Kelley

Food for Thought

My kitchen knows me well.
As a mostly-stay-at-home mom, a great deal of my time is spent in that culinary space, the food place of our home. I plan, prepare, feed and clean up after everyone. And then plan, prepare, feed and clean...all over again. And again. And again. And again.
Breakfast-time, lunch-time, dinner-time.
The sun goes down and the sun comes up, and it starts all over.
The reality of this is that my days revolve around food.
Food.
Yes, the most basic element of our human existence. Second to water, food keeps our very species here and thriving on earth.
With this realization, that the clock I live by is driven by the quest to nourish me and my family, EVERY DAY, I am struck by another very serious fact.
Our world food supply is in trouble.
It sounds crazy, because as Americans we are used to seeing our supermarket shelves lined floor to ceiling with every food choice imaginable and worldwide produce at any time of the year at our fingertips. Watermelon in December, no problem. And which of the 24 brands of wheat bread would you like today?
Food shortage? No way!
But agricultural experts have predicted that in order to keep up with the world's population, farmers need to double food production in just a decade.
Twice as much food in our grocery stores?
Lester Brown, who is the President of the Earth Policy Institute in Washington D.C., says we are in a food crisis.
According to him, our fixation on oil insecurity in the United States has actually caused a food insecurity. The price of grain will go up indefinitely, he said, by the demand for grain-derived fuel. "We need to rethink our focus on fuel," he told NPR today. "It really comes down to food versus fuel."
One-fourth of our country's grain production goes toward ethanol production. However, according to Brown, a 25-gallon tank of ethanol fuel would actually feed one person for one full year.
A tank of gas versus one year of food.
Hmmmm.
Those who produce and use such fuel are receiving kickbacks in the form of our tax dollars. We are essentially subsidizing a rise in food prices.
So, I sit here in my kitchen (where else would I be?) and ponder these ideas.
A garden in Central Oregon might give me some of the food I need for, oh maybe TWO months if I'm a lucky green thumb...
And buying locally to support those farmers in my region could help...
But what about the population of China, a huge empire that is growing exponentially and only producing more mouths who need FOOD?
I'm just a mostly-stay-at-home-mom, who revolves around food mostly-all-day-long.
But maybe if I'm a lucky green thumb, and maybe if I can successfully feed my child through adolescence, maybe one day I can revolve my day around the solution to this food crisis rather than the unyielding need for food itself- the very problem.