So in the last post, I alluded to how much more the food we purchased locally cost, and I would like to take a moment and explore the 'ugly side' of local food production.
Yes, I agree we need to support local agriculture, and that locally grown food is better in any way you care to measure, except for affordability to the end user (not including negative externalities).
The simple reality is, that if industrial agriculture 'hiccups' at all, in terms of it's ability to provide 340 million Americans, and 34 million Canadians with a steady supply of inexpensive food, things could get a little dicey.
To wit, the prices of some of the local food we purchased for Thanksgiving. Let's start with the Turkey, after all was said and done, it came out to nearly $3.00 per pound. Perhaps a bit more. Two weeks prior, Fortino's (probably the second most expensive supermarket in Hamilton) had frozen turkeys on sale for $0.99 a pound.
Industrial agriculture does many things poorly, including respecting the land, caring for animals well, paying farmers a living income, and keeping food safe; however the one thing it does exceedingly well is feed lots of people for relatively little money.
I have a friend in BC who's sister has 5 children. So she buys, and roasts, a turkey every month. To her, it's the most efficient way to prepare large amounts of protein at a time. I suspect she does a ham too. At $0.99 a pound, this is an option. At $3.00 a pound, they would be steadily treading down the path towards vegetarianism.
All of the other food we purchased that weekend for Thanksgiving was at a premium...a premium we were happy to pay in order to support local growers, whom we now count among our friends. We are, we realize, extremely fortunate to have that option.
My concern is that as fuel prices spike, and supply chains of refrigerated trucks become more and more unpredictable, the steady supply of inexpensive food could be threatened. Suddenly $0.99 a lb turkeys are a distant memory, and a loaf of bread (most of the cost of which is processing and transport...it contains roughly $0.11 of flour) becomes out of the reach of many.
Does anybody seriously think that Walmart's decision to sell more local food was out of a desire to support local farmers? Or maybe it was due to the fact that gas in some US localities is topping $3.20 a gallon, and their 'warehouse on wheels' is starting to look like a 'house of cards.' Securing contracts with local producers ensures that if there is a sudden oil shock, they're the only ones with full shelves.
Once again, I have more questions than answers, other than to reinforce the importance of people learning how to grow their own vegetables, and using meat as condiment most of the time, rather than the main attraction, or getting out of debt, or any of the myriad of things all the 'peak oil thought leaders' say you should be doing.
In the end, our city's resilience is going to depend almost entirely on the resilience of individual household. So let's get cracking.
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