>inteeresting to me is that if the price holds , what will happen to the
>price of California produce in the local markets which is supposedly 90 to
>95 % energy. At 3$ retail a head for lettuce a resourceful local low teck
>grower could easily compete. We had 330 years (1620 to 1950) of nearly self
>sufficient agriculture and are known for frugality and resourcefulness.
California Lettuce has a huge embedded energy component. Production,
harvesting, and shipment is all by diesel powered machines. There is some
labor component but that is falling as fast as the growers can make it.
The next largest component is water which comes from the Colorado
River. Various groups (Indians, California and Arizona cities, Mexico) are
all fighting for ever larger shares of a resource that may be in short
supply as snowfall is reduced.
Local production will fill in the blank only if consumers are willing to do
without lettuce on their hamburgers or strawberries in February. Consumers
have become used to all sorts of produce year round and seem to be willing
to pay for it.
Don Bowen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Valley Center, CA Senior Software Engineer
Internet development and software engineering
http://members.cts.com/crash/d/donb
http://www.oldengine.org/members/ihc14
http://www.oldengine.org/members/ferguson/
