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December 30, 2005
Continuing with agriculture
A couple of months ago, I met with a friend who manages an organic farm for a nonprofit organization in the Pittsburgh area to learn about community supported agriculture (CSA). He and his wife operate a CSA enterprise that they call Cherry Valley Organics (see http://www.cherryvalleyorganics.com/). They produce vegetables, herbs, and cut flowers for a group of subscribers. I found that the CSA community is quite a bit more extensive than I had imagined.
Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education offers a link to a state-by-state database of CSAs. Use this link: http://wsare.usu.edu/pub/index.cfm?sub=csa I count 68 CSA listings in Pennsylvania; a quick study indicates that few areas of the state are not within a CSA's reach. One of the larger ones in this part of PA, Spiral Path Farm (http://www.spiralpathfarm.com/) serves the counties around Harrisburg as well as Philadelphia, about two hours away.
Another incorrect impression about CSA was that they provide fruits and vegetables, but my Pittsburgh-area friend pointed me to meat producers who work in much the same way: serving a group of subscribing customers. Heritage Foods (http://http://www.heritagefoodsusa.com/) seems to have broad coverage. Slow Food Pittsburgh (http://www.slowfoodpgh.com/) offers a service that they call Laptop Butcher Shop, which allows consumers to place orders with producers of beef, pork, turkey, and lamb.
So the point is that an infrastructure has already been established for food production and distribution on a local scale. I believe it will be very important to preserve this infrastructure, and to encourage the growth of consumer demand, which should draw more small farmers into the market. Local agriculture is far less dependent on liquid fuel than big agriculture, so the cost of local food should increase less quickly than the cost of food brought from a distance. Local food producers will also constitute a very important element of a food security strategy. Petroleum and natural gas price increases will affect big agriculture by at least raising costs, and the price of food at the grocery store. Serious disruption of petroleum or natural gas supplies may make food delivery less certain.
Local food also means decentralized production and processing. Decentralized activities will be far less appealing to bioterrorists than the large processing plants that distribute throughout the country.
Posted by aquacura.com at December 30, 2005 04:58 PM
Comments
Thanks for the nod to Cherry Valley Organics (and we hope to launch our website by month's end!).
An article in the current (Winter 2006) issue of Small Farmer's Journal (www.smallfarmersjournal.com) is perhaps of interest with regard to agricultural production in the "post-oil" era.
The author (Noma Petroff) contends that "when you scrutinize the different alternatives [to petroleum] being proposed, you start to realize that the only factor taken into account by their proponents is whether it's techologically possible to implement them....[but] economic and social factors must be considered as well."
Petroff goes on to cite the Cuban transition (circa 1990) from petroleum-intensive to draft-animal-based agriculture as a model of sustainable, local-oriented food production and distribution, while noting that "there is an ominous dynamic between draft animal power and oil prices which could prohibit our country from adopting Cuba's solution, when the crunch comes to us." In other words, it may be more cost-effective to send draft animals (particularly bull calfs) to slaughter than it is to feed them, thereby removing them from the pool of available draft animals.
I'm intentionally skimming over the economic details of all of this, but it's a compelling argument, to be sure.
As a small-scale grower who endeavors to minimize the ecological footprint of his operation (and who also happens to be all thumbs when it comes to mechanical tinkering), it's easy to fantasize about a bioregion- or watershed- or community-based micro-economy that maintains a ready pool of draft animals that can be "farmed out" for production at other sites, a la a cooperative. Granted, it takes time and acreage to maintain a herd, but that, too, could arguably spawn a micro-enterprise.
Food for thought.
Posted by: Evan Verbanic at February 25, 2006 11:08 AM
Thanks for your comment, Evan. I agree that there is a discontinuity in the biofuels discussion, which does not include the need for US liquid fuel users to drastically reduce fuel use. The March / April issue of Sierra Magazine includes the following response by Bob Schildgen (Mr. Green) to an inquiry about biodiesel:
"But biodiesel doesn't go very far as a nationwide solution, and it's now so overhyped that it's become a pie-in-the-sky distraction from realistic energy alternatives like conservation. Even if we could magically change our percentage of conversion-ready diesel engines from small to all, U.S. drivers would still burn about 110 billion gallons of fuel a year. A major crop like soybeans produces about 50 gallons of oil per acre. This means we could plant every last inch of land in the Lower 48 with soybeans and still fall around 20 billion gallons short of our present of gasoline consumption."
Posted by: Dave Sheridan at February 26, 2006 11:54 PM