High prices of food...

[Beachboy]

....we residents of Puna need to think in the line of food co-ops perhaps? On the mailand there is a growing trend towards it. Check out article.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/...rss-nation


"When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?"


George Carlin

[JayJay]

From my perspective and considering that King Abdu'llah of Saudi Arabia has just announced that "consumers are going to have to get used to higher oil prices" - which he falsely attributes to "import taxes" and higher demand, (the truth is that traders at NYMEX have the jitters thinking Israel may perform a pre-emptive attack directed at Iran and as a result the Straights of Hormuz may be blocked, which in my estimaton is a virtual certainty). This volatility in the pits causes prices to rise as traders weight the odds of such an attack and either buy or short (sell) the market according to their conviction of where the market will be in the future, sans, 'futures trading' and this is NOT a market which is being driven up by any fundamental (demand requirement) as the King of Saudi Arabia is reported today on Drudge as saying. He's simply lying since as the head of the world's leading oil producer he must be aware that demand requirements are not the cause of the hike to $142.00/ barrel and of course the objective here would be the $150.00 threshold, then the push to $200.00 as Hugo Chevez has claimed lies in the cards - Chevez who works hand-in-hand with Amadinejad while installing Al Queda operatives in Veneszuela and elsewhere in South America. (Chevez controls 18% of US oil import). All this machination being done of course to bring the US to its knees.

How does the cost of oil relate to the need for food co-ops here in Puna and elsewhere? EZ. In a word ... CORN (and throw in SOY BEANS). We live in a world which utilizes as its prime-mover oil and this includes every phase of commercial agriculture. As the price of oil shoots skyward ... and that's exactly what's been happening, these costs spiral into all markets and especially the corn and bean markets which are totally dependent on oil products, i.e. fertilizers, pesticides and the energy it takes to actually get the fields ready not only to produce but also for harvest, storage, transportation, manufacturing and distribution. As oil prices climb, so climbs the demand for futures traders who for the most part represent commercial interests, to buy... (go long the market), knowing that in the not-to-distant future, those commodities will cost more... so the time to buy futures contracts is now, while prices are lower. The point is, when oil contracts cost more we can reasonably expect the cost of basic agriculture, and all the related supply, distribution and manufacturing activities to cost more and this spells inflation (inflation meaning fewer dollars available to spend on food). Any agricultural system, including home-based, we can develope NOW which can help offset those price increases would be beneficial to us all with co-ops being a good start.

Beyond that, it's my contention for those few actually reading this commentary, that at some point in the future, perhaps even before Bush leaves office, that the Straights of Hormuz, following an attack by a nation which is constantly being threatened by Iran, will, by the complexities of war, become 'blocked,' thereby cutting off the planet's major arterial of crude and thus causing the price of oil to further rally, perhaps even bleyond $200.00/ barrel... so in that scenario the present food distribution system would be incapable of feeding the masses and here we sit in the middle of the Pacific with an infrastructure where it doesn't even pay, for the most part, to farm commercially. We've simply got to recognize this potential problem and respond appropriately by buying non-hybrid open-pollinated seeds and begin a program which, should this event come to pass, at least gives us the capability of producing food or we may become very hungry and the concept I've heard espoused here on other threads... that it will be easy to feed ourselves if such an event occurs, is deceptively incorrect. It's not easy to produce the food an individual, much less a family or community requires. Each home should become a small permaculture and all these ornamentals which dot the landscape commercially should be taken down to make way for commercial organically-based crops which WILL be in demand as the price of oil moves to even higher levels.


JayJay

[Hotzcatz]

You mean you aren't already a member of a food co-op, Beachboy? Food can be grown profitably although it is more difficult if it is done commercially if you know what I mean by the difference.

Also, gardens can be quite decorative as well as edible. Next time you go through Waimea, check out the "landscaping" by Merriman's restaurant. Almost the entire landscape there is edible and from the looks of the trimming, used in the restaurant, too. We may as well have rosemary hedges and parsley trimming the edges of our lawns. A couple of nice tomato bushes by the door with festive red tomatoes on it wouldn't go amiss, either. Nice feathery carrot tops are also a nice low growing pretty landscaping green.

[JayJay]

Just a note to those comming over or those living here who have decided to take the bull by the horns and actually try to produce a sizable portion of their own food requirements. Initially, when I began this permaculture fifteen years ago I made the decision that I would plant eighty per cent food plants and twenty ornamental. That turned out to be a mistake and if I had it to to over again I would work from the ratio of ninty-five per cent food plants and five per cent ornamental. Why? Because twenty per cent of what's here isn't edible and that's a lot. As a example,instead of a pua kinikini, which has turned out to be rather large, I could have had another large citrus in it's place and got the flowers from a neighbor up the street. As the cost of food items moves up we're going to start to recognize more how valuable land on this island really is.

JayJay

[Kelena]

I just did something pretty radical. The previous owner of the house, may he rest in peace, planted many palms and even a few banyans right on the property line, some of them near a neighbor's rock wall. They were gorgeous, jungly and had that "island" look. Rightly or wrongly, I took them down. Aesthetically, it was not a good decision in the short run. But I am on -- or more accurately will be on!-- one half of an acre of agricultural land. I am going to try and give a little meaning to that designation. So, my current thinking is to plant citrus or other fruit producing trees or plants along that border.

[JerryCarr]

Glen, I think that's a good plan, and citrus blossoms have a heavenly scent. I wish I had been able to plant mine upwind of the house, but it wasn't practical. We were harvesting fruit from our lime and orange trees a year after planting. The tangerine came with fruit on it and has produced seasonally ever since. Go for it.

Cheers,
Jerry

[Beachboy]

quote:

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Originally posted by JerryCarr

Glen, I think that's a good plan, and citrus blossoms have a heavenly scent. I wish I had been able to plant mine upwind of the house, but it wasn't practical. We were harvesting fruit from our lime and orange trees a year after planting. The tangerine came with fruit on it and has produced seasonally ever since. Go for it.

Cheers,
Jerry

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wow that's great jerry! I love the aromas that "live" food provides. My father lives in French Polynesia, on the island called 'Huahine'. When the "trades" are blowing good the entire island smells of Vanilla! There are a few vanilla plantations on Huahine. Huahine is so small one can walk around the entire island in one day!

I can't wait for the day I'm able to smell my fruit trees in the night air!



"When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?"


George Carlin