Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
One thing about survivalism: it isn’t pretty but it can be fun if approached in the right frame of mind. Many people fear the possibility of survival in difficulties like we had. Yet they were not all that great a challenge if one felt strong of mind and body. I got up at 5 am to start the fires, bake the bread and feed the livestock before sending the boy and the husband out the door.
My favorite advice to homesteaders has always been not to do anything that can be put off until tomorrow because tomorrow you might not have to do it at all. Add to that the following: Don’t do anything that you can get nature to do for you.
U.S. eyes shift away from corn ethanol
Scientists advise halt to biofuels
Women farmers threatened by biofuels
Wheat, corn and ethanol fight for acres
An unlikely way to save a species: serve it for dinner
No easy access to fresh groceries in many parts of Seattle
Bush seeks $770 million more in world food aid
Israel and PO: Food troubles are here to stay
China: Dealing with a rice crisis
Sharon Astyk: Why food is complicated
NY Times: Shortages threaten farmers’ key tool: fertilizer
Vietnam’s farmers face paradox of the paddy
Scotsman: Global fertiliser shortage looming
Rethinking our food and fuel systems
Rob Hopkins: eco worrier
Totnes – their own currency
McKibben assesses environmentalism
Natural born survivors
Heinberg on resilient communities
UN chief warns of civil unrest amid world food shortage
Scientist: we need a new agricultural revolution
Suburbanites turn yards into cash with minifarms
Sharon Astyk’s food independence challenge
Afghan famine
Highlights from the 7th EcoCity World Summit
CNN covers Transition towns
New book: Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change
In spite of the monumental failures of Soviet agriculture, the overall structure of Soviet-style food delivery proved to be paradoxically resilient in the face of economic collapse and disruption. The combination of local food stockpiles administered by politicians conditioned to treat bread riots as career-ending calamities, the prevalence of government institutions that attended to the sustenance of their employees and plenty of kitchen gardens, meant that there was no starvation and very little malnutrition. But will fate be as kind to the United States? (Book excerpt)
Biotech bets on agrofuels
Colbert on ethanol and the energy war
Reuters: Cuba’s Fidel Castro warned of food crisis a year ago
Last big push for phosphate mining in Florida
More volatility in heated fertiliser market
Help phosphate-producing Western Sahara gain independence
Vietnamese fertiliser prices to rise this week
