Emergency #3: Food
Right now, America has a surplus of food. The U.S. government predicted that record global production will boost inventories of corn and soybeans to a nine-year high in 2010. Global output in the year that ends May 31 will total 676.1 million metric tons, behind only last year’s record 682.7 million, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a Jan. 12 report. Meanwhile, stockpiles of wheat are forecast to jump 19 percent to 195.6 million tons.
The situation in north-central Florida is not all that rosy for food production, however. The UF Agronomy graduate student in this picture, Ana Karim of Chicago, Illinois, is harvesting corn in an experiment designed to use perennial peanut (Arachis glabrata) to protect vegetables from nematodes and provide a “living mulch.” But because of our very sandy soils, we need a lot of rainfall to produce food especially in a system with a “living mulch” like the perennial peanut. Much winter vegetable production is not attempted unless greenhouses are emloyed. However, there is an abundance of waste heat from central systems for such purposes. Heat is lost from power stations (utilties) in the form of cooling towers. If it were captured during the design phase of power plants, large or small, vegetables and fish farms are economically feasible to supply those markets that look for local produce.
The Council supports the reality known as “CSA” – Community Supported Agriculture and invites you to visit the CSAs in Florida. One very successful CSA is in Sarasota County and is run by West Florida RC&D Council. Geraldson Community Farm is accessible from this web site’s Home Page (“Helpful Links”). We want to do a true CSA for/in Alachua County where a new power plant has been contracted! Deerhaven, Gainesville’s primary generation station, is on over 3,000 acres of land owned by citizens. Some of that could be used for locally produced year-round food! We have the know-how! After all, the State’s Land Grant University is right here in north-central Florida and Dr. Rose Koenig in the Agronomy Dept. at UF, is the owner of a successful organic farm in Alachua County called Rosie’s Organic Farm. A new CSA may be doable with people like Dr. Koenig.