Sharon Astyk, one of my favorite bloggers, has another wonderful post on Peak Oil and how it will affect food production. There is little doubt that we're at or near peak oil. Denial is not an option, at least it's not a sensible option, if you have a family to care for, or even care about yourself.
Peak Energy and an Overview of its Implications for Food.
Then I was looking at her co-author's website, and came across this post:
Confessions of an Outlaw Chickener. It's a fun read, as well as a practical one. He mentions one of my hot buttons: the U.S. Farm Bill.....
Anyone who looks at the food industry up close in this country will undoubtedly come away angry. Sure we've given up our control over what we eat. That is, we were on watch over the years as multinational corporations came to dictate what we eat. But take a spin through the US Farm bill and I can't imagine you won't come away completely pissed off. It's corporate welfare straight from the mouths of a government that seems not to concern itself with the fact that more than 35 million American live food insecure in this country. 72% of the billions of dollars Doled out in the farm bill go to the 10% largest companies growing 5 crops: corn, wheat, soybean, rice and cotton- in virtual lockstep with the processed food industry.
I'd say the first thing we need to fix in this country is the cozy corporate welfare embedded in the farm bill, but that's not easy to do. We don't have flocks of highly-paid lobbyists swarming over Congress. Maybe what we need is flocks of low-paid chickens in our yards, small flocks, eating bugs and laying eggs for our breakfast. And we need to take back our food supply from these companies (you know the names). The ones getting billions of taxpayer's money, YOUR money. So--grow local, raise local, buy local, eat local.
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I did it! Last fall, we got a few chickens (I called our city zoning--they allow three, no roosters), and we have our own eggs. They do eat some commercial feed, but mostly they "pasture" themselves in our back yard, eating grass, bugs and whatever they find. It is so rewarding to know what they are eating, how they are treated, and to go out and get eggs every day. I recommend it to anyone!
Also, I love that we have a garden that is big enough to provide much of our own food. I can't tell you how rewarding it is--again, to know where your food is coming from! And to know you are eating it the day it was picked or laid. Wow.
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