Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Post Cheap Energy: Food From the Backyard


As an ad-hoc/occasional member of the Green City Growers team, I'm clearly interested in the concept of local food production. I've also taken an interest in the concept of peak oil, not so much for the "end of the world" elements that some might believe in but because of the re-localization of our economies that it will hasten. Seems that the former Chief Strategist of CIBC World Markets Jeff Rubin agrees. In his new book "Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller" Mr. Rubin spends some time on the future of food in a world made smaller by expensive shipping fuel. On page 221,

Where is the food of the future going to come from? Your own backyard. That shift in food supply is already starting to take place. An increasingly carbon-conscious and energy-conscious food consumer in North America is already clamoring for more homegrown food. Not only does replacing foreign food with local food save energy, but in the process it reduces carbon emissions - a double win in an economy that not only had to contend with triple-digit oil prices but that will soon put a price on burning oil as well.

Seems like Green City Growers is on the forefront (along with many other organizations like Growing Power, Farm Fresh Rhode Island, BALLE, Slowfood, etc.) of a post cheap energy food infrastructure.

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