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From David in Israel Re: Some Preparedness Implications of Rapidly Escalating Fuel Prices
James
We are all seeing the rise in fuel prices affecting food prices. I would like
the readers to do a acres of farm to miles traveled evaluation of their plans
when planning for a world with sparse petro-fuels.
The current option is to ignore the prices and continue to fuel large SUVs
and pickup trucks even for for "pick me up milk" runs.
A fuel efficient car or motorcycle makes more sense depending on the number
of passengers travelling.
Bio-diesel or ethanol from your field rarely makes sense for anything other
than a few very important drives per year or towing a harvester, the effort
to farm these crops are better fed to work animals and
human workers. Although if you really only make these few drives it might even
out considering you make one or two batches of fuel and garage the truck the
rest of the year, no daily feeding of a huge hungry beast.
Horses and oxen are very useful on a large post-petroleum farm, replacing the
tractor and truck, but you need to feed that large living muscle mass even
in the dead of winter when there is little
important(to your survival bottom line) travel or work. It is important to
remember that even into the steam age before bicycles and automobiles reduced
the number of work animals around half of the US farm output went into the
mouths of work and transportation animals. Even if you are able to graze in
the fair months of the year most Americans in the northern
states need to have plans to safely mow and store large amounts of hay and
grains to feed your livestock. A donkey or mule is smaller and must pull a
smaller plow or load but in the off months they are
a smaller idle eater and need less exercise to stay healthy and content .
The last stop in labor is the human body, around the world many poorer peoples
use themselves as farming machines. You will see a man pulling a plow with
his wife or child steering. A bicycle converts muscle energy many times over
saving calories and time for longer range travel, as long as the bicycle can
be maintained. The trick with human energy is we don't slaughter ourselves
if times get tight, and we can still do useful work even in winter when most
work animals are idle eaters. This is why the farm family has always rejoiced
in another new baby, not only was it filling the command to be fruitful and
multiply but it was another helping hand.(Have you ever noticed that the more
religious families even in urban areas often have many children?)
On the plus calorie side chickens, goats, sheep and larger free grazed food
animals add calories to your bottom line by metabolizing insects, kitchen scraps,
and cellulose like grass into food that humans can easily consume. We need
not say that the beast deal is gathered fruits, honey, netted fish, and hunted
or tapped nutrition which require tiny amounts of exertion compared to the
calories obtained.
Shalom, - David in Israel
