This area grows something like <3% of our food. If for some reason, the whole world was suddenly at war tomorrow, and all supply chains everywhere were cut off, that 3% would not go very far. So why do we obsess over it? Why do we feel a need to have farms nearby, when other places grow it MUCH more efficiently?
I mean if someone told us today, that effective June 30th, we'd need to be on our own for food, I honestly think we'd figure out a way to grow our own food. Maybe we'd have to tend our gardens for an hour a day, and miss one episode of CSI each day.
Really, in the 200 years we have been here, there has never been any threat to our food supply. Why do we feel more need to prepare for that eventuality now than we did 25 years ago?
Here is an alarmist article right here:
http://www.canada.co...6e-5f31a2eda914
B.C. farmers produce only 48 per cent of the meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables that we consume, according to a report prepared by the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture. The report, titled B.C.'s Food Self-Reliance, says that the area of farmland with access to irrigation in B.C. would have to increase by nearly 50 per cent by 2025 to provide a healthy diet for all British Columbians.
Now, I can almost assure you, if we could not get food from anywhere else but BC, suddenly we would produce 100 per cent of the meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables that we consume. We would A) change our diet and eat more of the lesser-priced food, thus increasing demand for it, raising its price and encouraging more production, for example on land that was formerly seen as "unproductive" to produce it at the former price/demand. B) that kind of goes along with A, we'd simply spend more of our take-home pay on food. to balance, we'd take one less trip to the movie theatre a month, we'd set our thermostats two degrees cooler in our homes, we'd have one less vehicle per household, and we'd be just fine. On top of it all, with higher food prices, companies would try hard to find other ways to grow and import food.