After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, A year of food life by Barbara Kingsolver, I resolved to eat as much locally grown food as possible. The book is a memoir of a family living off what they could grow or buy at local farmers markets or directly from producers.

This week a bill was introduced in the Senate that would make it easier for those of us living in Colorado to get really yummy foods from small producers. Senate Bill 11-258, sponsored by Gail Schwartz is designed to facilitate retail access to low-risk foods produced by small farmers—everything from fresh eggs to yummy jams and jellies to pies and tarts.  It also encourages schools to develop a farm-to -school curriculum, encouraging kids to eat fresh fruits and vegetables.

This bill removes some of the regulatory burden on food producers who sell less than $5,000 in product annually direct to consumers out of their home, at a farmers market, or at a food stand at the place of production. The product must contain at least one food item grown by the farmer in order to qualify for these relaxed regulations. The produces must also be trained in safe food handling.

Growing and eating locally grown foods is good for our local economy and good for our belly. Foods that go directly from producer to consumer are fresher and more nutritious. They also use less fuel to get them to market, thus minimizing their carbon footprint.

This bill will be heard first in the Agriculture Committee of the Senate. Committee members are Senator Schwartz, Chairman; Senator Jahn, Vice-Chairman;  and Senators Brophy, Giron, Grantham, Guzman, and Harvey. Let’s get our elected officials on board! Call Steve King and ask him to support this bill.

Contact information: 303-866-3077 or steve.king.senate@state.co.us

Homework

Senate Bill 11-258

Although it is an issue I think about frequently, I have not spent much time exploring food security on this blog. I’ve been interested in the topic ever since I was a kid and a report came out of a club in Rome that suggested that if the world didn’t start practicing birth control, it would be unable to feed the people who populate the orb.

Things haven’t improved much since 1972. As Americans we’ve gotten used to fresh produce year round that comes to us from all over the planet. According to a 2008 report, America imports 79% of our fish and shellfish, 32% of our fruits and nuts, and 13% of our veggies. We are pretty dependent upon foreign sources of food despite having the resources to grow our own. Importing food is the most expensive way to get it—just think about the fuel used to get it to market. Every bump in the cost of oil and gas increases the costs of fuel.

There are other factors working against food security. We don’t have the resources to inspect much of the foreign food—less than 10% of it is inspected before it hits your table. Today there is a story about millions of dead fish with neurotoxins in their system destined to become fertilizer for food. Food only grows if there is enough sunlight and water to sustain its growth. As suburbs are taking more and more of Colorado’s water supply, farmers are increasingly seeing fields dry up—to the extent that agricultural experts are predicting the end of Colorado’s agricultural industry. The agricultural industry that exists today is dependent upon foreign workers (documented and undocumented) for almost every aspect of the production of food from the day of planting to the day of harvest.

And then there is the trend to produce food products that have a longer shelf life through genetic engineering. With consumers demanding that food look pretty, we are losing the diversity of plant types that could be important in the event that one preferred plant type is threatened by a pest—beetles or fruit flies or virus or bacteria.

I think our food supply is insecure, and it is time for us to start talking about it.

Homework

Optimistic and Pessimistic Models for Food Security

2008 Report on Food Imports

Millions of Dead Sardines Destined to Fertilize Food

Colorado Farmland Goes Dry

Bonus Read: Opinion Piece About Halting Natural Gas Development Until Water Supplies are Secure

When I last wrote about the crisis in Egypt, I mused that it was different from Tiananmen Square in that the media being used to organize protestors in China was fax, but in Egypt the internet, specifically Facebook and Twitter were being used. Well, it turns out that I was optimistic about the ability of social media to thwart the information crack-down of governments. Egypt turned off the internet. And people went back to the old technologies of fax and ham radio. Where there’s a will, there is a way.

Some of the faxes going into Egypt are copies of Wikileaks documents about Egypt. In another story in the news today, Hillary Clinton has called for a summit of U.S. ambassadors. Reports suggest that between 180 and 260 (different reports, different numbers) ambassadors have been summoned to Washington by Clinton for a first ever meeting of its kind. The agenda is reported to be a discussion of Wilikeaks impacts on foreign policy, events in Egypt, and ways to cut foreign aid in the budget.

Already the events in Egypt are driving up the price of oil, as markets become nervous about the world-wide distribution networks. On Friday crude oil hit $90/bbl, an increase of 4.3%, suggesting that oil at the pumps will be significantly higher this summer. Politicians in Washington have gone back to their respective corners, with Republicans chanting “Drill, Baby, Drill” and Democrats clamoring for increased investment in alternative fuels. I’m hoping that this crisis doesn’t make us forget the importance of protecting our clean air and clean water while we scramble to react to energy insecurity.

Driving the market jitters is the fact that Egypt is home to two important distribution points, the Suez Canal and the Sumed pipeline. The Suez Canal carries $1.8 million barrels of oil products daily, and the Sumed pipeline carries 1.1 million barrels daily. Adding to market nervousness is the proximity of Egypt to other oil producing nations, which actually produce more oil than Egypt, and could be subject to similar protests because of their repressive regimes.

 The Mid-East is a powder keg, ready to explode in ways we haven’t witnessed in over 30 years. To the credit of both parties, the leaders in both chambers of congress seem to be standing shoulder to shoulder with Obama and Clinton as they find their way through their foreign policy decisions. Hopefully they will be able to calm war mongers, both foreign and domestic, and keep our supplies of fuel secure until we can move toward greater independence from oil imports.

Just as the Egyptians discovered that they needed to find new ways of communicating when the government interfered in freedom of speech, the US needs to stop retreating to comfortable corners of ideology and start talking about energy (and by extension) food security. (Don’t you just love surprise endings?)

Homework

BBC Reports on the Use of Old Technologies in Egypt

Clinton Calls For Ambassador Summit

Egypt Unrest Ignites Oil Market Fears

Carbon Footprints

Food Security