Middle Aged and Living Well

We had the opportunity for a round drive the central valley on a trip up to the east bay to meet our son.  Interstate 5 cuts through the west side of one of the largest agricultural areas in the country. They say without the efficiencies of big agriculture and the redirection of water from the north to the south, this “bread basket of America” would suffer and American tables would suffer as well.  But tell tail signs are starting to tell us that putting all our veggies in one area that is prone to recurring droughts was not a great strategic decision.  Scarce water supplies are now being rationed between agricultural and municipal purposes.  Farmers are taking a political stance by placing signs near the interstate that dry areas that once contained crops are a “congress created dust bowl”.

It seems to me our desires for agricultural efficiencies sounded good at the time, but may have been a little short sided.  Puting food processing plants near large crop areas and redirected water created great efficiencies for agribusiness.  Modern food science allowed these companies to create shelf stable raw materials and reconstruct the products and allow them to be shipped over long distances without much spoilage.  No question that these techniques helped America prosper during the last 50 years, but at what cost?  There are considerable concerns about the healthiness of processed and reconstituted foods and its contribution to modern society consumption deseases (hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease).  Now the costs to ship agricultural products throughout the country is getting expensive because of fuel costs and now the costs of greenhouse gases.  As water becomes more in demand, the costs of redirection of water to agricultural areas is taking its toll.

So what can we do about it?  First try to by local.  I recently found the Irvine Farmer’s market and it is now my regular market.  Ask your grocer where food is from.  The closer the better.  Finally, grow your own garden.  You don’t have to rip up your lawn, but do I as did, buy some planter boxes and place them throughout your yard. Not only will you get good produce, but you will have fun as well.  The redistribution of the food supply from centralized to a distributed model will create its own efficiencies in today’s every changing marketplace.  It will also improve food safety through bio diversity and help prevent scarcities as when certain areas are impacted by weather, other areas can help mitigate any shortages.

So people, lets make America safe…plant a tomato.