Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
The hedge fund manager who bought a farm
Paula Hawkins, Times (UK)
Investors are buying a slice of the countryside to make the most of rising food prices
—
The cost of farm property looks likely to soar as traditional British “lifestyle farmers” are joined by multimillion-pound investors hurriedly moving their wealth out of stocks and shares and into farmland. Across the world, hedge fund managers, property developers and other investors are turning their eyes to places such as Russia, Argentina and Uruguay, where farms are thought to be underdeveloped and provide an opportunity to profit from the rising prices of staples such as wheat, barley and oil-seed rape.
Britain is likely to feel the effects because our farmland is cheap by Western European standards. Marc Duschenes, of the property company Braemar, hopes that the surge in grain prices will persuade hard-pressed British farmers to sell their land.
(1 February 2008)
Realism Needed on Biofuel Future
Anthony Gibson of the NFU Responds.
Anthony Gibson, Western Morning News via Transition Culture
Introduction by Rob Hopkins of Transition Culture:
I wrote recently about the event in Wadebridge I spoke at with Anthony Gibson of the National Farmers Union which explored, among other things, biofuels, organics and localisation. In the interests of balance and on throwing more light onto the different perspectives that were aired that night, and offering a different perspective, here is Mr. Gibson’s regular column in the Western Morning News.
“Not a week seems to go by these days without some report or other being issued branding biofuels as the very spawn of the devil or their ineffectiveness in reducing carbon emissions, or their impact on food prices, or the environmental destruction that is supposed to follow in their wake.So when I was asked to speak at a public meeting in Wadebridge last week on the subject of how agriculture can successfully adapt to the decline in oil production, I approached the biofuel situation with some trepidation.
It had occurred to me long before I got to my feet that this was an audience which was unlikely to warm to an enthusiasm shared by George W Bush.
But I was still taken aback by the sheer hostility of the response, when I broached the subject. Not even a tentative endorsement of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) attracted quite the onslaught of critical comment as did my heavily qualified defence of biofuels. Whatever the opposite to flavour of the month may be, biofuels are it.
I find this slightly odd, given that biofuels are virtually the only renewable alternative to oil in transport fuels, that they do (so far as I can see) yield genuine savings in CO2 emissions when compared to petrol and diesel, that environmental safeguards can and are being applied to how they are grown, and that higher food prices may not be such a bad thing. Besides, if you are looking for ways in which agriculture can successfully adapt to a decline in oil production, they can hardly be ignored.
(1 February 2008)
Vibing on Vertical Farms
David Room, Stardust Localizing
I am smitten with the idea of vertical farms. Its still early so I won’t be surprised if it turns out to be infatuation. But at this point they look quite intriguing.
Often the peak oil luminaries lament about the fate of cities after oil production goes into significant decline. Often it is noted that it takes six to ten units of energy to grow, process, and distribute each unit of food energy. What will people in urban centers do for food when the industrial food systems begins to unravel due to soaring oil prices? A number of my colleagues have expressed the belief that to some extent major population centers will eventually be depopulated and especially those in the Southwest that do not have arable land or significant water resources – think Vegas and Phoenix. These cities are thought to be a lost cause to some, even many of those in the ecocity movement which strives to transform the built environment in urban areas.
The other day I saw the article Vertical farm rises in Las Vegas. Don’t get me wrong – I am not advocating for a sustainable Vegas. But the notion of vertical farms is fascinating as a possibility for urban areas especially those that may not have access to much arable soil despite the first model (that I know of) being in the ground zero for unsustainability.
(31 January 2008)
Round-up and discussion. Appears on a blog covering “The Localization Conversation in the [San Francisco] Bay. One of several blogs by peak oil and localization activist David Room. -BA
