{"id":47672,"date":"2019-08-06T12:33:48","date_gmt":"2019-08-06T17:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=47672"},"modified":"2019-08-06T12:35:12","modified_gmt":"2019-08-06T17:35:12","slug":"our-veggie-gardens-wont-feed-us-in-a-real-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=47672","title":{"rendered":"Our Veggie Gardens Won\u2019t Feed us in a Real Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our Veggie Gardens Won\u2019t Feed us in a Real Crisis<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A haul from the Author\u2019s urban farming operation in Portland, Sept. 15, 2007 (Photo C.H.White)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Massive flooding and heavier than normal precipitation across the US Midwest this year delayed or entirely prevented the planting of many crops. The situation was sufficiently widespread that it was visible from space<\/a>. The trouble isn\u2019t over yet: Hotter-than-normal temperatures predicted to follow could adversely affect corn pollination<\/a>. Projections of lower yields have already stimulated higher prices in UN grain indexes and US ethanol<\/a>. Additionally, the USDA is expecting harvests to be of inferior quality<\/a>. Furthermore, the effects of this year could bleed into 2020; late planting leads to late harvesting which delays fall tilling<\/a>, potentially until next spring, when who knows what Mother Nature will deliver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accuweather\u2019s characterization of this as a \u201cone-of-a-kind growing season\u201d<\/a> is literally true only in terms of its exact circumstances (given increasingly chaotic events) but not in its intensity (which will surely be exceeded). Prudence would dictate that we heed this year\u2019s events as a warning and get serious about making preparations for worse years. Literal cycles of \u201cfeast or famine\u201d have marked agriculture since its birth and sooner or later we will experience significant shortages here in the US, if not from the weather, than from war or lack of resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Midwest floods and their possible repercussions for the food supply got some attention in the news (though not enough). One of the most common suggestions I saw on social media was: \u201cPlant a garden!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If only it were that simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used to be a small-scale organic farmer so take it from me: totally feeding yourself from your own efforts is very, very challenging. Though some friends and I tried over multiple seasons, we never succeeded, or even came anywhere close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Veggie Gardens Won\u2019t Feed us in a Real Crisis Massive flooding and heavier than normal precipitation across the US Midwest this year delayed or entirely prevented the planting of many crops. The situation was sufficiently widespread that it was visible from space. The trouble isn\u2019t over yet: Hotter-than-normal temperatures predicted to follow could adversely affect corn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[20,288,1001,26477,19307,6726,3207,6013,827,4717],"class_list":["post-47672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-agriculture","tag-extreme-weather","tag-flooding","tag-food-producton","tag-kollibri-terre-sonnenblume","tag-local-food","tag-local-food-production","tag-organic-farming","tag-united-states","tag-usda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47673,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47672\/revisions\/47673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}