What will we eat as the oil runs out?
And how many of us will be able to find enough to eat at all?
Humanity’s present food production and distribution systems are heavily dependent on inputs of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, many experts think that world production of cheap, easily-produced oil will begin to decline within the next five years as the oilfields from which it comes are depleted. Natural gas production, so vital for the production of fertilisers, is expected to begin to decline by 2025 for exactly the same reason. So what will happen to food availability as a result?
A major international conference
Food Security in an Energy Scarce World
is being held in Dublin, Ireland between June 23rd and 25th to find out. It is organised by Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability, in association with the Department of Environmental Resource Management at the Faculty of Agri-Food and the Environment, University College Dublin.
Speakers include:
Julian Darley – Founder of the Post Carbon Institute
Anita Hayes – Founder of the Irish Seed Savers Association
Mae-Wan Ho – Director of the Institute of Science and Society
David Holmgren – Author of Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability
Seamus Hoyne – Managing Director of Tipperary Energy Agency
Seán McDonagh – Author of Patenting Life? Stop! and The Death of Life: The Horror of Extinction
Helena Norberg-Hodge – Founder of the International Society for Ecology and Culture
Jules Pretty – Director of the Centre for Environment and Society, University of Essex
Darrin Qualman – Director of Research, National Farmers Union of Canada
Colin Sage – Lecturer at Department of Geography, University College Cork
Micheline Sheehy Skeffington – Head of Botany Department, NUI Galway
Lori Stahlbrand – Project Leader of the The Local Food Eco-label Project
Andre Viljoen – Architect and author of Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes
