This week…
Growing food to ensure the world has enough to eat has long been both a challenge and a priority for human societies - and is certainly no easy task. We have managed to enormously multiply the food we produce (and consume) over the past 70 years, enabled by cheap and abundant fossil energy and related technology. What happens when energy prices rise, and/or energy availability diminishes? What scenarios and paths will then be available to us?
This week's podcast guest is my good friend Jason Bradford, an author, activist, farmer, and teacher. He and I discuss how modern agriculture is an energy sink rather than an energy source. This not only involves tractors, and oil for machinery but pesticides, how we fertilize our crops and the destruction of structured, healthy, living soils. In a world where there is less cheap energy, less space, and more people to feed, we'll need to rethink how we grow food - it is a daunting, but not impossible task.
This is an interesting conversation for everyone - whether you’re an expert farmer or know nothing about food, I hope you listen, learn something new, and enjoy.
In case you missed it...
This past Sunday I posted Episode #3 of my Frankly series, where I give unscripted riffs about current events and concepts relevant to our lives. This most recent one was on Energy Blindness; what does it mean and how is it relevant to Russia, Ukraine, and current energy prices.