Current factory farming practices are polluting soil and water and exacerbating flooding and soil loss. Overprocessed food is clearly making Americans less healthy. So called “green” energy projects and urban sprawl are removing about 1 sq. mi. of high-quality U.S. farm land from production every 5 days.
We hear much about increasing gas prices, but not so much about the impact of Middle East supply disruptions on diesel, which fuels farm equipment and the world-wide “food” distribution system. In Feb., Diesel was forecast to average $3.50/gal, but has now jumped by 30% to $4.78/gal. Food, when available, is likely to be more costly.
Recording: https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/An1JXpcQHXPGwRn-DHU2OUMYi2CMfbQDMt83ax8u52VEUiURv8aSGOa_H06iuTwC.7HL3D_M_45-dYCxQ?startTime=1773837500000
Slides:
March presenters:
Barbara Brown
Barbara was raised on a dairy farm during the post-dust-bowl efforts by the USDA to introduce farming practices that would reduce the possibility for future agricultural disasters. With SW WI farmers, she learned contour plowing, crop rotation, animals in fields and cover crops. She then spent 40 years in various roles in the fossil fuel and utility industries.
Andrii Zvorygin
Andrii is founder of LiberIT (Liberty Information Technology Services), which provides open-source IT systems for resilient communities. Andrii is also host of the Peak Oil Chat group, with expertise in possible energy futures, geothermal energy sources and regenerative agriculture. He has looked at scenarios for food system responses and social organization as energy is no longer available to support industrialized factory agriculture. Andrii is also founder of Lyis Food Forestry which specializes in high-quality potted edible and useful perennial, tree, and shrub seedling.
In the last 70 years, the art and profession of farming has been replaced by massive agribusiness monopolies. For an overview from the big business perspective, see https://youtu.be/HJX7QTeHrZs. As you listen to this summary, remember that farmers have become low-income peasants in this system. For more on agribusiness monopolies see Austin Frerik’s book “Barons”, which describes 8 food industry monopolies from Driscoll berries to Hansens’ hog CAFOs to McCloskey’s Fair Oaks dairy “theme farm”.
Farming practices designed to prevent another dust bowl have given way to industrial monocultures and feed lots, producing commodities for international markets. Affordable, unprocessed local food is now an expensive luxury, even in rural areas. There is an increasing probability of price disruption and shortages of diesel, which powers farm equipment and fuels the world-wide “food” processing and distribution system. Simon Michaux has a fascinating study of what might happen to Hawaii if they phase out fossil fuels if you’d like a review of the implications. Barbara will take us through some of the following trends:
- Agribusiness monopolies creating an over-industrialized food system
- Loss of soil, loss of farm acreage, aquifer depletion and contamination of soil and water
- Climate fluctuations driving flooding and drought and disrupting seasons
- Increasing scarcity of energy and raw materials and disrupted supply chains
As we saw in 2020, disruptions in food processing and distribution quickly resulted in food shortages. Dairy farmers dumped milk as processing plants closed. Farmers had plenty of livestock for sale, but meat processors were closed, breaking the supply chain for retail meat.
Andrii will take us through possible socio-political responses to food supply disruptions, providing us with choices on both a personal and societal level.