As its name implies, TCLocal usually focuses on the energy descent problem in terms of the challenges we will face here in Tompkins County and the resources we have available in the county to meet those challenges. This month's tclocal.org article goes beyond the county for a moment to look at the concept of "local food" as it applies to the whole state of New York.
While the local food movement has gained a great deal of attention in the last couple of years, surprisingly little formal research has gone into understanding just what we mean by "local" in this context and into exploring the connection between food miles, dietary choices, and carrying capacity. An outstanding exception has been the research carried out by teams at Cornell led by Dr. Christian Peters and reported in two studies published in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. These articles are of special interest to us because they use New York State as the case study. Unfortunately, the publications in which they appear are inaccessible to the general public, and the results have therefore not yet entered into the wider discussion of these subjects. To make the groundbreaking Cornell studies available to a wider audience, we have summarized their results in this month's TCLocal article, "Can New York State Feed Itself?" You can find it on the tclocal.org site at http://tclocal.org/2009/06/can_new_york_state_feed_itself.html The findings summarized in the article will surprise some people, and we're expecting more than the usual number of comments. Since this notice goes to several different mail lists, we urge people wishing to discuss these issues to use the comment form at the bottom of the article rather than posting to separate mail lists in order to keep the discussion visible to everyone. Given the statewide implications of the Cornell studies, people should feel free to forward the URL above to other interested NYS groups. ABOUT TCLOCAL Every month (on average) TCLocal brings you another in our series of articles addressing various aspects of energy descent in Tompkins County. Contributors to TCLocal are members of the community committed to helping prepare for a future with less available energy. Articles that have appeared so far in this series can be found at tclocal.org. They include: Examining the potential local foodshed of Tompkins County by Christian Peters (March 2009) http://tclocal.org/2009/03/examining_the_potential_local.html Food Processing in Tompkins County by Persephone Doliner (February 2009) http://tclocal.org/2009/02/food_processing_in_tompkins_co.html Wasting in the Energy Descent: An Outline for the Future by Tom Shelley (January 2009) http://tclocal.org/2009/01/wasting_in_the_energy_descent.html Local and Urban Small Livestock and Poultry by Angelika St. Laurent (December 2008) http://tclocal.org/2008/12/local_and_urban_small_livestoc.html Health Care in an Energy-Constrained Environment (Part 1) by Bethany Schroeder (October 2008) http://tclocal.org/2008/10/health_care_in_an_energyconstr.html Preparedness Basics (Part 1) by Katie Quinn-Jacobs (September 2008) http://tclocal.org/2008/09/preparedness_basics.html Post-Peak Land Use Part 1: Ecocities and Post-Peak Land Use Part 2: The Country by Josh Dolan (July 2008) http://tclocal.org/2008/07/postpeak_land_use_part_1_ecoci.html http://tclocal.org/2008/07/postpeak_land_use_part_2_the_c.html Water Treatment, Water Power by Jon Bosak (May 2008) http://tclocal.org/2008/05/water_treatment_water_power.html Roads and Bridges in a Post-peak Tompkins County by Simon St. Laurent (March 2008) http://tclocal.org/2008/03/roads_and_bridges_in_a_postpea.html Fruits in a Post-Peak Tompkins County by Angelika St. Laurent (January 2008) http://tclocal.org/2008/01/fruits_in_a_postpeak_tompkins_1.html Other articles scheduled for publication in 2009 include: Health care resources, Part 2 (Bethany Schroeder) Food production systems (Karl North) Aspects of Sustainable Agricultural Design (Karl North) Biomass options (Krys Cail) Local wood heat (Tony Nekut) Local biofuel production (Tycho Dan) Articles appearing at tclocal.org are published under the Creative Commons license and are owned and managed by the contributors as a group. People interested in becoming TCLocal contributors should first check the Terms of Reference at http://ibiblio.org/tcrp/process/terms.htm and then contact the TCLocal editor at the address below to sign up. Jon Bosak Editor, TCLocal [email protected] _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins Questions about the list? ask [email protected] free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
