EMERGENCY RISK REDUCTION

An immediate human need after a disaster event is availability of food. We can’t live long without it. I live off the Pacific Coast, on Vancouver Island, where the vast majority of food is imported. This is true in almost all metro areas of North America, but is accentuated because of the water barrier to this island. The ferry system that transports hundreds of lorries weekly is fragile. A minor disaster could cause disruptions.

This gives new impetus to the term ‘local production’.  The present debate is, “what is local vs. non-local?” Can we live the “100 mile diet?” In emergency response, the issues are irrelevant. Having access to food is imperative, and something we take for granted in our interconnected economy.  Although interwoven, our systems are fragile, none more so than the food web. Glance at the green grocer, the source of the foods, shelf life, and quantity. Imagine a week of non-delivery. The shelves would be bare, literally. People could fight over the last tomatoes, lettuce, or carrots.

The solution:  A simple vegetable garden. It provides: food availability (it’s nearby!), access (I can get it with little or no money!), and utilization (it’s nutritious!) . Ok, we’re not talking bananas, pineapples, and oranges here in Canada, but we are able to grow plenty to mitigate impact from a disaster. We can feed ourselves.

There are challenges. Approximately 2/3 of the population in the US and Canada live in urban settings. Even on today’s farms and ranches, almost all  focus on production of one or a few crops, with no vegetable garden in sight.  I live in a high-density area of Victoria, BC, surrounded by condos, townhouses, and apartments, without the luxury of land on which to garden.  But we must think creatively. Patches of land are out there, maybe just not outside our door. Here, we can grow an amazing amount of produce on a 5m x 5 m plot. That’s the size of an average living room. You may  be saying, “Wish we had good soil like that.” The  fact is that you could. It’s the miracle of composting, applying it on the soil, and watching biology work.

Forget the organic vs. non-organic debate. The debate is biology (micro-organisms in a living soil) vs. chemistry (pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, etc.)  In three years, you can see a noticeable change in worn out soil. In five years, a transformation.  The end result is the elimination of expensive and harmful pesticides and fertilizers. “Weeds” are part of this system, but this new “living” soil can support both the vegetable crop and other plants. These “weeds” become vital mulch, turned back into the soil to feed the microbes, increasing fertility for the next growing season. Combined with composing (what do you do with your table scraps?), the soil is alive!

This also makes irrelevant the GMO vs. non-GMO debate. The goal of GMO is increased yield.  High production using a GMO seed and farming system requires the chemistry inputs. It is not sustainable and literally kills the soil’s microbial kingdom. On the other hand, the biology system increases production, enriches the soil, and is sustainable. The choice is simple, especially for smaller “preparedness gardens.”

For emergency preparedness related to food supply, the other choices are not to eat, or to stockpile a small mountain of preserved food (i.e. canned, dried, pickled, etc.)  The first choice is irrational, and the second unsustainable. Therefore, growing one’s food supply — or largely supplementing it — is the only viable and practical option to preparedness. I will speak to this further in a future blog.

Thanks for reading.  Please comment!

Monty