Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Our food system is woefully dependent on petroleum.Yet in the developed world, the food system may be one of the last to fail during energy descent. This isn’t to say that industrial, oil-based agriculture is invulnerable, let alone sustainable. But there are many reasons why our fears of a food collapse—particularly when they lead us to a go-it-alone, grow-your-own response—may be distracting us from focusing on more immediate and likely risks.
A weekly roundup of Peak Oil news, including:
-Production and prices
-Natural gas
-Carbon
-Briefs
Rod Dreher’s big idea: raise chickens
Corporate couple become permaculture activists
Will recession spark global food crisis?
Don’t throw out the biochar baby with the bathwater
Deadly Sins Taking Toll on the Earth
From Studying Chimps, a Theory on Cooking
10 Big, Really Hard Things We Can Do to Save the Planet
It is gratifying to know there are still Americans who, instead of wringing their hands at a possible problem headed their way, start figuring what to do about it. Self-reliant people are taking a look at what is happening in our financial world and wondering if it is time to plow up the backyard or that old horse lot and plant some food.
Ban Carbon Emissions, Don’t Price them: Why Cap and Dividend is the Best Approach
Why CEOs want carbon laws
Panama rainforest growing back?
“Lunatic farmer” Salatin in new film, Food, Inc.
Eating can be energy-efficient, too
Shrinking Your ‘Cookprint’
13 Breathtaking Effects of Cutting Back on Meat
On Globalization, Economics, And The History of Food Crises
All Better Now?
Retirement Dreams Disappear With 401(k)s
Real GDP and the Oil Shock of 2007-08
How much greenhouse gas comes from food?
Marijuana Advocates Point to Signs of Change
Just $6bn Will Save a Generation From Starvation, Says UN
Is conflict prevention “green”?
Lose weight to help the planet, researchers recommend
Are the Life-boats Sinking
D.C. Area Families Take Green to the ExtremeHow Green Is My Bottle?
The end is near! (Yay!) (NY TImes on the Transition Movement)
Why we forgot how to grow food (UK Times)
Homer-Dixon: A doomsayer, and a father, with a heart of faint hope
Are there demand limits to growth?
Why isn’t the brain green?
For a wide range of not-always-consistent reasons, people in Sandpoint decided that Transition could help them build the world they wanted. And now, only because enough people stepped forward and made that decision, Transition actually looked like a good tool for the job. They were picking it up by whatever handle they grasped. They were swinging it as earnestly as they could. (excerpts from an excellent article on the Transition Movement)
