Food Security

Food inflation is very real. And as we've explored before, this will only spur regional ag production and local resource distribution.

Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanu appeared on Fox Business a few days ago to give a bigger picture review of the current status of food production. Unanu does a great job outlining how the interconnected systems from field to fork impact consumers in what is now emerging as a food crisis.

Unanu accurately states the U.S. food production system will ensure that products are available for U.S. consumers to purchase, albeit at steadily rising prices. The people most at risk from food insecurity are developing countries who rely on export products generated by efficient, productive and exceptional farming operations in North America that feed the world.

For consumers everywhere, it is the massive increases in energy and transportation costs that are driving up food prices, putting the issue of food insecurity into the correct context of food affordability.

Here's what we know based on terrible policy positioning:

+ energy dependent or non-independent energy policy drastically affects transportation

+ bottlenecked transportation drastically affects food production

+ limited food production not only suffers from inflation, but has a negative systemic effect on commodities overall, making it even harder to reinvest in those related sectors of the economy

In looking at this through the lenses of agrobiodiversity, bioengineering, regenerative agriculture, sustainable production and distributive logistics, there are some new realities we need to accept in order to solve this growing problem.

+ regenerative practices are absolutely necessary for farmers and ranchers to reuse the natural resources available to them, and to create multiple recurring revenue streams, including off-peak energy

+ resource redistribution between farms & co-ops is key

+ managing supply & demand at local levels also mitigates rising price inflation, as well as asset/resource deflation

All of this points to a concerted reframing of cause and correlation regarding climate and our planetary biosphere. We cannot continue to pretend that destroying our significant fossil fuel infrastructure is a necessary move towards any kind of energy independence, and therefore any kind of food independence.

In fact, mixed energy independence is really the only sensible thing for us to implement in sustaining economies and in rebalancing the biosphere. The good news is there is not only real capacity for mixed energy independence, but there are many more regenerative organic food producers proliferating around the globe, especially in the U.S., Canada and Western Europe.

Food insecurity is rising here in the U.S., and the household figures show more people living below the poverty line and having less access to food sources, let alone food choices. This of course leads to significant health risks. With that said, the opportunity to reverse these percentages is quite possible within a five to ten-year time frame.

We also know that there is enough food for every person in the world. The chronic hunger and malnutrition that people face have much to with a lack of resource distribution, resource waste, and more specifically, food waste. It is important to note that the world population is not actually rising, but there are population density issues in many urban areas, while many people are also moving away from cities since they are unaffordable to live in.

Let's now focus on the very real possibility that we will solve the food problem in short order. Calmer, cooler, smarter minds shall prevail!