Growing local food must surely be one of the best things we could do to build resilient communities and increase our ability to thrive into the future. As we move into a lower energy future (got to think of another term for this, as it comes across as a bit of a downer), learning the art of local food production and processing (including cooking) is not likely to be a wasted effort.

The following article from Michael Brownlee, is one of the most thorough pieces I have read on this subject, and if you don’t read any others, this one will get you up to speed with the issues and the opportunities.

I am only offering you a short clip from it here that begins with a quote from Rob Hopkins. You can read the article in full here, on Transition Times.

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As Rob Hopkins, the founder of the Transition movement, says:

“Inherent within the challenges of peak oil and climate change is an extraordinary opportunity to reinvent, rethink and rebuild the world around us.”

In the face of all this, one of the most important things we can do—and must do—is to completely rebuild our local foodsheds—from multiplying backyard and frontyard gardens, to converting our local agricultural lands to growing food for local consumption, to rebuilding local food storage and distribution systems, to training people to learn farming as a wise and essential—and sustainable—career choice.

Not only will all this help reduce the amount of fossil fuels embedded in today’s food from fertilizer, pesticides and transport, but adopting a more local organic diet will greatly contribute to our health, and our children’s health. It will also reconnect us with those who grow our food, with the land that supports and nurtures us, with the seasons, and with the natural processes and cycles that are fundamental to all life. In the process, we’ll rediscover what community really means. And for most of us, that will be an unexpected and inspiring revelation.