Build Resilience Fast: Local, Organic Food

[Coordinator]

Buying local, organic food is one the most effective ways to rebuild local resilience. Here's why:

• FOOD SECURITY - cutting down inventory saves shareholders money: most grocery stores carry enough inventory to last 4 days; if it costs so much to transport food that it's no longer profitable, where will we get our food from?
• WATER - non-local, agribusiness food is grown by diverting massive amounts of water from ecosystems, which has a devastating effect on communities and requires huges amounts of energy; local and organic food cycles water within its natural watershed.
• ENERGY - it costs humans more energy in fossil fuels to grow food than the energy we gain from it at a ratio of 10:3 Calories; before fossil fuels, Nature footed the bill for us; large-scale agriculture is a very inefficient and socially irresponsble practice that is made practical through government subsidy.
• CLIMATE CHANGE - non-local food travels an average distance of 1,200 miles between production and your table.
• POLLUTION - pesticides from non-organic farming force massive concentrations of nutrients on ecosystems and hugely disturb their balance...a balance we depend on for survival.
• LOCAL ECONOMY & INDEPENDENCE - money cycled tightly within a community has countless positive effects: empowerment, independence, social responsibility, and more; money that leaves a community represents a valuable resource being siphoned somewhere else; buying local food also puts farmers at the core of the middle class, building a solid base for economic growth.
• HEALTH - cancer, autism, alzheimer's disease, and on...all are on the rise, coincidentally with the rise of the green revolution; reduce your exposure to pesticides (many of which were originally designed for warfare) and sludge ('bio-solids')
• COMMUNITY - farmer's markets and local stores give us a place to meet our neighbors and build friendships; they also reduce the need to drive.

• Just through buying local, organic food, we cover many of the steps needed to rebuild local resilience and set our community on a solid path forward.

  What did I miss here? Leave your own reply to this message and let us know how else buying local, organic food rebiulds local resilience.

[Seamus Rodman]

Totally agree here! Yes though with the enjoyable part here there must be some not so enjoyable aspects. Could be difficult for some. Although the damage to our current society should be lessened, correlating directly in relation to Transition. haha.

[Kelly Ann Preston]

I"m interested in creating a garden co-op within the city of Bangor. I've enlisted the help of Habitat for Humanity to see who owns a large, empty lot in the middle of town on Essex Street. My idea is to build this and have the homeless, marginalized work there to build life skills, a job reference and in healing by working with Mother Earth. Any tips??
-Kelly

[Carolynn Plowden]

stkfoundation.org

[Carolynn Plowden]

try stkfoundation.org Stephen and Tabitha King have this organization for ideas to improve our communities. They may already own the perfect spot as well.