Oil and Food

Most of us know that we need to use fossil fuels to power our cars and houses (unless of course you use Solar Power), but many people are not aware that almost all non-organic foods use fossil fuels to help them grow. This is in the form of nitrogen based fertilisers as well as petroleum based pesticides. This has been one of the key reasons the global population has been able to expand so rapidly and remain fed over the last century. Further, as most food is also not eaten very close to where it is farmed, we also require additional fossil fuels to process, package, refrigerate and transport our foods.

Another interesting point that many people may not know, is that we are now at the point of “Peak Oil” – which basically means we have used up more oil than we have left, and most of that has been consumed within the last 50 years. Many industry experts predict that we are going to run out of oil by the end of this century.

Taking into account our reliance on fossil fuels to get food onto plates all around the world, in addition to the world’s ever-expanding population, you may be asking “What are we going to do when we have run out of oil?” Good question – although I think a better question would be: “What can we do to break this dependence right now?”

The good news in all this doom and gloom, is that there are many ways to break this dependence when it comes to food, and a lot of them are relatively easy:

· Buy as much organic produce as you can – yes it’s more expensive. But it’s also better for you. And when thinking about cost – ask yourself: What is our planet worth to you?

· Buy locally where possible – there are dozens of farmers markets in almost every city and town in the country which allow you to buy direct from local farmers and get great value for money

· Try and avoid heavily processed and packaged foods – especially those that come from overseas.

· Buy what is in season – if you’re buying fruit or vegetables that are out of season, then you can assume they’ve been transported into the country from overseas. As humans we need to stop expecting that we can have WHATEVER we want WHENEVER we want it and go back to thinking about foods as seasonal.

· Ideally - grow your own food – and grow some for friends and family if you can.

· Start a conversation – chat to your friends and colleagues about the many benefits of going organic.

We are incredibly lucky to be living in an era with so much choice, and choice can be a wonderful thing. But as the only guardians of the planet, I feel we have a responsibility to understand the impact our choices have, and to then choose accordingly. If you’re reading this – then you’re off to a good start!

Until next time,
Danin

For further reading on the above topics, you can find many interesting books and DVD’s at www.todae.com.au. Some to look out for are: The End of Suburbia DVD, Crude, Hungry Planet and Eating Fossil Fuels.

Comments

[tiff]

We want to have a vege garden so that we can teach our son how Mother Nature works, and of course to provide ourselves with healthy vegetables to eat. But it's a little trickier than we thought. We have water restrictions in Orange (one hour per week, on a Sunday), so we're looking to use our shower/bath water for the vege patch. There is only about a metre of fall between the bathtub and the vege patch, and the water has to go up about a metre and out through the window before dropping down again. We've tried siphoning but it's just so temperamental to get started and we only get a trickle at the other end. I thought we could just get a water pump from a water feature, but none of the local staff at Bunnings seem to know enough about it to say whether it will work or not. Is there a product out there for this job?

[Organic Foods]

Buying organic foods is not expensive at all but help to live longer and healthy.