If the local supermarket was unable to recieve shipped food what would you do? Is there enough local food in your area to support your community? Say within 100miles of where you live?

I'm asking because a friend of mine was talking about the price of oil potentially reaching $150 a barell, which would impact all aspects of modern life, especially in cities. Just something to think about, even if its just speculation.

I just got back from the market and bought: red and orange peppers (local), italian parsley, gala apples (South America), medjool dates(california), avocados(california). broccoli (local) and tomatoes(local), all certified organic and handled.

I'm trying to buy as much locally-available, if not actually locally-grown food as possible, including switching from almonds (california) to walnuts (pacific northwest), but unless I established a system of growing these foods in the winter, I would have to buy mostly imported or hothouse.

It's definitely not easy to eat local in the colder climates, but there must be ways of meeting most of our dietary needs if we want to.

these 2 poeple local to me (vancouver bc canada) did this thing called the 100 mile diet


check it out [www.100milediet.org] they did this experment for a year eating only within a 100 miles of home

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2007 08:04AM by Jgunn.

Very, very good question that I've been asking myself lately.

I think I could, but there wouldn't be the variety I enjoy now.

We have lots and lots of pecan trees as an example, but I've never in my life seen any other nut growing on its own tree.

But the vast majority of the foods I eat will grow in my state and the goal of eating as close to home as possible is one I'm definitely interested in working to incorporate into my life.

khale

I'd move to a tropical island where there are lots of fresh fruits and edible flowers, fresh water and friendly natives

Sounds good..maybe I'll do that anyway!

Love,
Prism

i'd have to dehydrate and pickle. cause winters in new england aren't exactly, um, fruitful.

but if i did that, i think i could live most of the year off of what we grow locally. in the summer, we buy all our veggies local, and if i could keep my apples year round, i would be quite happy. we grow enough apples, berries, greens, etc, to feed the majority of people. i don't know about all. of course, with the farms and the meat and grain eaters, i think we could actually do it.

it would take some adjusting, and some work figuring out preservation, but i believe it could be done. and right now we're doing our share to keep the farmers in business.

peace-

If I lived without shipped food I wouldn't be able to afford my diet. I'd be eating basil, rocket, spinach, some tomatoes, and maybe some berries and apples.

C'mon over here to Hawaii Prism!

But did you know that Hawaii actually imports over 95% of it's food? Crazy, huh? It's because people just don't eat right, and our whole society is based on the wrong priorities (IMO).

Here in Hawaii, we could all eventually support ourselves on what's grown locally, but more people would have to grow more food (just like everywhere else, except maybe New Guinea and Indonesia). Lots of food grows wild here - including avocados and coconuts - but not everything, everywhere, and not enough to feed everybody. Not right now. At least at first, things would be hard on everybody everywhere, including Hawaii.

Without the oil, jobs as we know them now would be scarce, and priorities would change, so people everywhere would have more time to grow food. But in the beginning, there wouldn't be enough food, and it would be hard for people and food to get together, since so much transportation is dependent on oil.

Things would be very different even here. People everywhere would start to pay more respect to the best coconut tree climber.

My husband and I would do pretty well right where we are, but we've been working on our place for a long time. If we could keep the hunters away from the wild pigs that @#$%& around our fruit and nut trees, we could feed a lot of people.

The best thing we all could do now is start planting. If we can consume, we can also produce, and when you think about it, that's really only fair. Besides, IMO rawfooders are potentially the best gardeners. Even if it's a community garden in the middle of a city. Even if it's a garden on a roof. And some of us may even feel the need to rearrange our lives a little so we can live in an area where we can grow more of our own food. At least enough to sustain ourselves.

And we might keep in mind too, that the more food we grow, the more others might some day depend on us for food also. It will be up to us all, no matter what our circumstances, to share whatever we have.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/2007 08:36PM by suncloud.

Good topic. It is very important to become self-sustaining as the future only holds more price increases and food shortages. The bleak outlook is the lack of variety in food availability and the proactive outlook is to become your own food provider via homegrown veggies, etc. I think I will buy one of those Foodsavers to start putting away rations for the inevitable. I hear we will need about 3.5 years worth.

Good luck to all. Therese

Opinion:

-Contrary to very mainstream belief....MOST things in nature are edible....and very few are upsetting to the digestive system.....and fewer still are sickening....and VERY few are outright toxic.....(although you can't vouch for the TASTE of a handful of pine-needles! ha! ha!).

-The fact is....if taste is not a major factor....and you live in a generally warm area (I live in Florida) then the idea that you COULD live if society collapsed tomorrow becomes ridiculous. Of COURSE one could survive. The only question is what level of comfort/comfort food do you feel you can or cannot live without! Ha! ha!

-For my own part: if all shipping ceased tomorrow....there would be PLENTY of food just in my little neighborhood alone to sustain me quite happily. It is a wonderful sense of freedom...I think.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

where I live as of now yes I could do it, but I understand that for many people, the raw diet would have to change. I used to live in once of the "rough climate areas" (born and raised there) and had that issue. You have to adapt to the seasons way more etc.

no goji berries??

no way!!!

I live on 2 and 1/3 acres I am able to cultivate a garden and hopefully learn to grow vegetables. I have a black thumb. There are lots of farms around here but I am not sure about the winter times and what to eat then. I could live without shipped foods.