Zane's World
food, not zombies
By: Zane Fischer 10/28/2008
I recently read the Church of the Latter Day Saints’ “Preparedness Manual,” which the Mormon Church distributes to its members. The manual is a detailed and thoughtful plan on how to stockpile food and supplies, and develop the necessary skills to survive the_______(fill in the blank: zombie apocalypse, economic collapse, assault of the New World Order, nuclear holocaust, peak oil crisis, electro-magnetic pulse terrorist attack, etc.).
The Mormon community isn’t proposing to live out a video game- and movie-fueled juvenile fantasy, nor does it promote the stereotypical survivalist, an assault weapon-hoarding loner in full tactical battle gear. Instead, it puts forth a method for prospering in a world that has proven to be volatile and unpredictable, and where prosperity is a fickle friend to comfortable nations. But the methods are still a bit, um, insular and extremist.
Assuming an actual zombie invasion is low on the probability scale, but fuel and/or food shortages—such as those that have recently rocked regions around the world, including the southern US—are potential situations over which it is worth hedging some bets, how do communities like Santa Fe best secure themselves? The key issue is food. In the winter of 2006/2007, more than 20 inches of snow fell on parts of Santa Fe proper, effectively shutting down the city for almost two days. Because grocery stores stock approximately three days worth of food for a community’s needs, it’s apparent any significant disruption in the timing of supplies will pinch.
Michael Pollan wrote in the Oct. 12 issue of the New York Times Magazine that the next president will have to deal with food policy on a level not experienced for decades. Pollan points out that rising food costs are going to force food to the forefront of economic policy along with energy and national security. Pollan’s article, “Farmer In Chief: What the next president can and should do to remake the way we grow and eat our food,” reminded me of the Sustainable Santa Fe Plan assembled by the city’s Green Team.
Katherine Mortimer, supervising planner for the City of Santa Fe, worked with the city’s energy specialist, Nick Schiavo, and project specialist, Maria Vigil, to coordinate the volunteer Sustainable Santa Fe Commission to draft the plan. They will take it before the City Council on Oct. 29 to seek “official adoption of the strategy,” Mortimer says. The ambitious effort sets a framework for adopting policies that look at the overlapping areas of environmental stewardship, economic health and social justice. There are nearly a dozen focus areas in the plan, including one described as “food systems.”
More than 15 action items are proposed in the food system, many under the rubric of developing and promoting a regional “food shed.” That means working with Santa Fe County, Rio Arriba County and other neighbors to maximize local-food production and work together to encourage small farms and to maintain water rights for responsible, conservation-minded agricultural use. Within the city limits, sites (potentially including public parks) for community gardens and community green houses are encouraged and incentives put in place for those willing to provide land for hosting such projects.
“Urban harvest” programs—such as those described by the Canadian radio show, Deconstructing Dinner, in its series “Farming in the City”—which minimize the transportation costs associated with food and ensure frequently wasted foods (such as fruit from unharvested trees) are delivered to restaurants, markets, shelters and whoever is able to use them.
Mortimer says there is some desire on the part of the City Council to have firm agreements in place with the county and other partners before approving the plan, but she thinks it will go forward regardless. “We’ve communicated with the county all along about cooperating on a number of issues that are really regional in nature and they are certainly amenable to that,” she says. “I think they will take our plan as a model, once we’ve adopted it, and put something very similar in place as their own policy.”
The county has frequently demonstrated progressive leadership—especially in terms of sustainable practice—without waiting around to see if the city is on board, so hopefully the City Council will do the same by approving the Sustainable Santa Fe Plan. More importantly, the Council needs to support implementation of the plan, through funding, streamlined permitting and approving any necessary zoning amendments.
“I know people who are buying stacks of rice and beans, and stuff just in case,” Mortimer says. “That may not be a bad idea, but I don’t know how sustainable it is on a community-wide basis.”
Comments (5)
There are plenty of reasons to get excited about community agriculture, beyond the apocalyptic.
1. You don't know what you're eating otherwise. America does not label her GMOs. Industrialized processed food is a whole 'nother nutritional beast.
2. Industrial agriculture is destructive to nature and the lives of small farmers. It is also productively inefficient. Monocultures require large amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, as widely planting one crop decimates land fertility, and makes the crop unnaturally susceptible to disease and pests. Conversely, diverse polycultures (which constitute traditional, historically effective forms of agriculture) have higher crop yields, naturally keep land fertile through crop rotations, and are less susceptible to blights and pests, because of their biodiversity.
There are numerous environmental and social reasons to support efficient local polycultures. One political reason could be...
3. to rebel against the profit-driven corporations that control our global food supply, and destroy local food cultures and food democracy in the process. In "Stolen Harvest," a book Vandana Shiva published in 2000, we find that more than 90% of our global food supply is produced and controlled by 4 multinational agri-corporations.
Some travesties agri-corporations promote include the institution of laws that prevent farmers from saving seed, which thus requires annual purchases of seed from agri-corporations, and the intellectual property-based lawsuits that have been pursued by such corporations against farmers who have had their natural crops involuntarily invaded by copyrighted GE crops. The social consequences of the increased costs of farming created by these laws and these corporations can be seen in wide-spread farmer suicides which have occurred in poor nations like India.
The bottom line is that our global food production has been industrialized and rendered to be productively inefficient, so as to commodify every aspect of the growing process and create extraordinary profits for agri-corporations.
Monocultures need pesticides and fertilizers that traditional polycultures don't. These products are manufactured by the same agribusiness giants who control most of the global food supply. GE technologies require licensing fees and annual purchases of GE seed. Many studies find them to have lower crop yields than unadulterated crops, and also to be more requiring of pesticides. The same institutions profit here.
4. Politics, productive efficiency, and apocalypse aside, there is something to be said for the reclamation of community a community garden can provide. There is something to be said for the lost parts of our own human nature that can be reclaimed in the act of growing our own food.
It is magnificent and exciting that the City of Santa Fe is actively embracing local, sustainable agriculture.
Thanks for the note.
I can understand your defensiveness, but I think you're being a little sensitive.
For the record, I called the Mormon plan "detailed and thoughtful" and a "method for prospering."
The practice is insular because it is encouraged within a specific, definable group of people. It is extremist, because Mormons are encouraged to stock far more supplies than the average person would consider prudent and/or achievable.
I personally am impressed by the practice and I applaud you for sharing your supplies with those in need, as I hope anyone would.
No offense was intended and I regret that you felt otherwise.
I'm sorry that you feel as if Mormon food storage is " ... um, insular and extremist." As a devout Mormon, let me tell you how our family used our food storage. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, thousands of refugees began pouring into Atlanta. Since we had about $5000 in delicious food just hanging out in our basement, and because we were overwhelmed with concern for these strangers, we donated all of it anonymously to help feed them. Now we're just re-building it as time and money permit.
Is that what you meant by "zombie apocalypse"?
I honestly am amazed when ill-informed (you don't even get the name of the Church correct -- you forgot "Jesus Christ") reporters like you take snarky shots at us -- we're just trying to be good citizens and neighbors. If a column like this one represents the mainstream, it's no wonder we seem extremist to you.
I can appreciate the humor. It's not fair though to say that a food storage is only for extreme or apocalyptic events. I had a mormon neighbor once who had a one-year food storage that he showed me. At the time I thought he was just a wacko until he was laid off his well-paying job and went several months trying to find a new one. In the interim he found miscellaneous lower-paying work to get him and his family by. He later told me how glad he was to have the food storage. His temporary jobs paid enough to pay the bills, but not enough to do all he was doing before. Because he didn't have to buy much food, he was able to survive the rough times on less pay. Whatever anyone wants to call it, that guy's food storage saved his bacon. (funny) Without it he would have gone bankrupt or begging from food from charities. That kind of foresight is rare in my book. I don't consider him wacko anymore. He's one of the better put-together people I know.
To set the record straight, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) has no such "preparedness manual." The church has provided guidance to all people, members or not, on being self reliant. You can find this information at
www.providentliving.org
Anything else, unless it comes from the church itself is only one persons opinion. FYI