Climate breakdown and war are already having a devastating effect on food prices globally, with all signs suggesting that it will only get worse.
In 2023, global yields of staples such as rice, soybeans, potatoes and olive oil fell due to adverse climate conditions. The ongoing war in Ukraine threatens to cut off the largest producer of sunflower oil and a significant player in the global supply of various cereal crops² from its customers and recipients of food aid worldwide. Prices of fertiliser, on which our system of industrial agriculture depends, have risen dramatically in recent years, with Russia and Belarus being the world's leading suppliers and China a close second. War is spreading from the Middle East and Eastern Africa, increasing the need for food aid and taking people out of food production. The Suez Canal is under blockade, and fuel prices impact the price of all products while war with China over Taiwanese microchips essential for modern military tech becomes increasingly likely. War is a leading driver of fossil fuel pollution, which creates the climate crisis in the first place.
The response of the global ruling class to the challenge of producing enough food to sustain the rising global population during a climate crisis is simply to allow the crisis to reduce the population. To them, a reduction in the global population means that they can live their carbon-intensive lifestyles by offsetting them against the millions that will no longer be contributing to the problem by being dead. Better still (from their perspective), this "solution" doesn't require them to do anything; they can simply abdicate their responsibilities and wait for the crisis they created to play out. Whilst the ruling class were once heavily dependent on the global working class to supply the products and services for their lives of luxury, automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence can now provide for them - or so they believe. Machines don't go on strike, and only a few human workers are required to keep them working. War, hunger, disease, automation and AI are their weapons for surviving the crisis.
To survive the meta-crisis that I've outlined, we must become proficient at securing local food supplies sustainably for ourselves and our communities using foraging, permaculture, and mutual aid.
Permaculture practices remove the need for industrial chemical fertilisers and pesticides using techniques for naturally replacing nutrients, nurturing the beneficial life in the soil and deterring pests at all stages of food growth. Disturbing the soil as little as possible allows the soil microbiome to thrive without being harmed periodically by ploughing, which decimates fungal networks, earthworm activity and other life in the soil. A thriving soil microbiome facilitates the transport of nutrients to plant roots and increases the amount of nutrients stored in the soil. Fungal networks in undisturbed soil develop mutually beneficial relationships with plant roots and can exchange nutrients for carbon, which the plants produce during photosynthesis; storing carbon in the soil in this way removes it from the atmosphere and puts it where it can help to grow more plants which can sequester more carbon in a positive cycle against the climate crisis. Mulching the soil with any organic matter allows nutrients to constantly work their way back into the soil, feeding the microbes and fungi that help plants grow and prevent soil erosion. Maintaining living roots in the soil all year round - by incorporating fruit and nut trees amongst vegetable gardens, cover cropping during the winter, and generally being lenient on the weeds - helps to maintain soil structure, which also nurtures the soil microbiome, maintains soil structure and prevents nutrient runoff. Companion planting can deter pests and prevent disease; by planting a plant which is vulnerable to a particular pest near a plant which deters that pest, you can negate the need for pesticides, which harm the wider soil microbiome as well as the pests and remove the requirement for chemical fertilizers.
The widespread success of these techniques and many others suggests that there is a viable alternative to the industrial agriculture which has been a major factor in the creation of the climate crisis.
Foraging food is also a powerful tool against the threat of mounting food insecurity. By foraging food which has grown without Human intervention we're ensuring that no-dig principles are followed. It is often claimed that foraging isn't a sustainable solution because if everyone did it then we'd quickly exhaust the supply of food and ruin the environment for other animals. Whilst there's some truth to this, I believe that it is greatly exaggerated. If done with some basic principles in mind, then foraging can actually increase the overall yield of food from foraged sources.
When you pick up a mushroom and carry it home in a mesh bag, you are giving it a far greater chance to widely distribute its spores than if it were left on the ground, meaning that many more colonies of that species can be seeded and many more of them can grow the following year. Similarly, when you pick a small amount of vegetation from a plant or tree, it responds by producing more growth hormone to replace the material which you've taken. If you pick the top off a young nettle it is likely to produce several side shoots which could grow five times the number of fresh tops in its place. Even some root crops have evolved to break into small pieces which can regrow if any are left in the ground. A small amount of knowledge of these phenomena goes a long way towards making your foraging a net positive on the life of the surrounding environment all while providing food with no emissions.
Finally, foraging and permaculture activity tends to create mutual aid networks almost automatically. Growers and foragers always want to talk to each other to learn and share, and inevitably find themselves with gluts of food which they're more than willing to give away. This can easily develop into wider mutual aid networks whereby whole communities can give and receive such that everyone's needs are met sustainably and without financial barriers or labour exploitation. By so doing we can free ourselves from dependence on the ruling class which is happy to see us starve, insure our communities against threats to our food security and dramatically reduce the environmental impact of our food intake.
Ava
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