A renaissance in
local food for local communities is coming and the UK will need a
huge increase in the agricultural workforce to deliver it.
Speaking at the
Soil Association
Conference in Cardiff, on 26 January, American author
Richard Heinberg said
the
peak oil
theory where production plateaus and prices sky rocket could
force dramatic changes on UK and world farming.
Dr Heinberg, an
expert on the economies of oil, suggested that the increase seen in
the agricultural workforce of Cuba, which has been starved of oil
by American sanctions, could act as a model for the UK.
Based on this
model he estimated that in 20-30 years a 16-fold increase in the UK
agricultural workforce, or between 8m--10m people would have to be
involved in farming and associated industries.
Dr Heinberg
offered his solution to too much dependency on fossil fuels,
growing populations and climate change.
He said there
would need to be a significant shift to moving people back into
rural areas producing food for local people.
“Urbanisation has
carried an enormous cultural and social cost – it’s been the death
of many rural communities. We need to revive rural communities so
they become attractive to people who wish to farm.”
Dr Heinberg wrote
the book The Party’s Over;
Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies.
He called for
policies to assist a return to local food production such as land
reform, education about farming, loans and incentives and
stabilised and higher food prices.
Conference
delegates were told that this was not a fanciful idea.
Oakland,
California, has a goal to grow 30% of its food locally within a
50-mile city limit by 2020.
Dr Heinberg urged the
Soil Association
to work with others to promote food security and energy policies to
remove dependency on fossil fuels.