Ancient Practices and Future Realities

We live in a society that uses 10 calories of petroleum to produce 1 calorie of food. We face a future with depleted oil supplies. And we continue to drive to fast food stores. Our comfortable lifestyles are slowly getting more and more uncomfortable, but we continue on like it really isn't happening. Cognitive dissonance is so over-rated.

I read somewhere that a frog dropped in hot water will jump out immediately, whereas a frog placed in a pan of slowly heating water will remain until boiled alive. I don't know if that is true and I have no desire to torture frogs to find out. But it is a rather apt analogy for our current civilization.

I live in upstate New York. A recent study revealed that if all available farm land in the state was utilized 67% of the population would eat. The other 33% would starve if the necessary food stuffs were not imported.

This leads me to one conclusion. A local food production system isn't just a good idea. It's a necessity. When I go to the farmers market here in Glens Falls I'm engaging in a practice that's as old as human society. I trade wampum for food. It's also a trip into the future, our future. I hope you're living it now and not waiting for a famine in the mid-west to teach you to support local agriculture.