The Good News and the Bad News
Sharon June 17th, 2008
I think we all know what the bad news is. You can see a first-hand view of it at my friend Matt’s site, where he’s been describing life in Cedar Rapids during the floods. I know that some of you have first hand accounts as well.
Early this year, two different market analysts predicted corn rationing in the face of rising ethanol and meat consumption. Another agricultural expert essentially said that famine was inevitable unless we had record harvests in all major producing regions. Well, guess what’s not going to happen? I have to admit, I’m completely in agreement with this gent over at Daily Kos and with Kunstler (for once 
) that the reverbations of the Midwestern flood through out a host of systems are going to be problematic.
And it isn’t just the floods in the US Midwest – there are the floods in rice producing regions of Southern China, the Australian Drought, the Drought in California and more. Meanwhile, the increasingly shrill voices of the ultra-orthodox freemarketeers continue to say “No subsidies, no tariffs, nothing we can do here but decrease the surplus population.”
Of course, that is complete and utter bullshit. There is gracious plenty food to go around, and so those who argue that we shouldn’t subsidize, shouldn’t try and create local food sovereignty, that we should keep investing in the bankrupt globalized food market are unblinkingly and casually condemning the starving to death. Never do we hear them call for less meat, fewer biofuels, restraint of appetite. Afterall, restraint is bad, human intervention in markets is bad, starvation, well…call it creative destruction.
There’s a fairly decent chance that we’re going to have a famine in hundreds of places all over the world, and hunger growing everywhere – including here – all for no reason whatsoever. At some point, people will grow so angry that other options, including local food security and just allocation of food will have to be explored, but we’re not there yet in the places that are powerful enough to change things.
I have to say, the whole thing makes me spitting mad. And there’s damned little I can do, except make you spitting mad, and get the hell of my car. I think the thing I want people most to remember is this – you and I aren’t different than the people who are being allowed to starve. That is, if they will starve them, they will starve you. But I dop’t know how to get that message out before it happens. The only good thing is that I don’t have to say it, your government is working overtime to demonstrate the truth of that statement.
Now the good news. The good news is that the Independence Days Project and my Food Storage classes are going to combine to become another book. I’m going to be focusing on the food crisis, and Food Indepenence and Preservation as a solution to said crisis. I think it is going to be a good book, and it will be enormously better from all the feedback I’ve gotten from y’all.
And, the book (tentatively called _Independence Days_) is going to include about a dozen profiles of other people doing the Independence Days challenge and trying to integrate food storage, preservation and local food into their lives. Guess where I’m imagining those profiles will come from…hmmm…. ;-). So I’m hoping some of you will volunteer to be profiled – I probably can’t use everyone who will volunteer (although I may take some extras and run them in my other project, the previously mentioned new food magazine _Hen and Harvest_) in the book, and I’ve already got a few of you in mind, but I’m definitely looking for more.
So if you want to be profiled, send me an email at jewishfarmer@gmail.com, and let me know where you are doing it, what you are doing, what your personal situation is! I think this is going to be a blast.
Also, I still have spaces in both my online classes, Food Preservation (July) and Adapting in Place (August). Send me an email to the above address if you’d like to participate – the July class will have a strong emphasis on preserving the harvest, season extension (ie, planting a fall garden and keeping it going through the winter) and storing in the context of the food crisis. The August class will focus in on making your yard feed you even in imperfect conditions, keeping warm/cool as prices rise, living a low energy life in a home built for a high energy one, community building, and getting along well no matter where you live. I think both are going to be fun! More details are here. I’ve filled the low-income spots already for both classes, but if you were hoping to take the class and can’t afford it, send me an email – if the class doesn’t fill up, I’ll donate the rest of the spots.
Actually there’s been so much demand for the low-income spots that I think sometime this winter I’m going to offer an “Adapting in Place” class that will include a food storage component, specifically for very low income households. That class will be free (but will include the same enrollment benefits as my other classes), and open only to people who are trying to get settled on a minimal income. So if you don’t get in this summer, I’m going to do a whole class on adaptation on the ultra-cheap. I’m not yet taking enrollments, just because I don’t know my winter schedule yet, but if you are interested, you can let me know in the comments.
I’m still pissed, but I admit, it helps to know that I’m doing at least what little I can – growing what I can, sharing what I can. I recommend it, just in case the bad news gets overwhelming.
Sharon
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There was, at one point, a popular psycho-economic theory (the name of which eludes me) that the emotional pain of suffering of a “rich” (such loaded terms weren’t used) person who “needed” a bigger house was equal to the physical (and, I assume emotional) pain of suffering of a “poor” person living on the street and wanting some sort house or hut. I wonder if there is something of this sort going on, and the writers assume that starving to death (and seeing one’s family starve) is the same as sort of thing as having to explain to your food secure family that there will not be beef burgers every night.
I’d love to be in the Adapting in Place class, but I can’t swing $100+ right now, and with what DH makes, I’ve got no business taking up a low-income slot.
I’m glad I got the urge to stock up when I did. I don’t think this summer’s buckwheat crop is going to be anything to write home about, but this is our first attempt at growing grains, so it’s not surprising that we’re not going to be any good at it yet. Gardens are always, “Oh, but wait until next year, next year it’ll be awesome!”
The amazing thing is Sharon, you are in your world doing amazing things to reach as many people as you can (and who will listen) to be better prepared. I know I take this word and speak it as far as I can and in ways I hope people can hear.
There is enough in the world, and to put a religous spin on it, the prophets of old said the same thing: there is plenty if no one takes more than their fair share.
I’m so glad the book is going to happen!
And I too would really love to be in the adapting in place class. Unfortunately, the dates don’t work for me–but if it runs again, I’ll be there.
That’s wonderful about another book, Sharon, congratulations! another book to look forward, too–so many books and so little time!
You are doing a good work with what you do, writing and your own experiences. I didn’t take the Food Storage class but i got an awful lot out of the postings that you had for anyone who wanted to read them.
the new classes I can’t to right now but I’ll be reading whatever I can of what you write.
Bless you and yours,
Shamba
I’m pissed right along with you Sharon!!! Every day I have to remind myself that all we can do is all we can do…
As an ultra low-income senior, I’d love to add my name to the list of those interested in the free “Adapting In Place” class. Thank you for thinking of us and offering this much needed service. I’m thinking that I might treat this as a CSE, or “Customer Supported Education” and try and send you like $10.00 a month for a year or something… would that be okay?
I’ve been saving my nickels for your two books… now there’s gonna be a third one! Brava!!! I’m so excited. They can’t come out soon enough, me thinks.
If you have any spots left over in the August class I’d love to be included there instead… the sooner the better. I believe that I have a lot to learn… and some to contribute too.
Blessings and bright sunny thoughts to you and your family.
Grandma Misi
Just what you need: another book to write. You can’t help yourself, can you? Well, thank G-d you’re a compulsive writer/helper of others. We need all the help we can get.
Speaking of which, I’m still working on my homework for the wonderful food storage class you gave, mainly because I can’t afford the equipment for food preservation. But I have totally changed the way I shop and eat, focusing on the bulk bins at the organic co-op and stocking up for a month instead of just a week. That alone is saving me money, so I should be able to start investing in equipment soon.
I would love to be part of your winter classes!
What was that about the new food magazine _Hen and Harvest_? Where was that mentioned? I searched but I can’t find any reference to this.
Wow, two ends of the same stick or what we make of it.
Years ago, I constructed a cob pizza oven. I cooked many great tasting roasts and breads until the oven fell victim to a very windy and rainy, long winter.
So, I learned that my former employer of many, many years had an outdoor cooking oven built. The price tags?
I had to buy a bale of straw and the gas to haul all that clay and sand I scavenged down by the beach cliffs.
Now, I did not see the oven my former employer had put in. It must be fantastic, but why spend 1/4 million dollars? I hope, this thing gets used. Maybe just a handful of the rich and famous will get a meal out of it?!
Oh yes, my son and I saw this guy with his dog walk by our house again. The twosome used to be regulars, but for some time seemed to have disappeared. My best guess is, the guy lives way below the government radar. Anyway, my son who turned me on to PO, commented, …you know, when shit hits the fan, it will barely make a difference to that guy with his dog.
The more I hear about politics and policies, the madder I get. The more I listen to the news, the more doom I see coming.
My son’s solution in his IT parlance: REBOOT
Mine, the tide is coming in. I go smelting. Psssst, still does not need a permit. What a miracle!
Pissed off as well and proud to be a peasant.
I enjoy all your writings, a big thanks!
@Becky
Wow! You hit the nail on the head with “proud to be a peasant!” That’s where I want to be and I’m not there yet but I am a minor noblesse oblige (with nobility comes responsibility). My lifestyle is so simple I earn more money than I can use so I’m using a large portion of it to fix up the building I live in owned by a long and dear friend. Everyone else who lives there is closer to peasanthood than I (all six adults and one child) so my contribution to community is working to make the building safer, warmer and more resource efficient. And I’m the major force behind all the vegetable and fruiting plant gardening (I also support Heifer International, the local food bank and anything that has to do with getting food to people in need).
And as Crunchy Chicken says, it just grinds my crackers that the corporate world continues to be so astonishingly greedy. Grrrr.
For my part I’m into the whole lead by example thing and should probably “come out” at work more than I have. They think I’m living an alternative lifestyle already so what’s a little more being obvious about it? The neighbors are also starting to notice how the yard is slowly changing into more and more planted areas (considering it used to look like a junkyard, their approval rate is high and climbing). More opportunities to engage in conversations and community building. That’s how I see changes happening, through these neighborly interactions. I betcha if all my neighbors were to act together, changes would be forthcoming. So let’s all keep talking to our local communities. Where communities lead, leaders will follow.
You’ll have to excuse me now, I’m going to go give a tomato plant to one of my neighbors.
Kerri in AK
For sure I am interested in the winter class for the ultra cheap AIP. Thanks Sharon, Your’e Awsome!!!
Something puzzles me about this model of “If only everyone was considerate and restrained then everyone would have enough and the world would be a wonderful place”. The immediate question it always calls to mind is, if this is a superior system then why has no-one ever gotten it off the ground? Surely if it is a better system it would be a competitive one in some way.
I suspect this kind of world would suffer from all sorts of instabilities. On a mundane level the connection between nutrition and epidemic disease comes to mind. Compare two populations:
A- A wide spectrum of people from over-fed (with strong immune systems) to underfed (with marginal immune systems)
B- A homogenous society where everyone is at exactly the same level of food and health.
When society A hits a drought/flood/crop failure/new plague it has a subsection of the society that gets hit hardest, and another that is less impacted. The net result is that the society retains a functional core to allow it to weather the storm and recover.
When society B goes through a similar process everyone is pushed to the edge at the same rate, meaning that when stresses are high enough the entire thing collapses in one big bang.
The inequality within human societies may well function like the biodiversity in an ecosystem, making it more resilient to changes. Until you really understand the reasons why the world is the way it is it is very dangerous to make predictions about how to improve it. Unintended consequences are the rule rather than the exception. Perhaps it is more satisfying and productive to maintain most of your focus on your own stability, then your families, then your neighbors, then your community, before finally worrying too much about what to do about the entire world.
Shane in Australia
Shane, you make a fair point, but there are also a large range of degrees along the spectrum, no? That is, comparatively few human societies have had as much inequity as this one – they couldn’t – the difference between the richest king and the poorest peasant simply couldn’t be as great – they didn’t have as many buffers.
I know of no research on whether more equitable or less equitable societies survive famine better – it would be a fascinating question to explore. I do know, however, that it is not the case that we’ve never gotten a much more equitable society off the ground – there are thousands of examples, including our own society 60 years ago. I think a better question might be what it is about the growth industrial model that overwhelms even societies with a strong desire to keep their culture intact.
Sharon
Good luck with your next project.
Don’t get so busy that you don’t have
time to enjoy the kids. Time passes
so quickly. How about a post on the
impact of PO on kids and parenting?
Thinking . . .
m
I’d love to be a part of Hen and Harvest (I love the name). With a flock of 30ish soon to grow by a dozn ish (plus about a dzn meat birds) in a couple weeks and the CSA hen and harvest discribes my life
.
Preserving the harvest is what I stuggle with. I get so tired working for others I tend to not get my preserving done. The strawberries are beautiful now and I think I’ll make jam tomorrow. I am going to try canning tomatoes this year have only ever frozen them.
CSA opens Sunday with the usual strawberries, few leaves of swiss chard, rhubarb, herbs. I don’t like the lean first few weeks I love it when there is tons of stuff ready
but alas we are a bit behind too much cool and wet weather in May early June.
Beth
We’re about to move to the other end of the world: from the arid Caribbean island of Curaçao to 19th century Brussels city center. Once there, we’ll rent a small apartment and start looking for a place that meets our dreams: a small house just out of the city, a lot of garden, a nice community… once we’ve found that paradise we’ll add chickens, some goats, perhaps a few rabbits and a lot of fruit and nut trees and permaveggies and then we’ll finally be able to live in the way we want: the DIY and GIY way!
But that will take some time. We’ve been dreaming about this for more than a year and still it’s some time away… frustrating, especially when you keep in touch with reality and see and hear about rising food prices, scarcity and PO.
Truck drivers in Europe are protesting everywhere because of high gas prices. $4 a gallon? How about 2,35 Euro’s for a liter (about a quart). That is, and has been, daily reality for a long time in Europe, but still people keep driving…
It reminds me of the literary fiction written at the end of the 19th century: decadentism it was called – it was about living your life easy and luxurious and having no clue of what was happening around you, until decay (mostly inner, moral decay) suddenly hit you.
History repeats itself, apparently.
Am on a fixed income and would be very interested in the cheaper winter class …thank you so much Sharon….Marcy