1. Volume 2, Number 3, – March 2007
The foreseeable future holds many
likely challenges for our food supply:
1. People make more than a
quarter-million (net) new
mouths to feed—every day.
2. Rising living standards in
many parts of the world are
leading to greater demand
for high energy demand
foods like meat and fish.
3. Climate change is altering
rainfall patterns: worsening
droughts and intensifying
downpours and floods. And
every increment of carbon
dioxide we dump into the
atmosphere accelerates the
deterioration.
4. The synthetic fertilizers our
industrial agriculture depends
on are made from rapidly
depleting natural gas.
5. The pesticides needed to
make large-scale
mechanized monoculture
workable are made from
increasingly precious
petroleum.
6. Mechanized agriculture
needs oil to operate farm
equipment.
7. Our current food distribution
I Eat Too Much—Why Worry About Too Little Food? People you should
contact about peak oil:
•Senator Barbara Boxer
http://boxer.senate.gov/cont
act/email/policy.cfm
•Senator Dianne Feinstein
http://www.senate.gov/~fein
stein/email.html
•Congressman Sam Farr
1221 Longworth House
Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-2861
FAX (202) 225-6791
http://www.farr.house.gov/
•Governor Arnold Schw…
http://www.govmail.ca.gov
•President George Bush
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
Now you can contribute a
cent to SMC every time you
do a web search—just go to
www.goodsearch.com, enter
“Sustainable Monterey
County” in answer to the
“Who do you GoodSearch
for” question, and search .
Thanks to all those who
have contributed help and
funds to SMC
system uses huge amounts of
fossil energy to transport and
process food.
8. Food crops are increasingly
being diverted to make biofuels
—many Mexicans are already
suffering from the rising price
of corn.
9. Long-standing agricultural
practices have resulted in the
great loss of topsoil.
10. In some areas, non-renewable
aquifers have been largely
depleted for irrigation and no
easy alternatives exist.
11. Vast areas of agricultural land
are being paved over for
suburbia.
The convergence of at least some of
these trends has led to several years
of decline in grain reserves, and rising
grain prices. Most, if not all, of the
readers of this newsletter will
experience the early unfolding of these
trends as a minor expense—the real
pain is starting with poorer people who
live far away. However, these trends
are not short-term, and many are not
self-limiting. They will get our
attention eventually, even if we choose
to ignore them until they’re streaming
over our borders and banging on our
doors.
Mission: To ensure an orderly transition through the fossil fuel decline by
cooperatively developing a sustainable economy for Monterey County.
March 1, Thursday: SMC Discussion Group:
Protect Yourself from Food Supply
Risks, 6:45-9pm, Mty Youth Center,
777 Pearl St.
March 4, Sunday: KRXA 540 AM Tomorrow
Matters, 2:00-3:00 PM—Deborah
interviews Benjamin Fahrer on
permaculture.
April 5, Thursday: SMC Discussion Group:
UPCOMING EVENTS
Transportation, 6:45-9pm, Mty Youth
Center, 777 Pearl St.
April 14, Car Free in Monterey County

2. S U S T A I N A B L E M O N T E R E Y C O U N T Y
The winter strawberries that arrive
by jet from Chile are only
one of the more extreme
examples.
In some ways the beef and pork
some of us eat may be worse. The
manure from livestock once raised
on diversified farms is now toxic
waste that accumulates near highly
specialized and concentrated
feeding operations. Separating
feed-growing and feeding
operations saves money in a
subsidized, cheap-energy
environment—but it creates two
problems: pollution of the
environment around the livestock,
and a need for synthetic fertilizer
for raising feed.
As fossil energy becomes more
expensive (in more ways than one)
transport of all kinds will have to
diminish, as will the use of
pesticides and fertilizer. This will
lead to greater local crop diversity,
recombination of livestock and feed
raising operations, and a more
FOSSIL FUEL
DEPLETION WILL
NECESSITATE SOME
DEGREE OF FOOD
RELOCALIZATION
Deforestation, greenhouse gases. The livestock sector is by
far the single largest anthropogenic user of land. Grazing
occupies 26 percent of the Earth's terrestrial surface, while feed
crop production requires about a third of all arable land.
Expansion of grazing land for livestock is a key factor in
deforestation, especially in Latin America: some 70 percent of
previously forested land in the Amazon is used as pasture, and
feed crops cover a large part of the reminder. About 70 percent
of all grazing land in dry areas is considered degraded, mostly
because of overgrazing, compaction and erosion attributable to
livestock activity.
At the same time, the livestock sector has assumed an often
unrecognized role in global warming. Using a methodology that
considered the entire commodity chain, FAO estimated that
livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas
emissions, a bigger share than that of transport. It accounts for
nine percent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, most of
it due to expansion of pastures and arable land for feed crops. It
generates even bigger shares of emissions of other gases with
greater potential to warm the atmosphere: as much as 37
percent of anthropogenic methane, mostly from enteric
fermentation by ruminants, and 65 percent of anthropogenic
nitrous oxide, mostly from manure.
Livestock production also impacts heavily the world's water
supply, accounting for more than 8 percent of global human
water use, mainly for the irrigation of feed crops. Evidence
suggests it is the largest sectoral source of water pollutants,
principally animal wastes, antibiotics, hormones, chemicals from
tanneries, fertilizers and pesticides used for feed crops, and
sediments from eroded pastures. While global figures are
unavailable, it is estimated that in the USA livestock and feed
crop agriculture are responsible for 37 percent of pesticide use,
50 percent of antibiotic use, and a third of the nitrogen and
phosphorus loads in freshwater resources. The sector also
generates almost two-thirds of anthropogenic ammonia, which
contributes significantly to acid rain and acidification of
ecosystems.
Excerpted from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations: Livestock Impacts on the Environment
http://www.fao.org/ag/magazine/0612sp1.htm
Years ago, in 1984, I did my first major study on agriculture, not because I’m an agriculturist, I’m not, but I was
very troubled about the fact that extremism had emerged in Punjab, terrorism had emerged in Punjab, and nobody
could understand. Where was it coming from? So I went and did a study, and I found out the anger of the farmers
– it’s a peasant state, it’s a farmers’ state, Punjab. It means the land of the five rivers.
It’s the most prosperous state of India, the most prosperous well-to-do farmers, most hard-working farmers, and
yet the introduction of chemicals and mechanisation had meant that initially, they had subsidies and it looked like a
free ride. Slowly, the subsidies got withdrawn, the World Bank paid for a decade but now they needed four bags of
urea rather than one per acre. Their water levels had gone down and they needed more energy to pump out water,
because the green revolution takes 10 times more water to produce the same amount of food compared to organic
farming. –from Vandana Shiva’s Closing Address to the Soil Association Conference.

3. S U S T A I N A B L E M O N T E R E Y C O U N T Y
There is vast waste in the way we feed ourselves. Therein lie a problem and an opportunity.
The problem is that it will have to change—maybe quickly. The opportunity is in all the
effective ways that we can change. An average American food calorie now implies the
expenditure of about 10 fossil fuel calories, but some food takes a lot less and some takes a lot
more.
• Meat and other animal products are a trophic level above fruits, vegetables and grains.
That means they require about ten times as much input per unit of output as the vegetarian
stuff does. If you know how to eat well as a vegetarian, you can substantially reduce your
expense and your ecological footprint, while still being healthy and well-fed.
• Processed foods are more energy intensive than fresh, whole foods.
• Locally growing saves energy and improves freshness.
• Organic methods use much less fossil energy than industrial agriculture.
Add all the best things together and we can feed a pretty big population sustainably.
FOOD SECURITY IS EATING WELL ENOUGH—WHATEVER COMES
For the human race, the discovery of fossil fuels has been like an
unexpected inheritance, or a winning lottery ticket. So far we
have been profligate spenders, partying like there’s no
tomorrow. Will we sober up before or after the riches run out?
Further Reading
The Oil Drum http://www.theoildrum.com/
Association for the Study of Peak Oil--USA http://www.aspo-usa.com/
Energy Bulletin http://www.energybulletin.net
Oil Addiction: The World in Peril, Pierre Chomat
Eating Fossil Fuels, Dale Allen Pfeiffer
Plan B 2.0, Lester R. Brown
Limits to Growth: The 30-Year Update, Meadows, Randers & Meadows

4. Steering Committee Members
Deborah Lindsay, Director
deb@sustainablemontereycounty.org
Ruth Smith, 831-620-1303
Committee Chair and Budget Chair
Virginia Chomat,
Secretary and Co-treasurer
Pierre Chomat,
Resident Expert
Mark Folsom,
Newsletter Editor,
folsomman@redshift.net
George Wilson,
831-372-0659
Committee Evaluation Coordinator
Denyse Frischmuth,
831-643-0707
Volunteer Coordinator and Urban
Environmental Accords Coordinator
Robert Frischmuth,
Co-Treasurer
Program Heads:
Annette Chaplin,
831-372-8725
Sustainable Pacific Grove
Linda Parker,
phone # 831-656-0664
surite@sbcglobal.net
Big Sur Powerdown
C O N T A C T
I N F O R M A T I O N
MARK FOLSOM:
Phone: 831 648 1543
E-Mail:
folsomman@redshift.net
We’re on the Web!
See us at:
http://www.postcarbon.org/
groups/monter
ey
Newsletter Design by
Adrienne Allen
aa_nixon@comcast.net
Director’s Note
In my house I’ve started putting away a small cache of food – not
several years’ worth, but certainly enough to get my family through a
month or two. One of my tricks is to buy food in bulk; a 50 lb bag of wheat
or rice, for example, which I break into smaller portions and store in
thoroughly washed and dried 1 gallon apple juice bottles and stash away
in the pantry. I like glass bottles better then plastic as mice have proven
skilled at chewing through even fairly thick plastic containers.
Another good deal is to buy sale items in quantity. Albertsons has a 10
for $10 section. Once I’ve confirmed the expiration date is well within a
reasonable consumption time frame, I’ll stock up on certain foods my
family eats regularly. We then rotate through these items to keep supplies
fresh. I keep these items in places were we actually use them. It’s not
about putting food away and forgetting about it… it will go bad and then
money and food is wasted. It’s about having extra around and being able
to handle crises in a managed, levelheaded manner.
Recently someone asked me why I bother… that when an emergency
hits, the folks who haven’t put food away will come barging in to take what
I’ve collected. This could prove a true statement, but what if we all put
food away? What if we did what they’re doing in San Francisco with the
“Are you Prepared?” program…www.72hours.org. The City of SF
realizes that emergency services cannot be in every location when a
critical city-wide disaster occurs. They have handed the responsibility
back to their citizens to prepare themselves and ultimately be more
sustainable.
I have studied Peak Oil for several years. I have read hundreds of
papers on the subject and one of the first recommendations for mitigating
the crisis of declining fossil fuels is to store food. Ask yourself if you’re
ready for fuel prices rising to a point that transportation vehicles are
unable to afford to ship their wares to our community. “Are you
Prepared?” if you’re not… then now’s the time.
Deborah
…Establishing year round local food systems in Toronto would be difficult,
though possible, but in Dublin I have found it to be much easier. I am still
amazed at the diversity of vegetables that I can harvest fresh from my allotment
every month of the year.
Of course parsnips are the king of winter vegetables, becoming sweeter after a
few hard frosts, and providing the ground is not frozen or waterlogged, they are
content to stay in the ground until needed. Celeriac, winter radish, scorzonera
and salsify, though not traditionally part of the Irish diet, will easily wait out the
Irish winter in the place where they grew. It is also best to leave Jerusalem
artichoke, or more accurately the sunroot, buried until needed. Add the roots and
tubers traditionally stored in the shed or cellar, including potatoes (the staple of
the Irish diet), swedes (referred to as rutabaga in North America but which the
Irish insist on calling turnips), beetroot (the most noble of all vegetables) and the
humble soup carrots, and you have a feast readily available throughout the cold
months and into the spring.
http://foodurbanism.blogspot.com/2007/02/winter-harvesting.html