The Archbishop of Canterbury has called for “unsustainable” air-freighted food to be replaced gradually by homegrown produce from thousands of new allotments.
In an interview with The Times, Dr Rowan Williams said that families needed to respond to the threat of climate change by changing their shopping habits and adjusting their diets to the seasons, eating fruit and vegetables that could be grown in Britain.
He said that the carbon footprint of peas from Kenya and other airfreighted food was too high and families should not assume that all types of food would be available through the year. Dr Williams called for more land to be made available for allotments, saying that they would help people to reconnect with nature and wean them off a consumerist lifestyle.
The temperatures have been rising every year since 1998, which is perfect for home gardening.
In other words, begin to go back to how Europe lived in the Middle Ages. Poverty, disease, hunger – anything we have to do to be green.
I take it the good archbishop has little to occupy his time these days?
I think we should go back to medieval strip farming. We can plough our acre and plant turnips and swedes and then after a day of backbreaking work we can return gratefully to our dung and willow walled hovels for a meal of gruel.
I can’t thank the Archbishop enough for his insights and would like to be the first to dig up Lambeth Palace lawns with my plough and horse Dobbin.
And how, exactly, is this going to help all the microenterprise farmers in places like Kenya who make a living for their families and villages through export crops that are being developed?
Lynne, that’s the question I want to ask? I would bet a great deal of time and effort and money has been spent to develop those microenterprises so that those families can support themselves. Too bad, the archbishop says?
I would like to see more “local food” but it seems insane to start pulling the rug out from under people like this – callous and indifferent to the needs of the people producing those foods.
Death Boredom,
Actually the temperatures have been falling since 1998 – that was the high point. [url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8299079.stm] See the BBC Story on this.[/url]
YBIC,
Phil Snyder
I’m so glad I have theologians that can teach me all about food production. Perhaps we should appoint start filling our episcopal sees and seminary teaching positions with shepherds, farmers and fishermen that can teach us about God. Hey, it worked for Jesus…
Unfortunately, as a state official, Abp. Williams has run afoul of the European Community.
http://www.cphpost.dk/climate/91-climate/46859-climate-advice-clashes-with-eu-free-trade-rules.html
AndrewA, you may be on to something….
The ABC’s plan would devestate the fledgeling economies in the countries in Africa with the poorest of the poor. I’m sure it’s unrelated but the people who would be hurt worst by ++Rowan’s plan would be people served by the Global South Primates.
I subscribe to “buy local” when you can, but to mandate such a policy would cause tremendous turmoil to the very people who could least afford it.
This man is a complete fruit loop. I love the quote about “It’s part of reconnecting — the sense of connectedness to natural processes.†Like maybe encouraging connection to the natural process of heterosexual, monogamous marriage. Why would anybody want to be Anglican with this nut as its chief spokesperson?
[Comment deleted by Elf]
John Wilkins, I find it interesting that you assume that saying something upsetting is always a sign of doing the right thing. The KKK says things I find upsetting. They’re doing the right thing?
And Paul said we would be fool’s for Christ’s sake. Not carbon footprints.
What strikes me is the colonialist approach still so alive – the African countries matter as long as we need something from them, but if we’re better off growing our own food, they can go punt.
while we’re on the topic on sustainability Gawain (John Wilkins), what about about that as it relates to ECUSA?
Connection to Canterbury becomes less and less important to my Anglican identity the more I hear from ABC Williams
#13 – Unfortunately, food economics is a bit more complex. Farmers who farm for local economies make more money than those who farm for agribusiness.
One of the unintended consequences of sending free food to Africa has been the decimation of local agriculture. Further, agribusiness tends to undercut the prices small farmers can offer.
I don’t think Rowan was saying local food should be mandated by the state. I think buying local food may be a useful discipline that demonstrates our gratitude for God’s creation.
The ABC aside, I have read articles that state the opposite of what the prevailing opinion here seems to be. Growing nontraditional crops for export is not helping to eradicate poverty in Africa because the workers themselves do not reap the benefits. The nontraditional crops deplete the soil and the practice disrupts traditional African lifestyles. Farmers aren’t producing food for their own villages or for trade with other villages. And in many parts of Africa, the people are overly dependent on food aid from other countries, instead.
The ABC is NOT half-baked on this. From many standpoints, we increasingly are being encouraged to eat fresh, local produce in season. Nutritionally, it is best. But it also gives countries control over their own food supplies, and that’s a safety issue, as well. There is an ethical quagmire surrounding exports, one that is frequently brought to light involving Mexico. Here in Texas, lead-tainted Mexican foods are recalled rather frequently and the farming practices have been revealed. We are “assured” that the standards for exported Mexican foods are much higher than the standards for food produced for Mexicans, which contain unacceptable levels of lead and contaminants. This is unjust.
Comrades, we need to implement a Great Leap Forward, by building factories and farms in our back yards.
Elves – re #12?
John, the archbishop appears to be talking about shipping food from Kenya to the UK. I sometimes read hastily, but a second reading still leaves me with that impression – and the impression that it is the agricultural workers in the African nations who are upset, rather than UK farmers growing food for Africa. If I am reading correctly, then what the archbishop is prescribing is a decimation of African agriculture as it is constituted today.
I don’t see that your responses addresses either my question or my point, so perhaps you were responding to someone else.
The issues are indeed complex and in the full article I think the ABC makes some valid points. Here’s the rub:
Dr Williams said he recognised that many jobs in developing countries depended on exports of fresh produce,
Most certainly this is something we have encouraged them to depend on. This has been yet another of our many “answers” for Africa. Now, just as there are people gaining livelihoods from this, we decide, across the ocean, that no, this won’t do, scratch this. People’s lives are being jerked around in Western “solutions” for poverty in Africa as we try one thing after another.
Teatime, you write:
We are “assured†that the standards for exported Mexican foods are much higher than the standards for food produced for Mexicans, which contain unacceptable levels of lead and contaminants. This is unjust.
I am not familiar with what you describe, so I don’t understand your comment – it is unjust that some foods are being grown in Mexico with acceptable levels of contaminants? If the food were not exported, would that food continue be grown for the local market with an acceptable minimum of contaminants? Or are the quality demands of foreign buyers leading to more acceptable production methods? I would appreciate clarification.
John says farmers make more money serving a local economy, but it sounds that in Mexico, growers are making more money growing for a global market? Do either of you have statistics?
This year has been the 3rd coldest year on record in MN and it was a job to get anything to grow. We had snow last friday, earliest ever with accumulation. Idaho and Montana are having record breaking cold this fall with fears that 1/2 of potato crop will be lost.
Your Grace? Move out of Lambeth Palace, rent a London flat and then you can tell me how I should live. Not before.
The ABC’s comments are of a piece with [i][url=http://new.kendallharmon.net/wp-content/uploads/index.php/t19/article/25856/]A Statement from the Anglican Communion Environmental Network[/url][/i] from earlier today.
I do wish that Christian “progressives” would redirect some of their skepticism about Christian orthodoxy (small “o”!) and train it on climate modeling instead. Always remember: we cannot predict the future. Computer models haven’t actually changed that fundamental reality, but they can give an unfortunate illusion of knowledge.
Sherri2,
Um, only if you’re an “ugly American.” You turned my statement on its head so let me be clear: The injustice lies in the fact that a country would use unsanitary, unsafe methods of food production for its own people while ensuring that the food production for export was safe and met higher standards. But sometimes the unsanitary practices affect exports, too. How soon we forget the Mexican produce tainted with salmonella last year that made many in the U.S. ill.
This is a huge issue with many elements. A knee-jerk reaction to slam whatever +Cantuar says just because he’s saying it won’t do.
Anyone out there besides me that remembers the WWII Victory Gardens? Times were tough and if we didn’t grow it, we didn’t eat it…for the most part. Tried raising four children alone in the ’70s on $3,000.00 a year? If we didn’t raise it we didn’t eat it…for the most part. Farmer’s Market here is June through September; I buy from local (well, an hour’s drive away) farmers because the food is fresh, so much better tasting, and we stay healthier all winter from eating it. I’ll begin growing my own lettuc, spinach, and other cold weather crops as soon as I get enough soil built up in my back yard; an inch and a half of soil on top of rock just won’t grow much. There is nothing morally wrong with growing your own food, even if Rowan Williams suggests it. Nor will it break the backs of the poor people in Africa. Frances Scott
I didn’t mean to turn your statement on its head, teatime. I wanted further information. You’re right that I had forgotten the salmonella scare from Mexican produce (was it just last year?) – we’ve had tainted peanuts in American plants to engage the imagination in my corner of the U.S. And I don’t mean to have a knee-jerk reaction to the ABC – but …. allotments? To feed all of the U.K? Do you think so? His intentions are no doubt good, but his solution is … a bit too simple to be taken with great seriousness.
Like Sherri2, I confess that I sometimes read hastily and may have missed something. And Frances is right on. But, this is really not a comment about a specific statement the Archbishop made… Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong. Probably right! But, I just don’t get it. Why is the Archbishop even going there? Why does he think the Archbishop’s guidance on this topic is wanted or needed? At a party perhaps you express your opinion, you say “As a Christian, I feel we have a responsibility to live in this way, and for me it means…” But, in an interview with the press? Is it because the church is more closely tied to the state in England? I know that the House of Lords is partially composed of “Lords Spiritual” –bishops and archbishops. So I suppose–even if they don’t participate in parliament or vote–they have a tradition of expressing their opinions on this sort of thing? I just find it astounding that he would do this, right or wrong, when the margin for error is so great and the chances of alienating people who need Jesus is so high. We do need to be agents for justice and peace in the world, but is this kind of specificity really the way to do that?
Hey, the Nobel Peace prize is within his grasp.
I don’t know if the ABC has been listening to any of the bishops FROM Africa, but if he’s going to criticize the ‘carbon footprint’ of Kenyan peas, that would be a good place to start before telling them what they need to do. He should ask what they would like HIM to do to help.
We had Bishop Jackson Nzurmbe (?) from Uganda here not too long ago, and he explained in detail about how most people in his area grow subsistence crops, and when a drought hits, it means instant starvation conditions because they do not have the means or the goods for trade for food from other areas.
Just in the last week, two articles have been in the news challenging the climate change ‘consensus’ — one quoted above from the BBC! The debate is finally beginning over the cause of Climate Change (aka Global Warming), and scientists are not going to be silenced for disagreeing with the human cause [b]theory[/b] but rather speak out.
Jim Elliott
For conservation, but against the theory of human caused global warming.
Adjusting their diets to the seasons, eating fruit and vegetables that could be grown in Britain.
That qualifies as eco-nagging. Let’s be thankful to have a good variety of fruits and vegetables available year-round. Let’s also remind Abp. Williams that this form of international trade creates jobs in the Global South.
Aha! Irenaeus, you’ve put your finger on the problem. In Britain, the pesky GS has been exerting entirely too much influence in areas that should be handled by the British, such as theological mores and eating habits. Why else would the ABoC be delivering a lecture on diet?
Personally I think all countries should be food independant. Haiti used to export rice. Given the likelihood of inflation (possibly even hyperinflation) once all the money printing comes home to roost, I think that the ABC may actually have good, pastoral reasons for advising his flock to store food against the lean years ahead.
Me we have several fruit and nut trees, vines, and vegitables growing in our back yard, victory garden, and while our potato crop sucked this year, our cabbages, carrots and beets seem to be thriving. We have chickens and we are looking into experimenting with raising tilapia in barrels.
Carbon footprints and global warming (and yes, we have had global cooling since 1998) is obvious New Age Gaia worship, however feeding your family during what is likely to be a great depression with at best stagflation is not.
I would recommend that everybody take the ABCs advice. Frankly it is the smartest thing I have heard him say since he left Wales.
I might add that I have greatly improved the insulation on my home, and invested in alternate energy sources, in case the grid fails. (Are you aware that thanks to energy taxes we no longer have the capacity to perform maintenance on the grid, which depends on 5 critical nodes? Parts of Ohio were without power for six months a few years ago. A little increased sun spot activity (and we are entering a period of increased activity) might easily see that happen to large parts of the US). We also have food stores, a supply of ammo, and I plan to improve my bow hunting skills though I really, really hope I will not need them as I hate hunting and would only do this if I needed to feed my family. (The deer come into my back yard which are full of acorns (btw acorns are edible and we are experimenting with acorn bread), and bow hunting is legal in my neighborhood in the deer hunting season).
Seriously. What does a nation do when it is dependent on imported food, and the container ships stop coming? Worthless money, the collapse of the container ship industry, drought, soaring oil that suddenly makes agribusiness unprofitable all could suddenly combine to empty WalMart. What is your plan when there is no food in the stores? What will you tell your children when they ask you for bread? Go eat a stone? Will you write your congressmen? Or will you go down into the basement and feed your family from the food you canned? The US while in better shape then other nations, is by no means immune to food shortages, just because we haven’t yet exported our agricultural industry. The new idiotic global warming taxes on cows rear ends has already decimated our cattle industry. Last year famers were selling off their beeft cattle. This year they are selling off their dairy. I keep watching the prices of farmland (I hope to buy eventually) and they have been in steady decline. It’s a credit dependent business and the banks aren’t lending.
It would not be difficult, in a period of hyperinflation, for parts of the US to face a food shortage, especially in the larger cities. Those of use who live near rural areas will hopefully be able to barter. I plan to make friends with local farmers and hope to barter. Right now they are teaching me important stuff like canning, knitting, sewing, and the like.
He sounds like he’s all for getting back to his roots, kind of like that gentleman farmer Charles of Wales, or Phillip the Man Who Follows Elizabeth Around. What M’lord Archbishop needs is a good fief and a hoard of peasants to make it fruitful. He has a good start on a dunghill already.
“Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin.” (Voltaire)
Well, Clueless, if the economy crashes to the extent you are preparing for, I’ll be a goner within a few months without my thyroid medications.
The consumption of out-of-season imported food is going to be regulated pretty much by economic factors. People with less money to spend will naturally buy lower-priced produce, and that’s going to be things grown near to home in season.
“I’ll be a goner within a few months without my thyroid medications”.
I would advise putting in a years supply of thyroid medicines. (No point in buying more, they will go bad, and in a year some sort of black market system will be available).
“The consumption of out-of-season imported food is going to be regulated pretty much by economic factors. ”
Only if the government permits it to be regulated by economic factors. If instead there are price controls, and regulation, then there will be food shortages. The price controls and regulation in medicaid/medicare is what has resulted in the lack of providers.
Remember the 1970s gasoline shortages? The price didn’t jump to “unaffordable” levels, gasoline simply disappeared. Do you remember the long lines, and the rationing? Bread and cereal will not go to 20 dollars (grocers would be crucified if it did). Bread will simply disappear from the shelves.
If a country prints money, why should another country trade valuble commodities like grain or oil for worthless pieces of green paper? We have gotten away with this because our debt is denominated in dollars and the dollar is the reserve currency. I would be very suprised if we can get away with it for another 10 years, and I’m not sure we could get away with it for five. Somewhere between 2 and 5 years is the time I think we have to prepare.
I am currently shifting back to one of those awful mail-order pharmacy deals. The benefit is that I can game the system to get six to nine months ahead on my prescription refills.
You’re absolutely right about the effects of government-imposed price controls. If we repeat the Nixon and Carter mistakes we should expect the same results.
#25 — Spot on, Frances Scott!
I’m not old enough to remember the victory gardens but, when I was growing up, most families had a garden. Families and neighbors would share produce and the bounty from their fruit trees with each other. I remember the end-of-season canning sessions at my aunt’s house and my mother preparing foods to be frozen for future use.
We looked forward to the different foods the growing seasons would bring and my mum turned up her nose at produce that was “shipped up” because it lacked flavor. We had a few hunters in our family, too, and could always look forward to venison. A neighbor’s daughter and son-in-law were farmers and we were able to purchase fresh beef and choose the cuts we wanted when they slaughtered.
This was the norm when I was growing up. It wasn’t termed “green” and we didn’t know anything about “carbon footprints.” It simply made sense. And, of course, we didn’t have to worry back then about government reports saying our food supply is VERY vulnerable to tampering by terrorists since much of what we consume travels here by ship and inspections are woefully inadequate at our ports.
I enjoy watching Gordon Ramsay’s shows because once you strip away the bluster, he is absolutely right about many things. And one of his campaigns is for restaurants and consumers to buy local and cook simple, rustic dishes for taste and cost-savings. He slashes restaurants’ food expenses by taking them to local produce, meat and fish markets to buy food, instead of purchasing more expensive imports. He also shows chefs and cooks how to prepare delicious meals from inexpensive cuts, extolling the virtues of ox tail, mutton, and eel, which were common staples in decades past. The point is that we can eat better, healthier, and cheaper if we just rethink our buying and cooking habits.
Anyone out there besides me that remembers the WWII Victory Gardens? Times were tough and if we didn’t grow it, we didn’t eat it…for the most part.
I don’t remember it, but I’ve heard some poignant descriptions. My mother grew up on a farm – they had enough food during the Depression and war. A woman I interviewed a few years ago was reduced to tears when she described her family’s plight during the Depression – they rented, in town. They nearly starved. I’m all in favor of allotments/home gardens and farmer’s markets – when they are available and/or possible. But how many urban dwellers have that option? How many live in regions where the soil is not sufficiently productive or the growing season isn’t long enough or warm enough?
Are the British to do without wine and oranges since they generally don’t grow there outside of hothouses? It just seems ludicrous to propose allotments as an answer, while at the same time urging us to pull the rug out of Kenyan agriculture that was almost certainly originally promoted by the West. I think the ABC’s words would have made more of an impression had they been less specific or prescriptive.
” A woman I interviewed a few years ago was reduced to tears when she described her family’s plight during the Depression – they rented, in town. They nearly starved. I’m all in favor of allotments/home gardens and farmer’s markets – when they are available and/or possible. But how many urban dwellers have that option? How many live in regions where the soil is not sufficiently productive or the growing season isn’t long enough or warm enough?”
When food is unavailable, then one must find ways to procure it. (This may include moving from town). Some ways might include growing food in one’s apartment. I have been impressed at how well hanging baskets work. Ditto, growing potatoes in tires on a balcony. A few sheets of plastic make an effective greenhouse for extending the growing season. I am experimenting with dwarf fruit trees that I will bring inside my sun room in the winter.
Fish grown in barrels can (in theory) be grown in small spaces including in the city. They can be frozen, or salted, or canned for the winter. It used to be that hens were common in the city, and were fed on kitchen scraps.
The bottom line is, if food is unavailable, then it is up to each individual to find a solution for themselves. Government handouts are a great solution right up until the point at which they collapse. So what is your solution? Because starvation is the default option of societies who fail to prepare adequately (regardless of the “compassion” of her citizens and the citizens of other lands). Sometimes that starvation is obvious, with Sudan being the current pathetic example. However after the fall of the Soviet Union, the life expectancy dropped quietly to about age 50 for a while, and nobody seemed to notice. Folks died quietly. They died because food became scarce, and when malnourished people get infections they turn into pneumonias. They died because the antibiotics they needed were not made locally and were unavailable to any but the well connected. They died because the medicine they had depended upon for their angina or their diabetes, or their asthma was no longer available.
Nobody noticed that they died. There were no massive waves of people dying noisily in the street, and no stick figures with protruding bellies for photographers to capture. There were no reports in the Western Press about how rotten the hospitals had become in Moscow, and how folks, young folks, were dying of diseases that formally would have been treated as an outpatient.
When societies collapse, the brunt of that collapse falls on the old, the sick and the poor. But this collapse does not need to be dramatic. It may even appear to be a good thing. The Soviet Union’s deficit improved as the old, and the sick and the poor no longer needed the supports of the State, because suddenly they weren’t there.
I think it would be helpful for folks to read Dimitry Orlov (some articles below). Orlov survived the USSR collapse. Unfortunately, economies do collapse. Even “good guy” economies.
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_16876.cfm
http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259
In some cities, the city councils are helping neighbors turn trashy lots into community gardens. I’ve seen TV reports on this and it’s absolutely wonderful! Talk about winners on all sides! The inner city youth, especially, are getting a fabulous lesson in food production and nutrition and everyone is getting good, fresh food to enjoy. Rooftop gardens are popular, too.
As for food year-round, you learning canning, freezing, and dehydrating techniques. That’s what people did in generations past. Anyone remember root cellars?
oops, learning should be learn. I tried to take it back but was too slow!
I am all in favor of “victory gardens” and hunting. I have had my own garden and have hunted for food. Just a thought though, for those inclined to prepare for hard times…most of the produce we plant and grow these days is sterile. You can’t save seeds from your crop and expect that they will grow when you plant them next year. The seeds of almost all produce that you can buy in normal outlets are sterile. They will grow, but their seeds will not. They have been genetically engineered. You can still buy seeds that are not hybrids. A quick search on the internet will provide you with sources for non-hybrids or open-pollinated seeds. They are also sometimes called heirloom seeds or survivalist seeds. I hope that is helpful.
All my seeds are heirloom. (They taste better too). And many different people using heirloom seeds reduces the chance that a single blight will cause famine (as occured in Ireland), due to genetic diversity. It is madness to hold our wheat and corn harvests hostage to single or a handful of genetic variants.
I might add for those of you who live in heavily shaded areas, mushrooms are high in protein and can be fairly easily grown on rotting timbers (DONT use treated wood, treated wood contains arsenic). My backyard would not be normally considered ideal farm material. Initially the half acre plot was heavily shaded on all sides, mountanous, with small pebbles covering most of the area, to keep the land from washing away. I felled about 12 trees to make sure I had an area for my orchard, and planted fruit bearing vines and the fruit trees. The vegetable garden is grown in raised beds, covered with chicken wire to keep out pests, The pebbles surrounding it actually are helpful since it keeps down weeds. I have shade loving plants (mostly herbs, garlic, egyptian walking onions) in the back yard which is shaded by white oaks which drop a bountiful acorn harvest. The west side which is entirely forested will be devoted to mushroom cultivation as small scale experiments seem promising. The tomatoes, peppers and beans hang off the upper deck where the deer cant get them, chickens and fish go under the deck. It is actually really helpful to have chickens as it greatly accelerates my compost manufacturing abilities, though I have regular composters and worm composters as well. I have rain barrels attached to my gutters which provide water for the above.
This was not terribly expensive, and if I were handier, stronger and owned a pick up truck that would have allowed me to more effectively collect the free mulch and dirt that my county generates, could have been done for very little. Further, the result is not only cost effective, but is extremely beautiful. My neighbors are under the impression that I “just love gardening” and making my garden look pretty.
It is possible to be independent for food, even if you live in a suburb. That is my goal.
I might add that one does not need a rooster to have eggs. Hens lay sterile eggs without a rooster, but they do lay, daily. It is the rooster that makes noise. hens are very good neighbors.