Introduction

In 2021, food availability is at two extremes.  

Millions of people are starving…often to death…but the ‘good’ news is that the rest of us have so much cheap food that we waste about a third of it.  The bad news is that we’ve ravaged the planet to grow it.

While the more affluent of us may not be starving, we do have one thing in common with the world’s impoverished.  Poor people suffer from malnutrition because of their inability to source nutritious food whereas the rest of us suffer from poor nutrition arising from the bad food choices we make.

And it necessarily follows that, if you have plenty of something, you don’t have to worry about running out.   Right?

Wrong!

The fact is that food security is, in certain circumstances, nothing more than a quaint illusion.

In their relentless thrust to drive costs down (in pursuit of larger profits), the agribiz corporations have become addicted to the ‘just in time’ manufacturing mindset.

The availability of much of what we now eat relies on split-second integration of growing, post-harvest processing and distribution.  If the ships, planes, power stations, trains and trucks stop…or the supply of fossil fuels that power them is interrupted…the food chain is impacted…and very quickly indeed.

As the events arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic have taught us, fate has a long list of things that it can send our way to dispel any silly notions that we might harbour about things not being able to get any worse. 

We’ve learned that there’s no apparent limit to how quickly things can go pear-shaped…and the mayhem that ensues when the panic-buying kicks in.

The supply chain is not the only issue.  Indeed, it is not even the most pressing one.

Much of the world’s food is the product of industrial farming – reliant as it is on fossil fuels, mechanisation, chemical fertilisers and synthetic herbicides and pesticides.

What we need – right now – is food security, sovereignty and quality.  

We need a food production method that is simple to learn – and easy to build and operate…while also being productive, resilient and sustainable.

Welcome to iAVs Sandgardening!

Gary Donaldson

Macleay Island, Queensland  AU

June 2022

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