Ten Acres Is Enough

The point has been made that food products can be shipped from Southern climates at moderate cost to city dwellers; and so the opportunities to benefit from a nearby market and hence make a living from ten intensively planted acres is unlikely.

While that is true at present it may not be in the future. Planning for the future does not have to be alarmist; it might just be prudent like having insurance in case your house burns down.

I recently read a USA Today article entitled "Record number in government anti-poverty programs (Updated 8/30/2010 9:25 AM). It alerted me that 1 in 6 Americans are availing themselves of anti-poverty programs (medicaid, welfare, food stamps etc.) I found that article astonishing, and of course, sad. Taxes will have to go up to keep all these people and the programs working, (or perhaps we can continue to borrow indefinitely without any adverse consequence).

Affordability of foreign sourced foodstuffs is an important factor in their availability. Also externally imposed factors can weigh heavily on that affordability.

Take oil prices for one. It occurs to me that an oil shock in the near future may make imported foodstuffs a rare delicacy. What happens to imported foodstuffs when oil is $200 rather than $70 per barrel. I have seen such forecasts from people with a better capacity for projecting such things than I. They cite peak oil as being the reason for such shocks.

It may be prudent to insure against such shocks as best we can by having access to local produce. Supporting a local grower may cost a little more now but his/her availability in the future may be the difference between eating and not. The moderately higher price can be justified by the freshness factor.

Better still, grow a garden. It takes time, effort and planning; but even if an oil price shock never hits and taxes stay low (they are low relative to what they need to be) you'll have great tasting food, free of pesticides and preservatives. If a shock does happen you can feed your family.

Heating with wood is oil price insurance, so is a garden.