Tofu, Tree Farms...

Tofu, Tree Farms and Electric Tractors:

Image credit: Bountiful Backyards

As the wonderful BBC documentary A Farm for the Future has shown us all too clearly, modern agriculture is woefully dependent on fossil fuels, and oil in particular. And with International Energy Agency (IEA) whistleblowers suggesting peak oil may be nearer than we think, and even the IEA chief saying time is not on our side, we'd do well to start designing our way out of an oil-based food system. So what might that transition look like?

Many activists are putting time into community nut and fruit tree plantings as a source of food security. (The image above comes from an orchard planted in my town last week.) And those cutting back on meat consumption, and especially grain fed meats, are undoubtedly doing their part to move away from oil-intensive food.

Hard to break the fossil habit on large farm factories but in our own yards - it is all your muscle power.