Why the cost of food is rising, and what to do

Yet another large chunk of humanity can now not afford to eat. Basic food prices have started to spiral. The answers as to why are well hidden.
1/ climate change is a reality, and 97% of scientists are convinced that humans are exacerbating the issue immensely. In other words, Our SUV's and wasteful personal, business, farming and manufacturing practices are making climate change much worse.
2/ "Modern" farming practices cause more flood-drought cycles. When we let nature do her thing, trees retain a lot of water then slowly release it. Potholes, swamps and sloughs hold water then release it through the ground. Deforesting and flattening the land means that water isn't retained in the soil. This means that during heavy rainfalls the water is all sent downstream causing floods, and later during a drought, there is no water in the soil to keep plants alive. Due to this, we are growing less food than we could if the water was managed in the way nature used to handle the process.
3/ Food now equals petroleum. Because we are using corn to create "bio-fuels" , we are using space, that could be used to grow food, for creating more fuel to spray pollutants into the bio-sphere so we can increase climate change.
What this means is that any petrochemical product [gasoline, plastics, chemicals, diesel, chemical fertilizers, and much more]purchased increases the price of food. We buy the petro-product, corn is grown to replace the petroleum used, and the price of food goes up.
Our government Likes to pretend that these fuels are somehow environmentally friendly, and ethically acceptable, because profit can be made on it. I disagree. Making a profit from someone's starvation is not acceptable.
4/The price of petroleum is on the rise. Most of our food is grown and transported with petroleum. Non-organic foods are grown with chemical fertilizers, anti-fungals, pesticides and herbicides that are made from petroleum. The field is cultivated, seeded, sprayed, often resprayed, cut and harvested all with petroleum to fuel the tractor or plane. Non-organic meat has another whole layer of petroleum usage. Even organic grain and veggies are produced by mechanical [i.e. petroleum fuelled] methods. Non-local organic foods are also transported with it.
5/ the idea that genetic manipulation will somehow increase our productivity over the long term has been proven to be a falsehood. In India, where Monsanto heavily pushed their roundup ready cotton, there are now roundup resistant weeds. Meanwhile, the price of seed has increased by almost 100 times for the farmers, many of the farmers are bankrupt, and a large amount of the bankrupt Indian farmers have committed suicide.
6. We, as a species, are extremely overpopulated. Locally we are producing less children than our death rate, which is good. In order for the other species to also thrive, there needs to be less humans.
What can we do? Grow our own food! Buy local! Buy organic or better yet poly-culturally grown foods. Buy less plastic and other petro-chemically based products. Grow a food forest. A mature food forest will produce many times more food than a mono-cultured gene-enhanced chemical crop, with an enormous gain in carbon retention. Eat less meat and dairy products. It takes more land to produce them than vegetarian food. When you eat meat, buy grass fed, there's much less transport involved. Eat seasonally. Eat your weeds, they are free, organic, and often contain much needed micronutrients. Eat from the wild. Blackberries, seafood, wildlife and much more are available. Avoid those foods your body cannot handle. We usually eat more food when we eat what we are sensitive or allergic to. Bike, walk, carpool, etc.! Travel less! Rediscover community.
We can grow an amazing amount of food here. We already do produce a lot of meat, eggs, dairy, nuts, fruit and veggies, as well as edible ornamentals and wild foods. Some of this is available for sale, and some is consumed by family and friends. Denman used to produce food for itself as well as a chunk of the big island.
For an interesting list of what we can grow here contact myself, Peter Janes, or David Hicks. Attend one, or some, of Annie siegel's courses. Talk to bruce and Lee-Anndra. Take a permaculture course from Jesse Lemieux. See if you can get some of the local farmers to talk about what we can grow. The list of foods is absolutely amazing- grains, meats, eggs, dairy, honey, maple syrup, wildlife, seafood, vegetables and herbs galore- year round, Tea, many fruits and berries, a large selection of nuts, and then there are the unusual edibles. If you aren't already growing food, start with a small garden- a raised bed 4x15 can produce a lot of food when garden by the square foot, cubed foot, or french intensive methods. You can create an absolutely beautiful food garden. Read a few books on permaculture/alternative farming, and food forests. Support Local Farmers!!!! You`ll eat healthily, and help keep food affordable for more.
Tim Jeffrey