale Press has a bunch of books around this. They have research gardens not far from where I live, they being based in Emmaus PA.
"Anyone know if asperagus could be grown in a whiskey barrel half and then summer veggies be planted on top of it after it's harvested?"
I've never heard of interplanting with asparagus. I think it's a heavy feeder, and does need to be set up in a well established bed, it being a perennial. Whether you could do that in a barrel half I dunno.
Asparagud is a good example of a thing that I never understood people wanting to eat out of season. It's one thing getting an early or late crop from locales north or south of you, but months out of season? Just eat something else I say.
"Plant your lawn, make every plant, bush and tree edible."
I agree, lawns are a poor use of space.
Old Goat and Greg R - thanks for the info and ideas. I'll give them all a try.
I'm currently trying to grow a tomato plant from seeds saved from a REAL tomato given to me a couple of years ago. I saved the seed from it on a piece of paper towel, and have hopes. Eating that tomato was pure heaven.
In the area of Sacramento where I lived for a time, the Japanese had covered the area with strawberry farms before WWII. In the 1980s, the Vietnamese/Cambodian/Hmung - not sure which, began growing strawberries in that area. I bought some at a roadside stand on a visit to the area, and nearly cried when I tasted them. They weren't apple size, and dripped with juice. They smelled so good while I ate them too. They were always my favorite food, and I've hated the monstrosities that are palmed off on us now.
Thomas More- Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening is a must if you are city dweller in these fast approaching hard times. 'Carrots love Tomatoes' is THE handbook of companion gardening.
I would also suggest laying your hands on a copy 'When Technology Fails'...
I forgot to say, if you don't believe the difference in taste, try a hot house tomato then a home grown one. You'll think they aren't the same kind of fruit.
Look up the old Sq. Ft. Gardening method. Works great in the city and suburbs.
If food supply is becoming a question of locality and organic methods because of high energy costs, then the big city, with its high energy costs, huge populations and large surrounding area needed to supply it with necessities, is threatened with extinction or a great diminution. I do not know how the great slum conglomerations of world fare with feeding themselves on already slim survival margins, but there must be a large amount of food trucked in every day. In the richer world, the supermarkets chains have built their entire distribution and business model on it. A shift will occur when local food is much cheaper than the imported variety, due to transport costs, and is grown in sufficient amounts to support the livelihood of its farmers. It should be possible to calculate the whereabouts of the future price of oil when this will be true. Are we only a doubling in price away? Because cheap oil supply reduction is already doing a nose dive over the next 5 to 10 years, the viability of large cities is already under threat.
Excellent article! Good ideas, but if you do away with all the agri-business farms and chemical you'd starve half the world.
I think no matter if you are talking about "Agri business Trolls" or "have become complacent about our food supply" we can all agree that using less fuel to transport food to market if its locally grown, adding to the total production of the food supply leaving more for poorer nations, saving money and improving the taste of food will serve everyone. Where's the downside?
wilmoor- You can grow lots of good stuff in your barrels, but you should skip the asparagus. If you live near the country, lots of places have wild asparagus growing in the ditches. A local deputy sheriff has his car stopped at the end of my driveway quite often in the spring...nabbing the wild asparagus.
Today at church, our service was dedicated to the idea of supporting local sustainable farming and eating locally grown foods and what the cost of agri-business is to the environment as compared to local sustainable organic farming. Why would we have a sermon about this from our minister? Because Unitarian Universalists honor their Transcendentalist heritage and in particular, pay great heed to the words of Henry David Thoreau, perhaps one of our earliest environmentalists who also connected spirituality to his experiences of living at Walden Pond.
Afterward, we ate a pot-luck meal in our social hall consisting of all locally and organically grown foods, and it was delicious. We heard a lecture from the produce manager of our local organic food co-op and people explained what they learned by creating dishes made all from local organic foods. We are called on by our faith to be good stewards of our environment, and today's service and luncheon in particular drove home that point that we do our world - and our health - a great favor by supporting local sustainable agriculture.
iammyself-I've done some reading on permaculture and it makes a lot of sense. It also starts interesting conversations with the neighbors.
ah, corn(GM STRAINS) is now one of the most tasteless things there is and the nutrition levels of the corn is WAY down from what it was only a few decades
ago.
A lot of AGRI BUSINESS trolls post on this site.. a bit of research , from non-invested sources will show what a scam the so called improvements in farming brought to us by agri business is.
Food for Fuel, the next biggest joke brought to you by "subsidized" MONSANTO and their ilk.
when the food supplies fail and people are starving, maybe the light will come on in the minds of these shills, after all ya can't eat that SUV or any of the other so called "necessities" THEY claim you NEED..
Wake up and "smell the coffee" while you still have some to smell.
Jim
Canada
jim_murray@jdz.ca
Oh come on.
We obviously have become complacent about our food supply and gotten very very used to very cheap food (and gotten very fat at the same time!). That time has ended.
Modern ag has made corn yields (U.S.) go from 60 bu/acre in 1960 to 180 bu/acre in 2007 with a huge decrease in labor. We've had incredible increases in agricultural productivity. Demand is now catching up. The low hanging fruit (so to speak) for increasing farm productivity is gone. What do you want farmers to do? Do you want to go back to low productivity methods like a 2 row corn planter pulled by the H Farmall??!. Geez. You will double food prices overnight going back to old methods.
Considering Agri-business are amongst the worst of corporate bad citizens, it is vital that they not be allowed to suck more control of the world's food supply. The article above starts at the right place. Also, if you're about to start your urban farmer project, patronize local nurseries instead of the garden department of Home Depot, Lowe's, & Wal Mart, if possible.
wilmoor - diatomacious (sp?) earth for slugs, marigolds - maybe eventually raised beds?
The aesthetics and science of localvores is a pleasure to see. More!!
Anyone know if asperagus could be grown in a whiskey barrel half and then summer veggies be planted on top of it after it's harvested?
I have two barrel halves and am considering ways of getting the most from the space. My yard is granite, and two inches down is literally rock.
I was thinking about the gardens several people have mentioned, and wondered what kind of pest insect/slug control they plan to use.
So many meat eaters think they must eat meat because it's our protein source. I've always thought that way, but have also never had much interest in meat, or food in general for that matter, but health issues now make it important that I have a well balanced diet. It's been quite a trip trying to figure it all out.
Someone mentioned eating in season and doing without during off season. I grew up eating fresh from the garden in summer, and the rest of the time from what my mother canned. Might be time for us to return to that nearly extinct practice.
There's lots of beautiful food to grow. For instance, some lettuces, 'Bright Lights'swiss chard, multi-color bell peppers, purple cauliflower, unusual summer squash, asparagus, assorted berries and fruits, and lots more. If you have green space, you can eat your beautiful landscape.
Kelmer:
Have you ever seen a monkey eat a lizard in the wild? I have. Sadly, and I don't want to start a veggie v.s. non-veggie debate, we are hunter gatherer by nature. Although, my wife and I rarely eat red meat anymore, mainly fish and poultry.
I have seen what cow production has done to the rainforests of Central America, and the Redwood forests of Northern California, and that has to a significant degree turned me off from beef.
The only thing I can add to this article is "Eat Seasonally". If you eat fruits and vegetables when they are in season, and avoid them when they are not, more than likely the crop will come from closer to home.
If you eat grapes in august, they're probably from California, if you eat grapes in february, they're probably from Chile.
Ramsay
"TurnOffYourTV-We've been reclaiming our backyard, bit by bit, every year. Not all plants and trees are edible by humans, but all are native and benefit my garden."
Recycle1,
Sounds like permaculture. I'm learning about it too.
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/
One way is to follow Wendell Berry's advice and "eat responsibly." When we purchase food we should ask: "Where does it come from? How was it made? What chemicals were used? Methods of slaughter?"
**well one shouldnt even have to ask about methods of slaughter if one is trying to eat responsibly. You shouldnt be eating anything that bleeds and screams anyway. Completely unnecessary.
There is absolutely no way-mathematically speaking, to sustain a meat diet for large numbers of humans without factory farms.
If you put them on pasture land you destroy soil and rivers and slaughter wildlife(yellowstone Bison, wolves). And factory farms are hell(though small farms are just concentration camps for enslaved animal species--Pythagoros, Tolstoy and George Bernard Shaw didnt have factory farms when they became vegetarians.
Advising people to just cut back on the meat or buy it locally will not solve the problem. Just dont buy it.
TurnOffYourTV-We've been reclaiming our backyard, bit by bit, every year. Not all plants and trees are edible by humans, but all are native and benefit my garden.
Eggplant is beautiful in a flower bed.
I attended a speaker series last week on local eating, with a panel. One woman in the audience and asked how she, living in an apartment below poverty level, could afford the local, sustainable, organic food that she knows she should be eating, when the cost is so high. It's an excellent question. The answer is complicated, but the woman did learn that our farmer's market participates in WIC and possibly takes food stamps. Also pointed out was to look at cost of packaged versus "natural" foods. Potato chips cost more than potatoes, kind of thing.
Plant your lawn, make every plant, bush and tree edible.
Local is the only way to survive.
Hoa binh
The Earth is all we have. Our womb, our mother, our tomb. We are being bad children. Kayoniskaatsi (sp). We must bring balance, harmony back. And I don't mean a couple of choruses of Kumbaya and a fair trade whatever. We must completely restructure what we do, how we do it - and we must change what we want (=our focus). I'd rather have a forest than a jacuzzi - or even a car, if I could do what I have to without one.
Same should be true for ANY local business over trans-national corporations - like Wal-Mart for example.
Axworthy writes:
"Most of all we need an alliance between the city and the farm...One way is to follow Wendell Berry's advice and "eat responsibly." When we purchase food we should ask: "Where does it come from? How was it made? What chemicals were used? Methods of slaughter?...Industrial agriculture has brought us mad-cow disease, soil erosion, pollution by toxic chemicals, depletion of aquifers, animal abuse, and long-distance transportation of food stuffs. This model must be transformed into sustainable agriculture."
**************
Yes, yes, yes--just this kind of action could...
reduce the amount of energy required per calorie of food.
allow food producers like farmers and ranchers to increase their earnings from the money others pay for their crops.
allow people in town or on the farm to develope a closer- knit community of common interest.
bring everyone back into harmony with the natural and seasonal cycles of that part of the earth they occupy.
One of the policy changes that is a must to consider is a graduated property tax. i.e. the more you own the greater rate of tax. Right now, with a profitability in the industrial agriculture sector at a high point, the record margins get pushed over to the cost of land. Thus making it impossible for the young to start up farming. The policy system as it is tends towards bigger. The reason property rarely get sold to someone new in farming is so little of the cost of producing food is in property tax for the larger farms. The policy should properly tend toward small and local.
Dear recycle 1.
Do you have poke weed? pigweed? purslane? That should be good for another few weekends.
My son (aged 9) went looking for poke at a local park last night, to supplement what we had in our yard. Together with some morels that a neighbour gave us, in exchange for tomato plants, we had a fine meal.
best of luck foraging.
Sadly the experience of victory gardens in WWII does not fill people like me with a great deal of hope for the future, but we must keep trying.
2 books that are a MUST to read about food
Mark Winne's 'Closing the food gap'
Raj Patel's 'Stuffed and Starved'
Also Check out Kitchen gardeners International (www.wegrowfood.com)
kman2 April 27th, 2008 3:44 pm
"Modern ag has made corn yields (U.S.) go from 60 bu/acre in 1960 to 180 bu/acre in 2007 with a huge decrease in labor. We've had incredible increases in agricultural productivity. Demand is now catching up. The low hanging fruit (so to speak) for increasing farm productivity is gone. What do you want farmers to do? Do you want to go back to low productivity methods like a 2 row corn planter pulled by the H Farmall??!. Geez. You will double food prices overnight going back to old methods."
You don't take into account (likewise most who defend modern ag methods) the total cost of food production with modern ag methods. If you factor in the costs of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, the cost of running the huge machines, the cost of transportation (to wholesalers and then retailers), and all the other external costs, you would realize that the REAL costs of the food we eat from big ag are actually much more than what we pay at the supermarket.
There is no way modern agriculture could be cost efficient (and it isn't) without huge federal subsidies. And, guess where the money for those subsidies comes from?
In a wonderful article (link below), Michael Pollan (author of Omnivore's Dillema and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto) wrote: "Growing food, we forget, comprises the original solar technology: calories produced by means of photosynthesis. Years ago the cheap-energy mind discovered that more food could be produced with less effort by replacing sunlight with fossil-fuel fertilizers and pesticides, with a result that the typical calorie of food energy in your diet now requires about 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce."
Clearly, modern agriculture is unsustainable. Defending it makes no sense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html
My husband and I horrified the teenage daughter when we were out in the garden this weekend. There she sat on the deck, doing her best to be sulky, when what does she see? Us picking some lamb's quarters and eating it. There is no greater joy, than getting a rise out of your teenager.
lexington-we do have pigweed, not sure if I have any purslane. We're very careful to only pick the "weeds" in our yard-they spray the park grass.
We also have a cold frame that the kids have been picking baby spinach out of and snacking for the past week. This time next week, we'll be able to have a nice salad from the spinach and swiss chard in it.
kman2: You will double food prices overnight going back to old methods.
The "new" "green revolution" agriculture methods rely on cheap fossil fuel which is no more. And even if there were more, the "new" methods are still more expensive when you add up all the externalized costs. Externalizing, hiding, socializing, the costs is the great "laissez-faire" capitalist racket designed to addict people to the capitalist's commodities, to control people. It's a complete violation of the basic assumptions underlying functional markets - this has been known for well over two hundred years, and probably much much longer. We should get full costs into the retail prices of everything. Then the people can easily choose what is in their best interests - their economic and their social/environmental interests will reinforce each other for a change. Food will be more expensive because we won't be dumping fossil fuels into it, but cheaper because we won't be paying the capitalist's destruction and plunder taxes.
wilmoor, asparagus is perennial - lasts for years. Perennials are great of course cuz you don't have to replant them every year. Runner beans are said to be perennial for a couple years at least.
Wilmoor,
Our yard is floored in cement and walled in cement. We plant in large flowerpots. The largest flowerpots are discarded bathtubs rescued from the side of the road. Right now, our garden is growing beans, squash, corn, tomatoes, spinach, strawberries, green peppers, basil, mulberries, and many non-edible plants. We also have two humanure compost piles walled with discarded pallets. All of this is in an area smaller than most 2-car garages.
When I get the seed and a deep enough bathtub, I will start an asparagus patch.
The last issue of Consumer Reports featured lawn care products. I wrote to them and said that we should re-think lawns, which came into fashion on the estates of cool, misty England and Scotland. In our varied environments, lawns use up scarce water and dump herbicides, pesticides and artificial fertilizer into the ground water and beyond. I suggested the magazine should start exploring how to landscape with native plants. I got a very enthusiastic letter back from an articles planner at the magazine.
The article and the comments here on CD have lots of inspiring ideas for growing food in small places such as lawns. This would require a change in values and esthetics and often rules and regulations in many communities. But if would be worth it as a responsible way of living and also for how richly beautiful it would be to see eggplants and asparagus beds in between native grasses and groundcovers. And fruit trees and berry brambles. Weeds like sorrel are delicious. Even dandelion greens are good to eat, and so cheerful looking. Moderate amounts of work in a garden can be fun for kids.
It is foolish to stick with the esthetic of sterile uniformity when we have an opportunity to feed ourselves a lot better and do a little part in easing the serious world food problems, which will continue to worsen unless changes are made on many fronts.
I hope you will write to magazines like Consumer Reports, Architectural Digest and House and Garden type publications with your ideas for growing food on lawns.
For us city dwellers, the farmers' market here it the ticket and takes WIC. I believe I have also seen them take some special vouchers that are given to elderly poor. The farmers' market is wonderful. There are just not enough of them and not enough small family farms. Both merit sponsorship and support of communities and government.
One of the best things to grow for the most food and the least trouble is zuchini squash. Only a few plants will take care of all a family needs of that type of food for months. My wife makes all kinds of delicious recipes that are some of the best tasting food there is in my opinion. There are casseroles, bread, cake, and all kinds of pan mixes. It seems to improve anything it is used with.