Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
It was one of those things that you can’t quite believe is real. I was flipping through a magazine and saw an ad for a stove that burns corn kernels. For heat. Corn is food, not fuel, I thought, but the ad assured me that “Corn is replenished annually. It is a never-ending energy source, and thus is the new alternative fuel of choice.”
An open forum on the implications of the terminal decline of global oil production will be held just outside London (Hackbridge, Surrey) on Saturday July 16th 2005 from 10am until 5.30pm. Hosted by the UK ‘Peak Oil’ campaign group PowerSwitch.org.uk, the event will give many people already aware of ‘Peak Oil’ the opportunity to develop their understanding further.
Decades of an “environmental bubble economy” built on the over-exploitation of natural resources has accelerated global warming, environmental degradation, depletion of water and oil, and brought falling crop yields, precipitating a crisis in world food security with no prospects for improvement under the business as usual scenario.
Discovering an affordable and cleaner burning alternative energy source has long been the dream of industrial chemical engineer Robert Manurung.
Food is energy. And it takes energy to get food. These two facts, taken together, have always established the biological limits to the human population and always will.
A major international conference on “Food Security in an Energy-Scarce World” is planned for June 23-25 in Dublin, Ireland. The conference will seek to answer the question: “How can the world’s population be fed without the extensive use of fossil fuels in the production, processing and distribution of food?” [The impressive list of participants is now available.]
From farm to plate, the modern food system relies heavily on cheap oil. Threats to our oil supply are also threats to our food supply. As food undergoes more processing and travels farther, the food system consumes ever more energy each year.
The EU has banned the import of US corn feed. The new embargo has further strained a trade relationship already tense over genetically modified food, Airbus subsidies, and the weapons embargo against China.
More than 16 per cent of the European Union’s land is affected by soil degradation, but in the accession countries more than a third is affected, according to the first Soil Atlas of Europe, published last week.
A two hour radio show featuring an interview with Julian Darley of the Post Carbon Institute and a presentation on the ‘New Agrarianism’ from the First National Conference on Peak Oil and Community Solutions by Charles Stevens.
I see food as a powerful unifying force in society, it has been so throughout our history….
Food is the vehicle, community is the destination.
I look forward to the day when farmers claim their rightful place in society as the first line of defense in our health care system and are properly compensated for their work.
Worldwide production of essential crops such as wheat, rice, maize and soya beans is likely to be hit much harder by global warming than previously predicted.
