Out of all of the things you could do to prepare yourself for hard times, I think having a “rainy day fund” is probably the most important. This point was really driven home effectively for us recently, when our dog suffered from a terrible injury and needed medical care (which wasn’t covered by pet insurance). Thankfully, since we had a good deal of cash saved up in an emergency bank account, we were able to weather the situation fairly well.
With the price of crude oil firmly perched above $100 per barrel, the resultant increase in the price of gasoline and other petroleum derivatives is being felt everywhere. It acts like a sort of tax and has an inflationary effect on your cost of living. Despite the hardship imposed by high energy costs and the price of gasoline at the pump, there is a silver lining here. Higher transportation costs effect big corporations just as much as individual consumers, and will ultimately make shipping goods across the globe less attractive.
Continue Reading →This short clip from the documentary “Collapse” featuring Michael C. Ruppert, wherein he discusses many of the topics he brings up in his related book, demonstrates very succinctly how peak oil will have a devastating effect on food production. In short, oil is used everywhere, and there are almost 10 calories of petroleum energy utilized in order for you to consume 1 calorie of food.
What happens when the oil becomes to expensive to extract anymore?
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This particular infographic should be fairly self-explanatory. While subject to change based on the status of the economy, the data is definitely pertinent as oil prices seem to continue their inexorable march upwards.
Continue Reading →One of the problems that affect our food supply and the health of the people in our country is the government farming subsidy program which guides the food production system.
This eye-opening video explains how farming subsidies have lead to the proliferation of cheap processed foods, and how this correlates to the rise in obesity and ill-health in our country.
Continue Reading →That sounds like such a harsh thing to ask, but it seems lately that the more I learn about food, culture, and nutrition, I’m left feeling disappointed by the general American view towards these things.
But what is the general American view? I don’t think it has always been this way, but I believe in this day and age the price of food is the most important factor for most Americans when they’re at the grocery store.
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When one considers the likelihood of economic collapse or at least a gradual degradation of civilized society as the modern petroleum-based world sunsets, you can’t help but wonder about all of the bad things we could expect. If modern advances and economic growth brought us better healthcare, food production, and creature comforts, then economic decline would logically strip all of those things away.
But is that what would really happen? Would severely reduced economic development automatically mean a resulting increase in hunger and diseases?
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There are a collection of problems within our modern society that we currently need to tackle. Amazingly, each of these modern problems can be mitigated to some extent by an increased reliance on human-powered transportation, most notably that which is provided by the means of the common bicycle. Indeed, just by biking around more often people could probably save money and improve their health.
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Reliance upon the electrical grid is a fact of life. We need electricity for just about everything we do throughout our day: keeping food cold, heating food up, heating or lighting our houses, etc.
Ever since the deregulation of the power generation industry, electricity has been treated more like a commodity rather than an essential service managed by the government. Power reserves are traded and shifted to different areas based on need and price. Additionally, with the privatization of power generation, utilities companies have a mandate to maximize profits for investors, some times at the expense of much needed maintenance and capacity improvement.
Most people seem to take the existence of the electrical grid for granted, as if it has always been there and will always be operational and ready to serve our needs. But will it?
Continue Reading →Michael Pollan, the forward thinking academic and permaculture advocate who authored such books like The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, has teamed up with the University of California, Berkeley to create a course devoted to increasing knowledge of the food system. The curriculum covers topics like food politics, food in the educational system, feeding the world, the slow food movement, and the impact of food production on the environment.
You can watch the series of lectures online, since they were video-taped and posted to YouTube by UC Berkeley.
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During the winter months in places that actually experience a cold winter, the fireplace or central heating system is bound to be running on a regular basis in order to keep the home at a livable temperature. The downside to this practice is the inevitable drop in humidity inside the house as all of the water molecules floating around in the air are burned up.
Most people don’t think about how this low humidity will affect their house plants though. Your indoor plants won’t get nose bleeds of course, but if their water levels are already low, then low air moisture will make their problems even worse. If the humidity gets too low, it can create problems for most of your regular garden plants.
Continue Reading →Recommended Reading
Garden Up! is filled with design tips, plant ideas and over 200 photos, and offers inspiration and how-to information for enhancing any outdoor space with vertical elements.
Authors Morrison and Sweet cover everything from living wall projects simple enough for a home gardener to tackle to creative solutions for blank walls and narrow beds.
The range of gardens included in the book support the authors' belief that vertical gardening is more than a temporary trend - it's here to stay.
