Food security demands concentration and conservation

Food security is another of those things that demands our concentration and conversation.

Solutions to a collision of circumstances appear scarce, but answer them we must and subsequently we need to gather and talk how we ensure our food supplies.

Nourishment in all its forms, particularly food, is elementary to survival.

Writing in the introduction to “Rebuilding the Foodshed: How to create local, sustainable, and secure food systems”, the director of the Post Carbon Initiative, Asher Miller, said: “In the twenty-first century, we face a set of interconnected economic, energy and environmental crises that require all the courage, creativity and cooperation we can muster”.

That trio of values is to be found in community; not the community flippantly referred to in contemporary times, rather it is that place with a deeper sense of belonging, of ownership, an understanding that your survival is intertwined with where you live, how it works and how it connects with your food supply.

Being somewhat Shepparton-centric, then what is happening here is simply a more expanded version of what is happening to other towns in the area, our sprawling neighbourhoods are eroding what was rich and productive farmland, and the infrastructure inherent to their function.

Standing on the cusp of an era in which oil-rich industrialized farming will be disrupted and ultimately disabled, we need to be preserving those food-productive pieces of land that are either within towns or nearby.

It is short-sighted in the extreme to take rich food producing land, pave it over and use it for housing which accommodates only a few people per hectare and is wholly dependent upon oil.

Rather than spreading endlessly toward the horizon, we should be working to consolidate our towns, take a lesson from an oil-starved Cuba of late last century, and aim to secure what food we can from within town boundaries using community gardens, any open space, back and front yards and even town parks as places to grow food to feed ourselves.

Using the Australian developed processes of permaculture, the Cubans were quickly able to produce 70 per cent of their vegetables within the boundaries of their towns and cities.  

Most of the food on your dinner-table tonight is there because of oil, including, incidentally, the table itself, and the sooner we can figure out how to feed ourselves without such an unhealthy reliance on this vanishing fossil energy, the better.

Colliding circumstances, among them our changing climate, water scarcity, a burgeoning population, and the loss of the earth’s topsoil and so arable areas, insist that we act to secure our food supply.

That is “what” we need to do and so we should gather and figure our “how” we do it.

The 'Responsible men' talk, but miss the point

The “Responsible men” gathered in Shepparton last week to consider national and global food security.
FoodbowlUnlimited and The Global Foundation combined to auspice what they deemed “a significant public conference” to benefit people ranging from your neighbour to others throughout the world.
Speakers featured Australia’s Federal Minister for Agriculture, Mr Joe Ludwig, who kept his talents well-disguised, and Visy Industries executive chairman of, Mr Anthony Pratt, who gave the keynote address.
Most conference attendees held significant influence in our communities and because of that were positioned to make decisions about the unfolding of our world, here and overseas.
Corporate and private agendas were obvious on Tuesday and it is unlikely any participants left with a sense that the security they sought was to be found in something quite different from what was advocated.
The business as usual paradigm is broken and the security discussed on Tuesday is not to be found in repeating what has obviously not worked, rather it demands society’s re-shaping to permit the dispersal of wealth, opportunity and within that, social access and equity; in fact a steady-state economy.

Federal Minister for
 Agriculture, Mr Joe
 Ludwig.

A film recently shown in Tatura, watched by 13 people, clarified the catastrophe of industrialising our food system, while Tuesday’s talks, in essence about the maintenance of that broken structure, attracted about 170 people, including a Federal Government Minister.
The urgent need for growth that sustains our corporate world has resulted in many sins, but corporate propaganda portrays those iniquities as societal benefits, but in reality they about enriching a few while marginalizing many.
Contrary to that, a steady-state economy is grounded in equity and access seeking sustainability, quality and wealth distribution in everything it does as opposed to the ultimately destructive and unsustainable binge on quantity that began in the industrial revolution and reached its zenith in the 20th century, but has begun to unravel in the past decade.
Tuesday’s conference had the honourable intention of searching for a way to ensure a reliable and ongoing food supply, but seemed to overlook, or purposely ignore, ideas that could solve the challenge.
The solution is in the creative destruction of what exists leading to a whole new way of doing business that is not solely about profit and growth.
The emphasis must be on doing things on a human scale avoiding the present distorted measure of success that clearly is quantitative as opposed to qualitative.

Stone must tackle the coming famine and the many 'peaks'

Civilization and anarchy are only seven meals apart, according to a Spanish proverb.

Journalist, science writer and author, Julian Cribb (right below), used this thought to introduce his new book, “The Coming Famine”.

Saturday’s events illustrated that democracy is still functioning in Australia suggesting that anarchy is remote from the thoughts of most, but few are truly hungry.
However should we listen to Cribb, as those in a packed auditorium at the University of Melbourne did earlier in the year, many are poised to begin missing those meals.
As Sharman Stone begins her fifth term as the Member for Murray, she enters an era in which she, and everyone else for that matter, needs to become appraised of, understand and react to the many “peaks” that threaten humanity and makes its survival to the end of this century problematic.
The famine Cribb elucidates evolves from a host of shortages, among them water, which is something that those behind the Food Bowl modernization project are attempting to counter.
However, the impending famine is not just about water, everything about our behaviour, including waste, needs to be considered if we are to avoid, as much as we can, a troublesome tomorrow.
Climate change, an undeniable reality as evidenced by recent world events, oil depletion, a shortage of arable land and a burgeoning population collide to worsen our situation that demands more of a reaction than simply changing your light-globes.
We wait for direction, and so empowerment, and that first must come from the new government, whatever shape it takes, but should that not be forthcoming then we begin the journey through the four steps suggested by Australian Conservation Foundation President, Ian Lowe, - that being discontent, a new vision, viable pathways and commitment.
Food security is the essence of democracy and the discontent Lowe points to is brought on by hunger igniting the commitment for change and maybe anarchy. Ms Stone should ensure her voice is heard in Canberra and so convince her peers that the Murray Electorate, along with the rest of Australia, will be best served by addressing climate change, food security and the collection of “peaks’ they are colliding with.

The idea of food security and the coming famine resonate

Food security and the coming of a certain global famine resonated with about 300 people on Wednesday night (May 14).
They packed into the Elisabeth Murdoch Theatre at The University of Melbourne to hear author, journalist, editor, communicator and principal of Julian Cribb and Associates, Julian Cribb (left), discuss “The coming famine: risks and solutions for global food security” in the 2010 Dean’s Lecture Series.
Visit Science Alert, the website of Julian Cribb and Associates to read what he said on Wednesday in Melbourne - here is the link.
The presentation illustates what Julian said on Wednesday night, including the illustrations that help explain, in a pictorial fashion, what he was describing.