• the rail system has nowhere near enough capacity, already the freight operators are being rationed due to the demand from the passenger train operators

• you still have to get the food from railhead to people (or to Tescos)

At some point, we will have to reacquaint ourselves with seasonal fruit and veg.

"Your father is dead," she [the wife] screamed at her small son, who stood before her, dazed.

Organic farming is 99% about vanity and 1% at best about efficiency of any sort, energy or otherwise. So dream on.

The most insightful commentary on this sort of agriculture was provided years ago by Frank Zappa ('I might be moving to Montana soon... just to raise me up a crop of dental floss...').

While I'm all for environment-friendly agriculture, I don't think it should be conflated with human health issues. Unfortunately, that conflation is part and parcel of ther organic food movement. I've had a look at the Soil Association's FAQ page 'Why organic'?

The ten reasons given are as follows:

1. It's healthy
On average, organic food contains higher levels of vitamin C and essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, iron and chromium as well as cancer-fighting antioxidants.

2. No nasty additives
Organic food doesn't contain food additives which can cause health problems such as heart disease, osteoporosis, migraines and hyperactivity. Amongst the additives banned by the Soil Association are hydrogenated fat, aspartame (artificial sweetener) and monosodium glutamate.

3. Avoids pesticides
Over 400 chemical pesticides are routinely used in conventional farming and residues are often present in non-organic food. The UK government has recently found high levels of pesticide residues in baby food, spinach, dried fruit, bread, apples, celery, and chips.

4. No GM
Genetically modified (GM) crops and ingredients are not allowed under organic standards. Read more...

5. Reliance on drugs removed
There is growing concern about the high use of antibiotics on farm animals and the possible effects on human health. Soil Association standards prohibit the routine use of antibiotics. Read more...

6. No hidden costs
Compare this with the £120m that tax payers fork out to pay for removing chemicals from drinking water, mainly as a result of the pesticides used in farming.

7. High standards
Organic food comes from trusted sources. All organic farms and food companies are inspected at least once a year. The standards for organic food are laid down in European law.

8. Care for animals
Animal welfare is taken very seriously under organic standards. The benefits of the organic approach are acknowledged by animal welfare organisations such as Compassion in World Farming as well as the UK government. Read more...

9. Good for wildlife and the environment
The UK government has said that organic farming is better for wildlife, causes lower pollution from sprays, produces less carbon dioxide - the main global warming gas - and less dangerous wastes. Read more...

10. Top for taste
Many people prefer organic food because they say it tastes better. A number of top chefs choose organic, and every year many are involved in the Soil Association's organic food awards. Read more...

Reasons 1, 2, 7 and 10 are ecologically irrelevant and they are also, scientifically speaking, garbage. Non-organic food is equally healthy (1), has additives that are no less nasty than nature herself (2), has equally high standards (7) and tastes equally well (10.

At any rate there is certainly no evidence-based nutritional science or medicine for these claims. They have nothing to do with environental issues.

Perhaps the best foodstuff from the environmental angle would be one that poisons us all.

I was rather shocked to discover that assembling the 6000 bottles from the various regions (Bordeaux, Burgundy etc) to a warehouse in Marseille was more expensive than shipping them from there to Auckland (from memory, up to 20 euro-cents, and less than 10 cents, per bottle respectively).

So when people asked me if shipping stuff around the world wasn't contradictory with the idea of organics, I asked them if any of their organic food had ever travelled by truck.

Building direct connection between producer and consumer is a very important piece of the picture here. The benefits to the local economy can be incredible. All the money gets recycled in the same area instead of going off to distant lands through a thousand intermediaries. Skills are built up by individuals and local businesses that can be transfered later to other interested people with ease.

Pat Murphy:

David Pimentel1 has pointed out that the U.S. expends 10 calories of fossil fuel for every calorie of food energy produced. Other research shows that the U.S. spends 17 percent of its total energy on food.15 Either calculation arrives at the rough approximation of 10 BOE (barrels of oil equivalent) per person per year. In an organic, local, high-labor form of agriculture, which was practiced for centuries and is still practiced in many parts of the world, one calorie of labor can produce more than one calorie of food. Assuming a minimum of two calories produced for every one calorie of labor expended, a 20 to 1 difference (the product of the 10 to 1 ratio of fossil fuel to calories consumed and the 1 to 2 ratio of high-labor cultivation) between current and future ways of farming illustrates the possibility for rebuilding a truly sustainable way of growing food. There are six steps to reaching this goal.

1. The first step in reducing the fossil fuel energy cost of the food system is to eat less. David Pimentel notes that the average person in the U.S. consumes 2,200 pounds of food in a year.16 Also, the average U.S. citizen consumes 3,800 calories per day; however, humans only need 2,500 calories (kilocalories) per day, so food consumption could be reduced by one-third.

A side benefit would be better health. Overeating leads to obesity which leads to a variety of other diseases. A good reason for the high cost of American medical care is to treat diseases that are caused by a fossil fuel-rich lifestyle. In a contracting economy, people may no longer be able to afford quality medical care so the maintenance of good health will be vital.

2. The second step is to change one's diet. This means eliminating foods that are very energy-intensive. A good example is the beverage and snack food industry which ranks inordinately high in fossil fuel consumption. Fast foods and pre-packaged, highly processed manufactured foods should be avoided. The manufactured food industry is also associated with high fuel costs for refrigeration since the American lifestyle requires that liquids be chilled and food kept frozen. One might consider the 100 million refrigerators connected to thousands of power plants spewing CO2 into the atmosphere to keep hundreds of millions of cans of Coke or Budweiser at a constant low temperature.

The role of food corporations is significant. The large food manufacturers (and manufacturers implies fossil fuel intensive products) are the same people who provide extremely dangerous products. The largest food company, Altria (previously Phillip Morris) is also the largest producer of cigarette products. Part of wise purchasing is to determine the corporation behind the brands and examine their actions and motivations.

3. A third important aspect of diet is meat consumption - both the volume eaten and the kind of meat. The consumption of meat per capita in the developed countries is almost three times the consumption in the developing world.17 The developing world has doubled its per capita meat consumption since 1990, leading to more fossil fuel consumption. An industrial meat-based diet takes twice as many fossil fuel calories as a plant-based one. However, this does not mean the complete elimination of meat. Meat can be provided without using a high-energy form of food such as is used now in the form of feed corn and soybean meal. Locally grown meats using natural forage is not energy-
intensive. 18, 19, 20, 21

4. Eating less, changing diets by eliminating processed foods, and reducing industrial meat consumption are the first three steps and can be taken without knowing anything about raising food. Step four is to purchase food differently. This means buying food produced by local producers to the maximum extent possible. Joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) group is important if one is available. There are three results. First, local production is supported and that means less fossil fuel is used to transport the food. Secondly, it is a way to convert the country's agriculture from a corporate-based, high-energy consuming one to a more efficient one. Third, it supports new farmers, in many cases young ones desiring a farming career.

5. The fifth step is to begin preparing your own food for storage. This reduces the energy used in keeping products frozen for months. It also allows more local food production since farm products are not just for the growing season but also for the winter period when food sources are either stored or kept frozen and later moved over large distances. This further cuts the power of the corporation and allows for more local food security. And it allows one to begin to personally participate in the food process. Leaning to can is easier than learning to farm.

6. A sixth step is to create a garden or a henhouse. Producing one's own food allows one to actually experience the miracle of food from the land. This is a vital part of raising one's consciousness about food to counter the ignorance that currently colors our world view about nature and its bounty. Americans are not as far from the soil as is popularly assumed. Gardening, even if for flowers and not food, is an enjoyable past time for many people.

We must begin to consider the type of food we eat, its source and the distance it must travel. We must eat differently for our health, particularly with the rise in medical costs. We must also eat less and reduce meat consumption of industrial animal products. We must buy local, eat local, and store local. We should avoid all packaged goods to the extent possible. When possible, we need to develop our back- or front-yard gardens, replacing our fossil fuel intensive "carpet" lawns.http://www.energybulletin.net/20501.html