The Food Security Garden

GHN — The ongoing drought in the United States will force food prices up. The drought is having wide ranging affects and the price society pays will be huge. Consider the issue of food security.
Food Security means that all people at all times have physical & economic access to adequate amounts of nutritious, safe, and culturally appropriate foods, which are produced in an environmentally sustainable and socially just manner, and that people are able to make informed decisions about their food choices.

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Growing your own food is the best form of food security you can get. It may be too late to start a garden this season, depending upon your location but think about nest year.

I believe that anyone who wants to, can garden. This is the classic, if there is a will there is a way scenario. But, too many people do not have backyards or have only a little space to grow anything. Size does matter but do not let that deter you, even a small space garden can be quite productive.

The first step is to get to know the space where you garden will be; in particular, how much natural sunlight does it get- none, all day or somewhere in-between? Once you know that you can start to develop a plant list selecting plants that thrive in the amount of sunlight that you have available.

Now how large is that space? Is there room for one container, or can you set up a small backyard market garden?
If you are growing some of your own food, it is time to take a look at what you are producing and ask yourself, rather than my current plant choices what could I grow that will be edible and increase my family’s food security?

How much space does your present garden occupy? Could it be bigger? Room to expand, then, do you have the time and means to take care of it, so no waste takes place?

When considering the space that is available, think up. Take a minute and look up instead of along the ground, vertical and not horizontal.

We grow beans on poles and peas why not expand that list. When you make the choice to grow vertical; your small space expands, growing up means growing more.

If you have no room to grow your own food security garden, yard sharing may be your answer. Find out if there is a yard sharing program in your community and join up.

Growing together helps all parties to enhance their food security and builds good neighbours. Community gardens are another possibility, look and ask around your neighborhood, are there a community garden you can join?

Now is the time to get gardening, or at the very least get planning; care for the earth and grow your own food security garden at the same time.

Will drought undermine the social order?

Bob Ewing— It has been a week or more since we last had any significant rain. This is quite a change from last summer when it seemed to rain almost every day. The temperature right now is 23 Celsius and climbing, eventually it will hit 29C, so the weather station says.

That is hot for here, and a reminder of the heat wave that many food producing states have been experiencing for too long now.

This weather will eventually have an impact on food prices, partially because both corn and soybean crops are being adversely affected. Much of what we consume, at least anything prepackaged, has one or the other in it. The demand for water in the form of irrigation is high and this will also have an impact on food costs.

An interview with Maple Leaf Foods president and CEO Michael McCain written by ALEXANDRA POSADZKI, The Canadian Press August 2, 2012 quoted McCain as saying:

“Because Maple Leaf buys ingredients in advance, consumers likely won't see higher prices for its products until the end of this year, McCain said.
"Rising grain markets, specifically corn, affect the entire food chain,"

So the US drought will not have an immediate effect on food prices but increases are coming. Will people see an increase in income to offset these price increases? For the most part, that is an unlikely scenario. So once again the cost of living rises and income remains the same or worse, decreases.

People cope by eating lower on the food chain; that is more pasta and rice and less meat, chicken and fish. Now, when this is a personal choice that is one thing, but, when it is a response to an economic reality it is quite another.

What makes this shift even more complex is the cost of fresh vegetables and fruits, for example, are also rising and will continue to do so, due to the drought.

This reduces the affordable choices that are available in the marketplace.

Choice is one of our fundamental freedoms and when it is eroded in one of our most basic needs, food, the nature of society itself can shift.

Choice is a central tenet of democracy and when economics eliminates choice, it may also undermine our democratic institutions. Now, I accept this could be a bit of a logic leap, but societies have failed throughout history because the people could no longer access the food they need.

Food is our common ground, and one of the cornerstones of any social order, when it becomes scarce or too costly, social erosion can set in.

Oregon sends Tillamook history’s hope to fire-prone Texas

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Carol Forsloff - Texas and much of the Southwest remain under alert of fires from blazing heat and dry conditions caused by a prolonged drought, but the history of fires in other places reminds folks to have the hope that history gives in disasters just like these.

The fires that have stretched across Texas are now crossing the border into Louisiana and places where people have not ordinarily anticipated fires of any magnitude.  But the bone-dry conditions and drought have created a situation where experts have to educate the least fire-prone communities about how fires can start and what they need to do to protect their communities.

The Oregon Tillamook burn is historically marked so folks remember the terrible fires that occurred beginning in 1933, covering thousands of acres of land and foliage and lumber in the area on the way to Oregon’s coast.    It was a time Oregonians know about from their history when they hear about widespread fire.  It is the kind of disaster that becomes the fodder for legends, as happened after the Oregon burn when the human behavior was said to be the reason for the burn, the kind that local folks would never forget.

The worst fire occurred in 1933, but there were other burns to follow.  The first and worst of the series of fires took down nearly 240,000 acres of prime forest land and 12 billion board feet of timber.  That’s enough lumber to build more than a million five-room houses, according to historical accounts of the fire’s results.

1939 and 1945 saw more fires in the area, but these only involved one-tenth the amount of timber as the 193 fire.  In 1951 another fire destroyed 32,000 acres and 15 million board feet of logs and snags.

As time went on, the legends grew about these great fires, the kind of legends that often happen after disastrous events.   In 78 years since the big fire of 1933, the stories have multiplied as the restoration of the forest has taken place.  These stories have become so uniquely embellished, that investigative articles have been written to separate the facts from fiction.

One of the stories has to do with the status of the forest at the time of the original fire, that people refer to as affecting the largest virgin forest in the State of Oregon.  It was said to have been spread by human error, but research reveals that in fact much of what happened was due to naturally occurring circumstance.

It is true that the Native Americans historically had used fire to manage undergrowth and mask their settlements on the Coast.  But research shows their behaviors had negligible impact on the area when it comes to the issues creating larger, more widespread fires.  Still this is evidence the forest wasn’t as “virgin” as the legends indicate.  Furthermore loggers knew of fires set by hunters for light and heat in the region during later years.

What researchers have found is that while the 1933 Tillamook Fire originated from a spark caused by the friction of one log dragged over another, thus initiated by human behavior, the spread of the fire came from natural causes.

The Tillamook burn began on August 13, 1933.  Temperatures ranged from 90 to 97 degrees and humidity was low.  That low humidity and winds increasing in stength caused the fire to spread.   Temperatures continued to rise along with the winds over several days.   The perfect conditions for fire to manifest then move over a wide expanse of area came from the hottest weather on record that time, that increased to 107 degrees accompanied by strong winds along and relatively low humidity.  A review of the conditions over the previous several years showed dry conditions occurred over much of that period of time.

A combination of heavy salvage logging, and the problems caused by the fire, brought continuing fire conditions until 1951, the last time the area experienced a major burn.

Much of the land has been restored along with reforestation, but the memory of those terrible fires continue to be part of the Oregon climate story.

It is a story with a happy ending Oregon sends to Texas and the other states of the Southwest.  It is a story of time, investigation to protect the land from savaging by humans and recognizing the kind of conditions that create the spread of fire and to anticipate the worst in planning the response, as authorities hope to do in alerting communities across the Southwest about the risks from fire.

Water imperiled by 'fracking' in drought of Ark-La-Tex

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Carol Forsloff - Texas is going through a period of record-breaking drought, a situation that has caused massive wildfires; and two attorneys are challenging hydraulic fracturing because of its negative impact on water.

While the EPA continues to investigate the issues surrounding “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing, a process used in drilling for natural gas,  Ark-La-Tex  folks have reason to worry because of the process of pumping water and chemicals into the ground to break up shale rock, which is the process used to extract natural gas.  These questions are of concern to environmentalists who have witnessed problems in Pennsylvania and other states from efforts to drill for gas.  In fact Chesapeake Energy has suspended drilling for natural gas in Pennsylvania in April 2011 after a large spill of toxic fluid into a natural waterway there.

The lack of sufficient water is now the main concern in Texas.  As the attorneys point out, it requires millions of gallons of water to open a single well.

“When news reports say the current drought is now the most severe since record-keeping began 116 years ago, it is time to reassess all discretionary uses of water,” said Arnold,  one of the Houston lawyers involved in litigation against some of the companies that have allegedly polluted water and lands of their clients.

“If you’re using millions of gallons of water in a process that is suspect in the first place, that’s certainly a place to cut back, if not a practice to consider suspending until the drought eases.”

Arnold & Itkin LLP,  the law firm involved, has represented clients who have had land contaminated through the fracking process.    A law requiring companies to publicly disclose the chemicals used in the fracking process goes into effect in 2012, but the attorneys are worried about the problem now because of the Texas drought.

As the attorneys point out,  “Fracking remains a potentially dangerous and, during a drought, wasteful practice.  “While water conservation is a civic duty we can advocate, refraining from contaminating groundwater and endangering people is a legal duty that we are certainly ready to take action to see enforced,” Arnold said.

According to climate experts, approximately 20% of the United States is experiencing drought. In  Texas - Lousiana – Arkansas, the drilling for natural gas is part of what is called the Haynesville Shale.  Proponents of natural gas exploration tout the area as being the biggest  gold mine of gas in the country.  Louisiana, already having been under siege on the Gulf from oil seepage into the soil and waters of the coast, has been one of the states where politicians and business folks in oil and gas have been most vocal about the positive opportunities afforded from natural gas.

In Natchitoches Parish, for example, there have been grand rallies in support of natural gas drilling, and big deals have included large parcels of land, including Northwestern University.

But Texas attorneys are warning of the risks of fracking to the water supply, given the dry conditions.  They underline the continuing threats of fire and reduction of clean water from a process they say imperils folks who are not conscious of the problems that hydraulic fracturing can cause.

Drought-stricken areas get advice on drought-resistant grass and waterconservation

 ALBANY,
Ore. - PRN - GHN News Editor "We're in the very early stages of identifying exciting, new
water-sipping, drought-tolerant grasses that could play a major role in
lawn water conservation."


Seasons
of drought bring scruffy, dry lawns and a tendency for people to use
more water and electricity to make them green.  This puts pressure on a community water
supply.  But Dr. Mike Richardson, a University of Arkansas plant sciences professor and TWCA research adviser have announced what might be the answer to these problems.

It
might also be a good answer for Natchitoches, Louisiana, which has had a
relatively dry season, with the result that Cane River Lake is so low
boats are unable to traverse the 36-mile stretch of water and grasses
have browned from lack of rain.

Focused
on identifying plants and lawn grasses that thrive on less water, the
Turfgrass Water Conservation Alliance (TWCA) today announced it has
qualified two dozen varieties of drought-tolerant grasses in time for
fall planting season.

The
non-profit organization, made up of leading researchers and seed
producers, is dedicated to the discovery, evaluation and development of
environmentally green landscape products that can go weeks without
water.

Richardson
tells us, "Current trials have revealed bermudagrasses that hang onto
70% of their green color after 60 days in summer temperatures without
irrigation.   His statement gives some assurance to drought-stricken
areas, and those areas who have had seasonal difficulties, like the town
of Natchitoches, Louisiana, that there are many new cool season grasses
require a lot less water as well.

"The research has shown that new drought-tolerant Kentucky
blue grasses could save as much as 10,000 gallons of water over a
single growing season compared to some heat-tolerant varieties,"
Richardson said of recent TWCA research findings.  "Since many newfound
blue grass varieties can go an extra week or two without water, periodic
rains could help consumers save even more irrigation water each year."

The
TWCA points out, however, the success of next generation grasses
depends heavily on consumer education and the elimination of
misperceptions about lawn water requirements.

"Grasses
don't use too much water, people do. As a result, turf gets the unfair
and unfounded label as a heavy water user," explained Richardson, who
puts helpful conservation tips to work in his own lawn. "The recent
success of eco-friendly lawn products like Pennington's Smart Seed is
proof of the growing trend toward environmentally greener lawns.
Consumers want to use less irrigation water on their lawns. They just
need to learn how. By planting TWCA-qualified grasses, they're taking an
important first step toward landscape water conservation." he added.

In the meantime, scientists give us the following water-conserving lawn irrigation tips:

• Turn off automatic sprinkler and irrigation systems and operate them manually


• Take
  note of where you see the first signs of drought stress in your lawn
  "That first patch of stressed lawn will consistently serve as your
  notice that it's time to irrigate," said Richardson, sharing his own
  personal irrigation barometer that keeps his lawn healthy at home.


• When
  you do irrigate, give the lawn a good soaking to encourage deeper root
  growth. The deeper the root growth, the longer the turf can sustain
  healthy, green growth without water.


• Select drought-tolerant grasses suited to your planting zone and qualified by the TWCA