In article , Charlie wrote:

On Sun, 09 Mar 2008 13:59:43 -0500, Charlie wrote:

On Sun, 09 Mar 2008 09:37:41 -0800, Billy wrote:

The second shoe has fallen. Make those VERY BIG gardens.

I should have added this too.

http://www.energybulletin.net/41270.html

Excerpt:

This is potentially a serious crisis, but it also represents an
opportunity. Sharp increases in the price of food mean that food
production methods that may not be economical under current conditions
could well pass the breakeven point and begin turning a profit. To
thrive in the economic climate of the near future, of course, such
methods would have to meet certain requirements, but most of these can
be anticipated easily enough.

These alternative farming projects would have to use minimal fossil
fuel inputs, since fuel costs will likely be very high by past
standards for much of the foreseeable future. They would need to focus
on local distribution, since those same fuel costs will put
long-distance transport out of reach. They would have to focus on
intensive production from very small plots, since acreage large enough
for industrial farming will likely increase in price. They would also
benefit greatly by relying on human labor with hand tools, since the
economic consequences of peak oil will likely send unemployment rates
soaring while making capital hard to come by.

All of these criteria are met, as it happens, by the small organic
farms and truck gardens that many relocalization theorists hold up as
models for future agriculture. Already a growing presence, especially
around West Coast cities, these agricultural alternatives have evolved
their own distribution system, relying on farmers markets, co-op
groceries, local restauranteurs and community-supported agriculture
schemes to carry out an end run around food distribution systems geared
toward corporate monopolies.

As more grains and other fermentable bulk commodities get turned into
ethanol, and food prices rise in response, such arrangements may well
become a significant source of food for a sizeable fraction of
Americans – and in the process, of course, the economics of small-scale
alternative farms are likely to improve a great deal. The result may
well resemble nothing so much as the agricultural system of the former
Soviet Union in its last years, featuring vast farms that had become
almost irrelevant to the national food supply, while little market
gardens in backyards produced most of the food people actually ate.

If Staniford is correct and the postpeak energy crisis turns out to be
a passing phase, that bimodal system might endure for quite some time,
as it did in the Soviet Union. If more pessimistic assessments of our
energy future are closer to the mark, as I suspect they are, the
industrial half of the system can be counted on to collapse at some
point down the road once energy and resource availability drop to
levels insufficient to sustain a continental economy. If this turns out
to be the case, the small intensive farms around the urban fringes –
mammals amid agribusiness dinosaurs – may well become the nucleus of
the next agriculture.

In my case, I'll be swapping vegetables for eggs in a win/win situation.

--
Bush Behind Bars

Billy
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/