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"hope through next generation science and technology"  

Part 6: Necessary Components for Community Sustainability

Food

What we have done to our food supply is truly criminal. First, in many ways with the introduction of hydrogenated oils, MSG, and artificial chemicals, including but not limited to artificial dyes and sweeteners, our food supply has become semi-toxic. And these toxins may be one of the primary long-term contributors to the breakdown of health and well-being of the American public. This is bad enough with regards to the sustainability of community but what we have done to the actual production of our food is even worse.

With the misuse of science and technology we have created a highly unstable food supply.  There are two reasons for this. To begin with we have decimated the biodiversity of our food supply. The large corporations that have specialized in seed production have given us limited food stuffs, principally corn, wheat and soy beans. But what is even worse within these three broad food groups the genetic makeup has been greatly curtailed.   And all of this has been done for the worst of possible reasons:  They have done it in the name of cost effectiveness as viewed from three-month financial periods.

The potential problem with this can be found in what happened in the Irish potato famine of the 1800s and, more recently, in what came of the first type of banana marketed in the United States. Reducing the biodiversity on which your very survival depends is exceedingly stupid and potentially fatal.  When you allow this to happen to your food, it leaves you open to the possibility of a sudden, catastrophic disaster arising as a result of nature suddenly producing an unanticipated mutation in microbial life.

Now as it stands, most modern farmers have become absolutely and totally dependent on large-scale corporate mechanisms for their continued success. But even for those few farmers that have foresight to rebel against this and have enough resources to introduce competition, they face a very severe hazard.  These colossal agricultural businesses will use legal action to bring them into line.  In fact, there have been a number of farmers already subjected to such behavior from the agricultural conglomerates.  And this is where the big problem lies.  If the financial mechanisms break down, these large agricultural businesses, built upon debt and the misuse of courts, will also collapse.  And when they go, what will be the fate of most present-day farmers? And more importantly, what will be the fate of your local grocery store?

The second major problem with our present food production is the aggressive demineralization of our soils. Plants need 4 things to grow; they need C02, water, nitrogen and phosphate compounds, and finally small amounts of trace elements.

In the last one hundred years, the American food production mechanism has concentrated its efforts to maximize plant growth by providing an optimum amount of water and fertilizer. Yet for the most part, they have completely ignored the trace elements.

We are now reaching a point where our soils have been demineralized to a critical level. This is especially evident in areas with more marginal soils, one classic example being large areas of Missouri. What this means is that when communities need to begin to rely upon local soils, they may not have what is necessary to produce the range of crops they will need for sustaining their population.

Fortunately, the correct use of science and technology can overcome the previous abuses. Our present knowledge of the world offers us three longer term solutions and if things get critical, a fourth short term solution to our food supply.

The first much more durable, viable, long-term solutions are hydroponics and aquaponics; advanced greenhouse tech-nologies that can, among other things, utilize artificial lighting; and, finally, aggressive remineralization of the soils.

Unfortunately the time frame in which to get plants up to production could be longer than our survivability in the absence of food. So, if things get extremely difficult, we may become dependent on a fourth technology which uses various bacteria to produce food from cellulose. This will be possible with the wide ranging advances that have been made in bacteriology.

Clean Water Production and Delivery
Food
Shelter and Transportation
Lighting
Heating
Clothing
Medicine
Sanitation and Waste Disposal
Generation of Raw Materials
Chemical Processing
Processing of Raw Materials - Tool and Die
Communication
Computing Technology
Education
Maintaining of Standards
Justice
Defense

Part 7: Our Future Under the Fourth Industrial Revolution

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