APB: Food

In the upper Quin Valley (that is, the MA towns, basically), we really need to put out an all points bulletin on our missing food supply.

When the average person thinks nothing of buying mangoes from Central America or India (as the T&G was promoting on 4/17), strawberries from California, beef from Texas or Argentina, etc., we're in trouble. It's nearly impossible not to have to do some of it, since there's presently no way locally-grown food can support the thousands of people in our towns. Even in the town that used to be dubbed a "cow town" -- Charlton, with its large agriculturally-zoned areas -- the number of active farms is significantly below what it needs to be, while the population has grown immensely. That needs to change. 


I don't know how often I've had to go somewhere (usually for work) and passed by dozens of houses with well-mowed lawns, some of them huge. They're so ubiquitous some have argued there's a deep-seated psychological need to see something that vaguely resembles the African savanna we evolved on. Personally, I think that's bunk. I'm more inclined to think they're a throwback to a much more recent, aristocratic era, when the medieval rich could show off large swaths of land they did not need to farm because someone else was feeding them.

For decades now, we have been those aristocrats -- maybe not in actual wealth (although even in recession, we're far richer than almost everyone in history), but certainly in our sense of entitlement, thanks to vast quantities of energy, mostly from oil. We've gotten so used to expecting the food to keep coming to our store shelves, and thence to our tables, few of us consider just how vulnerable that supply system really is or how profoundly lucky we have been for so long.

That CANNOT continue forever, and some pretty strong evidence is signaling it's time we ripped up those extremely boring monocultures of grass and start planting food again: The Great Plains is experiencing a drought worse than the Dust Bowl; the Mississippi River's flooding is setting new records; the recent southern tornadoes were stronger than ever; oil prices are higher than they were this time in 2008, when they peaked at $147 in July ....

Need I go on?

Because New England has largely lain fallow, unfarmed for most of a century, our soil is generally pretty fertile. Because our ancestors did most of the heavy lifting, there are lots of acres that are free of the big rocks our region is infamous for. Because we've done a lot in the last few decades to clean the rivers and lakes, our water supply is mostly good (and with global warming, our region is expected to get more of it, unlike much of the present grain belt).

Those all give us a good chance to be able to resume feeding ourselves, if we're willing to get off our arses and get to work. Although the Commonwealth defines 5 acres as the minimum to merit formal protection as a "farm," or two acres if you sell $1000 per acre, those requirements in practice mostly apply to owning farm animals. Very little prevents most people from growing a sizable part of their own vegetable supply on less than that. Even apartment dwellers can plant a bunch of things in containers on their windowsills, and there are several books and websites teaching people how to support themselves on a suburban acre or less.

Our individual physical health needs it, and so does the well-being of our towns. Besides, there are few things more rewarding that knowing YOU grew dinner!