Nine (missed) meals away from anarchy

This is why things like turning lawns into gardens and raising hens in urban areas matter. A lot.

Nine meals from anarchy?

Richard Cornish meets the man known as the Al Gore of food security.

HE LOOKS more like a genial uncle than a harbinger of doom, but the UK Soil Association's Patrick Holden visited Australia recently to deliver a sobering message. . . . Sometimes referred to as the Al Gore of food security, Holden warned that if the west doesn't focus on shoring up food security it could leave itself open to a food crisis.

"Think of the global credit crises," he says. "Well, in 10 to 15 years we could see something similar happen with food, a sort of global food crunch. This would have far worse consequences than this financial crises ... In just a few generations we have burned almost all our reserves of fossil fuel and pumped the gas into the atmosphere."

Holden refers to the fact that almost all the food in the Western world is grown using oil. Tractors and harvesters run on diesel, chemical pesticides are made from oil; fertilisers are either made directly from oil or mined from rapidly diminishing mineral reserves.

He also describes a global food production and distribution system that uses oil to transport food not only around the world but within national borders.

"We rely so much on oil for our food that if something were to disrupt that supply, such as a political incident like we saw recently when Russia cut off gas supplies to Europe this winter, terrorism or war, then our food stocks would run out.

"We must also consider that we have reached peak oil production and it's just going to get more expensive from now on."

A report by the Soil Association refers to the 2000 fuel protest that brought London to within three days of running out of food. The first head of the Blair government Countryside Agency, Lord Cameron of Dillington, came back with a chilling report: "The nation is just nine meals from anarchy."

Holden wants governments around the world to tackle what he calls an "emergency in the wings".

"I look around Sydney and it's obvious. The city has engulfed so much arable land, its farming land and now the food has to come from so much further away. It's the same for all Australian cities."

He says governments should consider putting plans in place to achieve sustainable agriculture that doesn't rely on oil and chemical fertilisers, and to grow staples close to where people live.

He points to organic farming not just as a way of farming sustainably, but also of sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. "Our practice of using nitrogen fertilisers is oxidising our soils," he says.

"The nitrogen burns the carbon and this goes up into the atmosphere as CO2."

When asked if his claims might just be a way of scaring people onto the organic bandwagon, he says: "I am not apocalyptic. But yes, I want to see more people farming organically. What is at stake is our health and the future of the next generation."

Holden sees a need for a bottom-up movement where people put pressure on governments to address food security. . . .

Food & Sustainability Book Group forming

LOVESalem visitors can look into joining a "potluck and books" group being organized by a local sustainability advocate, Melissa A, who is a real asset to our little city.

The first meeting will take up the very well-reviewed and popular book by Barbara Kingsolver, a gifted writer, called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Well ladies and gentlemen, I've composed a survey page on SurveyMonkey.com to gather your responses as to when we should hold our first monthly book discussion & potluck. The book we will discuss is: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.

You are getting this invitation because you've recently participated in a discussion group (i.e. Menu for the Future), wish you had participated, participated in one in the past, or are perhaps a food-conscious person who wants to socialize and join this group :)

Here's the link you need to access in order to cast your input:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=AqDCWJY9DUUX6J0GP9Hbow_3d_3d

Cheers,
Melissa

FYI - You can forward this to your friends who might be interested in attending, the survey is not restricted to just the e-mail address I'm sending this to. AKA, spread the word!

If you want to participate, complete the survey (link above) and you can contact Melissa at community.dreamer@yahoo.com

Kids Bicycle Program in Salem

A recently appointed member of the Cherriots Board sends this encouraging message:

The Salvation Army in Salem has started a bicycle repair program to teach our residents and children some skills. They have also donated the repaired or reused bikes.

Anyone interested in volunteering, donating bikes or repair tools, money, or finding out more about the program may contact Chaplain Dan Reichman. His cell phone # is 503-999-0179.

--Kate Tarter

Word: Amusing Ourselves to Death

"[Americans are] probably the best entertained and least informed people in the world," Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., said Friday at the BuiltGreen Conference in Seattle, noting that we know more about the decline of Britney Spears than we do about global warming. It was one grim truth among many that he shared with the audience of architects, planners, and green building folks.

See you April 18!

Grand Opening of the
Union Street Railroad Bridge
Saturday, April 18, 2009, 10 a.m.

Riverfront Park (North End)

Presentation, ceremony, bridge parade, entertainment for the whole family and refreshments.

Parking available at Wallace Marine Park and Riverfront Park.

[Sadly, Cherriots no longer operates on Saturday, so you can't catch a bus to this event. However, ideally there will be great weather for biking.]

Where the money goes

PRISON SPENDING GROWTH TOPS ALL BUT MEDICAID

NY Times - One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study. Criminal correction spending is outpacing budget growth in education, transportation and public assistance, based on state and federal data. Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending, which quadrupled in the past two decades, according to the report by the Pew Center on the States, the first breakdown of spending in confinement and supervision in the past seven years. . .

States have shown a preference for prison spending even though it is cheaper to monitor convicts in community programs, including probation and parole, which require offenders to report to law enforcement officers. A survey of 34 states found that states spent an average of $29,000 a year on prisoners, compared with $1,250 on probationers and $2,750 on parolees. The study found that despite more spending on prisons, recidivism rates remained largely unchanged.

It would be in Salem too, were Cherriots not cutting back

Washington Post story on the nationwide surge in transit ridership.

3/9 -- CITY Round 2 at Salem City Council

Be there to support urban chickens! Because hunger is returning to America:

Food bank representatives agree on one thing: the need for their services is spiking in a way none of them can recall. Again and again, they emphasize that lines at food pantries are growing longer, seemingly by the month, and that those in line are younger and often more middle class than ever before.

Families who just months ago didn't even know what a food bank was and would never have considered visiting a food pantry now have far more intimate knowledge of both. Embarrassed to approach institutions that they previously identified with the poor and indigent, many, say food bank officials, are also waiting far too long to seek aid. Other formerly middle class Americans who have never dealt with, or even thought about, food insecurity before simply don't know whom to call or where to turn.

These points echo a December 2008 survey conducted by Feeding America, a national hunger-relief charity. Its network of more than 200 food banks in all 50 states distributes more than two billion pounds of donated groceries annually to 63,000 local charitable agencies. Its survey found that, of 160 food banks, 99.4% of them reported seeing more first-time users in 2008.

For America's food banks this has meant one thing: that they, too, are needier. They need ever more fresh food, non-perishable food, and non-food items like cleaning products and toiletries from wholesalers, retailers, food distributors, corporations, charities, government agencies, local farms, and individual donors. They need ever more storage and freezer space. They need ever more volunteers. They need ever more food that can be made available on appointed distribution days at food pantries. And they need ever more emergency food supplies, available on demand for people who suddenly realize that they are hungry and out of options, possibly for the first time in their lives. . . .

Even as Americans who once might have donated food or money now find themselves in need, people still have the urge to help as best they can. At one West Coast food bank, a representative told me of a man who recently came in with a proposition. He needed six weeks of food assistance while he was putting together the money to travel across country and move back in with his parents. Until then, he suggested, he would work for the food bank to pay his way . . . .

But that communal spirit can only take food banks so far, given the troubling trends on the horizon. According to Valanti, large foundations are reviewing their "decimated portfolios" and trimming donations, leaving organizations like hers wondering what the future will bring. In fact, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank's subsidiaries are already struggling to obtain needed grants to secure new freezers to store food for the increasing number of nouveau needy. At the same time, she points out, food donations are actually down in her area, while the organization's food purchases have increased by an astonishing 560% in the last two years . . . .

Tens of millions of Americans were already suffering from hunger and food insecurity before the current depression. In fact, in 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that 35.5 million Americans were "food insecure." Now, however, those numbers are bound to swell, thanks to the growing ranks of America's nouveau needy. "It's the new face of hunger for us. Before we primarily served the low-income population, the working poor, as people call them," says the San Diego Food Bank's Chris Carter. "Now middle class families who were in retail jobs, construction, the real estate industry… are finding themselves in our lines. Some of these people are those who would have donated food to us before, who would never dream they'd be in one of our food lines, and now they need help."

From his conversations with clients at the food bank's distribution sites, Carter sees bleak times ahead, especially for the staggering number of people who have, as a last resort, been maxing out their credit cards. "We've seen the credit crunch on Wall Street and the ripple effect that it's had on more vulnerable industries across the country. I think there's going to be a credit tightening at the consumer level. When that happens we're going to see a huge surge in demand," he said recently. "This is going to get worse before it gets better."

Such prospects will spell trouble in the years ahead. The Federal government is now pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into bailing out broken banks. If hunger and need continue to skyrocket, food banks may be the next banks to break. Who will bail them out?

Uh-oh -- a shoe poised to drop on Salem Center's head

Salem, by the standard of American smallish cities, enjoys an enviable downtown, with its beautiful old buildings preserved and a reasonably lively streetscape at night. It's dead in comparison to some much larger cities, but plenty of others are even more dead than Salem at night.

But it looks as those the retail collapse -- the end of the line for the "shop 'til you drop" mentality and the easy credit whirlwind -- could take out Salem Center's owner. The death of the landlord doesn't kill the tenants, but the tenants, especially the chain department stores are already struggling terribly, which means that Salem might have gaping vacancies in its downtown core within the next couple years.

One of the opportunities/challenges that groups like the Salem Transition Initiative for Relocalization (STIR) will face all over America is how to put dead retail spaces (both freestanding big boxes and downtown stores) to productive use.

As the consumer-driven economy runs aground, it's going to scatter a lot of flotsam and jetsam of empty stores that are peculiarly ill-suited for other uses, at least within the narrow range of thinking typically applied. We think in terms of replacing one failed tenant with a similar competitor, who refaces the building and continues on.

But in the world of tomorrow that's arriving today, the endless square miles of expensively lit and air-conditioned retail space surrounded by even more parking has little chance of success.

First of all, with the number of firms failing, it's going to be hard to find many Retailer B's to go where Retailer A's have failed. Secondly, the costs of operating those structures are already killing retailers now; when the effects of peak oil really kick in the low-margin retailers will likely not survive in anything like their current form.

Thus, people who are attuned to the problem now have a great opportunity: we need to start envisioning ways that former retail spaces can be reused in new ways. Obviously, anything with a big expanse of roof should be considered for rooftop gardens and distributed solar power production. How about housing? Can these spaces be used to house people inexpensively, despite the high ceilings? Is there a way to use these buildings to provide decent shelter?

Salem is likely to face some opportunities along these lines.

Mark this day: NYT Columnist Notices that "Mother Nature doesn't do bailouts"

Until quite recently, folks like Friedman were still all about the earth being "flat" and dreaming of endless growth, with a constantly increasing volume of goods and services winging their way around the world thanks to the wonderfulness of globalization.

But, give him credit, he has not only caught on to the fact that his little fantasy world is impossible, he is willing to rethink and recognize reality [mostly -- though he insists "we must have growth" still) in print before millions of people, which can't be easy.

The Inflection Is Near?
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

. . . What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”

We have created a system for growth that depended on our building more and more stores to sell more and more stuff made in more and more factories in China, powered by more and more coal that would cause more and more climate change but earn China more and more dollars to buy more and more U.S. T-bills so America would have more and more money to build more and more stores and sell more and more stuff that would employ more and more Chinese ...

We can’t do this anymore.

“We created a way of raising standards of living that we can’t possibly pass on to our children,” said Joe Romm, a physicist and climate expert who writes the indispensable blog climateprogress.org. We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.

“You can get this burst of wealth that we have created from this rapacious behavior,” added Romm. “But it has to collapse, unless adults stand up and say, ‘This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate ...’ Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.”

. . . “Just as a few lonely economists warned us we were living beyond our financial means and overdrawing our financial assets, scientists are warning us that we’re living beyond our ecological means and overdrawing our natural assets,” argues Glenn Prickett, senior vice president at Conservation International. But, he cautioned, as environmentalists have pointed out: “Mother Nature doesn’t do bailouts.”

. . . “We are taking a system operating past its capacity and driving it faster and harder,” he wrote me. “No matter how wonderful the system is, the laws of physics and biology still apply.” We must have growth, but we must grow in a different way. For starters, economies need to transition to the concept of net-zero, whereby buildings, cars, factories and homes are designed not only to generate as much energy as they use but to be infinitely recyclable in as many parts as possible. Let’s grow by creating flows rather than plundering more stocks.