Plant A Garden

Why it is smart to plant a vegetable garden soon. Hawaii is the earth's most isolated landmass and we import over 90 percent of our food. The ongoing status quo is that Hawaii has less than 10 days of food on hand.According to a US government report: "The rising incidence of weather extremes will have increasingly negative impacts on crop and livestock productivity, because critical thresholds are already being exceeded." Many agricultural regions of the US will experience declines. Insufficient rains since March 2015 have resulted in drought conditions. . Global warming is exacerbating political instability as tensions brought on by food insecurity rise. Climate change projections foresee an increase of drought frequency and intensity for these regions, then there is an aggravated risk for global food security and potential for civil conflict. At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.  Source By 2014 there were almost 800 million undernourished people, yet many people are unaware that there is a looming food crisis. Those living in remote locations or in the poorest countries have the most to lose, as so many depend on agriculture, which is likely to be badly affected by temperature rises and an increase in droughts, heatwaves and higher intensity storms. El Niño conditions, which stem from a natural warming of Pacific Ocean waters, lead to droughts, floods and more frequent cyclones across the world, and has recently been the worst in 35 years. Severe droughts and floods triggered by one of the strongest El Niño weather events ever recorded have left nearly 100 million people facing food and water shortages and vulnerable to diseases UN bodies, international aid agencies and governments have said. Desertification is a significant global ecological and environmental problem regions of the world that  already had marginal conditions. Across the world, desertification affects the livelihoods of millions of people who rely on the benefits that dryland ecosystems can provide. Worldwide, desertification is making about 10-12 million hectares useless for cultivation each year and is affecting at least 168 countries. Recent droughts have caused massive internal displacements from rural to urban centers, and  placed significant strains on economically-depressed cities. Poor have been forced to compete with poor, resluting in significant discontent and violence. The situation is aggravated by rising food prices, forcing families to implement drastic coping mechanisms such as skipping meals and selling off assets.  Global warming is exacerbating political instability as tensions brought on by food insecurity rise. More frequent extreme summer heat events over mid-latitude continents are linked with reduced sea ice and snow. Storm intensities have increased especially in middle latitudes where most of the food crops are grown. Richard Choularton, a policy officer in the UN's World Food Programme, climate change office, says that "What is different now from 20 years ago is that far more people are living in places with a higher climatic risk; 650 million people now live in arid or semi-arid areas where floods and droughts and price shocks are expected to have the most impact. Rural flight is the phenomenon that occurs in farming communities. As farms have failures or become more mechanized, fewer people are needed to work them. Therefore, the children of farmers often leave for work in cities. Rural flight often depopulates towns to the point that the majority of the residents are elderly. Using tree ring data that covered 900 years of drought history in the Middle East, a team of researchers to look at drought and and the findings show that the recent bone-dry spell is likely the driest period on record in 900 years. Syria’s drought has 'likely been its worst in 900 years.' New findings show a ‘convergence of evidence’ that climate change has influenced the Syrian drought. 4.2 million have fled Syria. And that’s on top of the 7.6 million people (mostly hungry farmers) displaced in Syria who are trapped in limbo in their home country. The situation has caused a civil war, making matters even worse. Rrising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide also continue to reduce the concentrations of protein and essential minerals in most plant species. Also food less nutritious than it was in the past because agricultural soil is being depleted. Climate change is already having a domino effect on food and nutritional security for the world's poorest and most vulnerable people. Child malnutrition is predicted to increase by 20% by 2050. Climate change impacts will disproportionately fall on people living in tropical regions, and particularly on the most vulnerable and marginalised population groups. Research indicates that rising growth in the global population is expected to create 2 billion more mouths to feed by 2050, will drive food prices higher by 40-50%. Climate change may add a further 50% to maize prices and slightly less to wheat, rice and oil seeds. Nearly 20% of all US food is imported, so climate extremes elsewhere will also have an effect. In 2011, about 14.9% of US households did not have secure food supplies and 5.7% had very low food security. A report by climate change panel says global warming is fuelling not only natural disasters, but potentially famine – and war. The world’s recurrent food crises are making a handful of investors and multinational corporations very rich—even as they devastate the poor and put the rest of the planet at severe environmental and economic risk. Some of the same multinational corporations are involved in the production of weapons and military technologies. The Plutocrats are small minority of the wealthiest citizens whose multinational corporations have no allegiance to any nation or citizens, only to profit. This kind of power has corrupted individuals and whole nations to the extent that everything is for sale to the highest bidder. Such unchecked greed can, like a cancer, kill the thing it feeds on. "As our food system has shifted from decentralized, local small-farm “agriculture” to highly centralized industrial “agri-business,” this has caused the nutrient content of many foods to decline. Numerous factors are causing this decline, including breeding for ever-higher yields, food processing, cheap sugar and oils, and industrial meat and dairy production. In some cases, the declines have been very gradual. Over the last 100 years, important minerals in WHEAT varieties grown on the Great Plains—iron, zinc, phosphorous and sulfur—have declined from 20 to 33 percent.?Sulfur is essential for plants to produce protein, so a drop in sulfur indicates a decline in protein content. One study found that contemporary wheat varieties contain ONLY HALF AS MUCH PROTEIN as older varieties! During this same period, YIELDS of wheat have at least doubled as a result of “green revolution” varieties that are shorter, but require heavier levels of fertilizer and irrigation than older varieties. In CORN, studies show similar trends—a doubling of yield, but accompanied by declines in important nutrients. "  -Mother Earth News What the Health  created by the same team behind Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, explores the corruption at play between the government, pharmaceutical and health companies, and food industry conglomerates that are hellbent on withholding information and keeping us sick so that they continue to pull in trillions of dollars of healthcare revenue every year. About half of all Americans will probably have a chronic disease. Just a handful of companies can dictate food choices, supplier terms and consumer variety. On the political level Food Is Power and all countries have already been affected by the food crisis. The politics of agriculture will in the future be more important and more perilous: a determining force in tbe choice between a new economic order, and a world economy of confusion and despair. Only 10 companies control almost every large food and beverage brand in the world.  Your body needs to create about 10 million cells per second and without good nutrition many of these cells will be unhealthy. Most of the products in supermarkets have little more nutritional content that junk food or fast food, so take the time to figure out realistic alternatives. A breakfast smoothie is quick and easy to make, and of course, healthy smoothies can be delicious.  Live food soothies naturally contain more nutrients (flavanoids, caratanoids), and raw food is superior in terms of active vitamin, mineral, probiotic, and enzyme content so it provides cell parts that can be readily incorporated into your body. Later in the day when you are out and about you are less likely able to acquire such good nutrition, but you will be already fortified. Print out a list of healthy ingredients and keep it handy until your shopping habits are developed so that you have on hand ingredients like carrots, beets, greens, fruit, and sprouts. Links Best Food Documentaries Building raised beds Food and climate change The World Food Crisis' Climate Impacts on Agriculture and Food Supply Soil fertility decline These 10 Companies Control The World's Food | Huffington Post 10 Documentaries that Will Make You Rethink Everything You Know About Food and Health Hawaii gardening links Overpopulation Weather extremes due to Climate Change Ocean acidification Rural flight Soil depletion and erosion Water shortages Factory Farming GOMBS Diet: Greens, Onions, Mushrooms, Beans and Berries, Seeds (& nuts) Hawaii Organic Gardening