Purpose of article 

The world, in 2011, is experiencing shortages of food; resulting in higher food prices. Food shortages are expected to trigger food wars, riots, starvation and food related illnesses.  This threat of food shortages has spurred interest in growing food at the local level. 

One way to deal with anticipated food shortages and expensive food is to grow food where people live.  This article documents and collates information about growing food locally. 

 Introduction 

The world food system, especially United States, has changed substantially over the last fifty years.  This is in part due to more than 50% of the world’s population now living in cities, and the numbers are growing.   Article by UCLA: Sustainability is mo longer active.

How and where we grow food has also changed in the past 100 years. For example, in 1870, 100% of the apples consumed in Iowa were produced in Iowa. By 1999, Iowa farmers grew only 15% of the apples consumed in the state.   Article by Hill: Food miles is no longer active.

Another example of how our food system has changed:  Despite being the nation’s largest food producer, California currently imports more than half of its food. According to the International Society for Ecology and Culture, 43% of California’s raw farm tonnage is exported, and 59% of our state’s demand for raw farm products is brought in from elsewhere. Ironically, California imports many of the same agricultural products that it also produces for export, resulting in duplicative trade and wasteful use of resources.  Article by Blythman: Cost of food miles is no longer active.

Another reason for a food system change is due to a global economy, where the food industry has centralized and the food supply has become concentrated in the hands of fewer, larger suppliers. For example:  over 80% of the beef packing market is controlled by 4 firms; 4 firms control 80% of soybean processing and the top five food retailers sell 42% of America’s food (in 1997 it was only 27%). Article by Univ Michigan Fact sheet is no longer active.  NSAIS: local foods  Article by Tabb: global food crisis is no longer active.

Centralizing the food supply has resulted in making food available the year round in rich countries like Canada, United States and Europe. Food, like avocados from South America, apples from New Zealand, cherries, lettuce and broccoli from Chile are all flown at an increased price during the winter months.    Article by Ecoshock: growing insane is no longer actice. However, the bad side of such a food supply system is that it has caused a great disparity in the food supply available to the poor and rich countries of the world.

For example: The average disposable income spent on food, beverages, and tobacco ranges from 17% in high-income countries to 53% in low-income countries. On average, Americans spend less than 10%, while Nigerians spend 73%. Article by Univ Michigan: Social Development is no longer active.   The point being made here is that people in rich countries can afford to buy foods imported from outside of regional, state and even national boundaries at  consistent products at low prices, while people in poor countries simply do not have money to buy expensive food from outside their countries.  Consequently, people in poor countries face starvation and death while people in America face lower nutritional quality and higher food prices.

 Food crisis ... Everything peaking at same time Chaos: 

There is an astounding lack of awareness and understanding that the world appears to be reaching peak water, oil, economic and food crises .... all occurring at the same time.  Article by Tabb: global food crisis is no longer active.  There is a real threat of devaluation of US monetary purchasing standard occurring at more or less the same time that food, water and oil shortages are occurring. That these crises are happening at the same time throughout the world is an event unprecedented in the history of the world. This situation poses an imminent threat to food security and political stability:  Brown: Food bubble collapse   Article by Univ Michigan: Social Development is no longer active. 

• Today more than half of the world’s people live in countries with food bubbles.  Brown: Food bubble collapse 
• Estimates are that between 1 and 2 Billion people in the world are now starving or malnourished.  Article by Dreamer: world facts is no longer active.
• 40 percent of the world — more than 2 billion people — have no access to clean water or sanitation.  Article by Dreamer: world facts is no longer active.
• If however, the oil peak is real and the world has not switched to an alternative form of fuel before this time, peak oil could possibly trigger a global recession, food shortages and conflict between nations over dwindling oil supplies.  Article by Dreamer: world facts is no longer active.
Rising food prices: Between early 2007 and 2008, world wheat, rice, corn, and soybean prices climbed to roughly triple their historical levels.   Brown: Food bubble collapse

This peaking of crises all at the same time triggers the need to think about surviving in a futuristic world of consumer shortages and possible chaos.  One way to survive is to ensure a steady supply of food by growing food locally.

 Food bubble about to burst: Food Riots January 17, 2011: 

There are food riots going on around the world. People are burning stores in India, Chili, China, Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria.

People will put up with a lot — corruption, nepotism, cruel laws, and barbaric prisons — but they tend to lose it when they can’t afford food. This is especially true when they blame the ruling class for their misery.

Food riots in the past have ended reigns in France, Russia, and British India. Today [ 01/17/2011]  the Egyptian stock market sold off on fears the riots might spread.  DeHaemer: food riots 2011

Lester Brown, an agricultural policy expert and founder of the Washington- based Earth Policy Institute, warnsthis week, in both his book and a new article in Foreign Policy, that the "food bubble" may be about to burst; laying out why there is good reason to believe that the new year, 2011, may be disastrous on this front. Brown: Food bubble collapse Consider Brown's comments below:

"But whereas in years past, it's been weather that has caused a spike in commodities prices, now it's trends on both sides of the food supply/demand equation that are driving up prices. On the demand side, the culprits are population growth, rising affluence, and the use of grain to fuel cars. On the supply side: soil erosion, aquifer depletion, the loss of cropland to nonfarm uses, the diversion of irrigation water to cities, the plateauing of crop yields in agriculturally advanced countries, and .... due to climate change — crop-withering heat waves and melting mountain glaciers and ice sheets. These climate-related trends seem destined to take a far greater toll in the future.

Already, there are reasons to be concerned: food riots in Algeria, soaring wheat prices in the United Kingdom, an 18 percent inflation rate on food prices in India, and the Mexican government trying desperately to fend off rising corn prices in order to prevent a recurrence of the so-called "tortilla riots" of 2007, among others.

Last week, the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization reported that food prices hit an all-time high in December—higher than even the spike between 2007 and 2008, a rise that caused a global food crisis. There are many reasons for the spike, and unfortunately, two of the major ones aren't getting better any time soon. The first is population: We gain 219,000 fellow humans every year. Sometime in late 2011, we will number 7 billion as a global population. (See our population special for more.) The rate of population growth has slowed, but we're pretty much guaranteed to keep expanding.

The second reason is equally intractable: Many of the current environmental factors driving constraints on food resources, including heat waves, drought, and severe weather, are only going to get worse as the climate changes. This is on top of the water resource depletion and soil erosion that were already underway. And unlike previous rises in food prices, there is probably no turning back from this one. "We can no longer expect that things will soon return to normal, because in a world with a rapidly changing climate system there is no norm to return to." 

Rising food prices serve as a powerful reminder that we humans are inextricably linked to our environment, and when it suffers, we suffer. It's also a reminder that development and environment issues cannot and should not be treated as separate from food. As Gawain Kripke, policy director for Oxfam America noted last week, unless we address both the underlying issues of both climate and development, "we will find ourselves perpetually on the knife's edge of disaster."  Sheppard: food bubble bursting

 Today's Food System in USA, Canada and the World: 

 Article by Univ Michigan Food system Fact sheet is no longer active.

Our food system is particularly energy-intensive and vulnerable to fluctuations in energy prices. These energy prices are not included in the real cost of food.

North Americans enjoy a diverse abundance of cheap food – spending a mere 9.8% of disposable income on food. However, store prices do not reveal the external costs – economic, social, and environmental – that impact the sustainability of the food system. Considering the full life cycle of the U.S. food system (graphic above) illuminates the connection between consumption behaviors and production practices.  Article by Univ Michigan Food system Fact sheet is no longer active.

 Speculation on Wall Street:   Another overlooked aspect of the cost of food is Wall Street speculation on the food supply. Speculators are gambling on the future cost of food, thereby indirectly also causing a food shortage in the world.

Until deregulation, the price for food was set by the forces of supply and demand for food itself. [ This was already deeply imperfect: it left a billion people hungry. ] But after deregulation, it was no longer just a market in food. It became, at the same time, a market in food contracts based on theoretical future crops – and the speculators are driving the price through the roof.  Hari: Stock Market impact on Food prices   Eli Brown: SPECULATING IN HUNGER

 Hidden costs:   But the biggest affect on cost of food is the hidden and covered up cost of food production and distribution. According to Lester Brown, our market-based economy is not telling the truth about the real costs of fossil fuels supporting the growth of food.

 Hidden energy use within the food system. 

The graph below projects the cost of energy used to provide food.

Source: Heller and Keoleian. Life Cycle-Based Sustainability Indicators for Assessment of the U.S. Food System. 2000.
Article by Univ Michigan Fact shee is no longer active.   Article by Blythman: Cost of food miles is no longer active.

While studies vary, a typical estimate is that the food industry accounts for 10% of all fossil fuel use in the United States. Of all the energy consumed by the food system, only about 20% goes toward production; the remaining 80% is associated with processing, transportation, home refrigeration and preparation.  Article by Hill: Food miles is no longer active.

The energy consumed in a system is often a useful indicator of its sustainability. Modern agriculture and the food system as a whole have developed a strong dependence on fossil energy. We generate much of our electricity for refrigeration from fossil fuels.

In many ways oil powers the world. It powers our transportation systems and our commodity distribution systems. If the price of oil goes up, the price of EVERYTHING, including food, goes up.  A realistic way to fight the impact of fossil fuels on the cost of food is to grow food locally; thereby lowering the transportation and refrigeration costs. 

Food miles:

It has been shown that local food systems do reduce food miles, which in turn tend to reduce energy consumption; but there are exceptions. But ... it also depends on the kind of local transportation used. Air freight emits more greenhouse gases per food mile than any other mode of transport. Big trucks are second in emitting greenhouse gases and emit more pollution than smaller trucks. The table below compares the distance cost of locally grown foods to imported foods.

Food mile distances for local versus conventional produce

Food sold in U.S. supermarkets averages some 1,500 miles from farm to plate--a 25% increase from 1980, according to Worldwatch Institute, a Washington nonprofit.   Smith: 100-mile diet  Article by Hill: Food miles is no longer active.   Article by Blythman: Cost of food miles is no longer active.

What is localized agriculture? A new trend in the global food supply is decentralizing how we grow food and how we plan cities. Cities are planting surrounding streets and open landscapes "green;" thereby making cities more habitable and sustainable. Growing food locally [ localized agriculture ] has many advantages over food grown "air miles away" in a distant country. Local food reduces the number of "food miles" between farm and plate, and helps to keep agricultural profits in the local economy.

This means that farms and farmers grow their food locally and also sell their produce and food in the areas in which food is grown within their region. Localizing agriculture helps local economies improve by keeping the money local, buying local produce from farmers in your area and creating jobs locally. Localizing cuts down on the transportation, refrigeration and storage costs of shipping food around the country.

 Localization of Food Growing Trends: 

Growing food in your local community includes all of the following trends that sustain food availability for people during good and bad times:

 Buying local food: 

Many schools and universities are now making a point of buying local food because it is fresher, tastier, more nutrient-rich and it fits into new campus greening programs. Supermarkets are increasingly contracting seasonally with local farmers when produce is available. For example, in late 2010 Walmart announced a plan to buy more produce from local farmers for its stores.  Some year-round food markets are evolving a supply of only locally produced foods, including not only fresh produce but also meat, milk, cheese, eggs, and other farm products.

Upscale restaurants emphasize locally grown food on their menus.  Jaffe: profitable roof gardens    Article by Mohn: Hotel roof gardens is no longer active.  

 Home gardening  [ back yard ] was given a big boost in the spring of 2009 when First Lady Michelle Obama worked with children from a local school to dig up a piece of the White House lawn to start a vegetable garden. There was a precedent for this: Eleanor Roosevelt planted a White House victory garden during World War II. Her initiative encouraged millions of victory gardens, which eventually grew 40 percent of the nation’s fresh produce.

 Victory [ home ] Gardens:  Example San Francisco, Ca..2008 is a program of Garden for the Environment and the City of San Francisco's Department for the Environment. A two-year pilot project to support the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into organic food production areas, Victory Gardens 2008+ derives its title from, and build on, the successful nationwide Victory Garden programs of WWI and WWII. "Victory" is growing food at home for increased local food security and reducing the food miles associated with the average American meal.   Article by San Francisco victory gardens is no longer active.

Many cities now have home garden projects like the one in San Diego, California.    Article by Sterman: homegrown San Diego is no longer active.

 Community Gardens:   Many cities and small towns in Canada, United States and England are creating community gardens that can be used by those who would otherwise not have access to land for gardening. Providing space for community gardens is now seen by many local governments as an essential service, like providing playgrounds or parks.

  School gardens  are another welcome development.

Illustration on right is an example of an innovative urban garden on the roof top of a school in Manhattan, NY. 

Illustration on left is a school garden in a Chicago school. 

 Market Gardening:  Market gardening is the commercial production of vegetables, fruits, flowers and other plants on a scale larger than a home garden [ one to two acres ], yet small enough that many of the principles of gardening are applicable. The goal, as with all farm enterprises, is to run the operation as a business and to make a profit. Market gardening is often oriented toward local markets  Article by Bachmann: Market Gardening is no longer active.

 Roof Top Gardens:  High rise buildings the world over are building roof top gardens as a way to grow food locally and to also provide energy savings. 

Hotels are going local, establishing partnerships with area farmers and growing food in rooftop gardens. They are catering to travelers seeking to eat healthily on the road.  Article by Mohn: Hotel roof gardens is no longer active.

 Sustainable City Movements: 

Urban gardens are gaining popularity throughout the world.

Many cities are passing ordinances that support local food production and discouraging importing of foods from far away places. Canadian cities have started the movement to local food production.  Eight cities in Ontario have set strict limits on how far food can travel, before appearing in a "Farmer's Market". Gone are the long-haul truckers pretending to be local farmers. The big city of Toronto, and surrounding cities, are looking at their "food-shed" and how to encourage local growers.  Article by Ecoshock: growing insane is no longer actice.

Anne Arbor, Detroit, and Flint Michigan are also doing winter farming, Elliot Coleman, and more local food growing. There is a large and growing number of Farmer's markets in New York'  even deep in the poorest neighborhoods, where fresh vegetables were almost non-existent previously.   Article by Ecoshock: growing insane is no longer actice.

Many more cities, like Los Angeles, Seattle and San Diego, have also initiated movement to" small is beautiful!"  Many other European and Asian countries [ China on left ] likewise have also started similar movements. Jaffe: profitable roof gardens   Article by Ecoshock: growing insane is no longer actice.   Article by Sterman: homegrown San Diego is no longer active.

The whole idea is to plant food, trees and shrubs to help a city feed itself, and food gardens especially for the poor. 

 Changing eating habits:   There is also an awakening cultural trend about sustainable eating habits.  An American living high on the food chain with a diet heavy in grain-intensive livestock products, including red meat, consumes twice as much grain as the average Italian and nearly four times as much as the average Indian. Adopting a Mediterranean diet can cut the grain footprint of Americans roughly in half, reducing carbon emissions accordingly.   Brown: Food bubble collapse 

 Hypocritical Politicians:   Michael Pollan, professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, has hit the nail on the head with his comments about lack of real political support for fixing the food system: