We here at the Stranded Wind Initiative work on the use of stranded renewable resources - means to generate electricity that are too far from population centers to be useful. One of our first efforts is a wind driven ammonia facility to back the Midwest's corn crop with a renewable fertilizer.
Today we see listed in the Drum Beat over at The Oil Drum an article which predicts some dire consequences given our current course of burning food for fuel.
This particular piece is just a tidbit integrating economic concerns with food security issues, but don't let the insubstantial nature fool you. They're not kidding when they say our global grain stocks are the lowest in sixty years:
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/...
http://buyerbehaviour.blogspot.com/...
This is affecting us here in the developed world. If you go to the grocery and look it won't take too long for you to see the effect - a box that used to hold eight ounces of some product now holds seven ounces ... but remains the same size. The United States' government's CPI excludes food and energy and that is where the inflation is - inflation happening at Carter presidency like rates.
We always hear plaintive cries at this point: "What can be done?"
NOTHING
While its true that the conversion of millions of acres of food production to fuel production are hurting stocks we'd have trouble sooner rather than later even without this.
Global oil production peaked in May of 2005. The detailed analysis of this may be found at The Oil Drum. This has immediate, dramatic, global implications for food security, which is a much bigger issue than the price U.S. residents pay at the pump when fueling their (unsustainable) automobiles.
A significant portion of the developing world will starve due to these issues, perhaps not in 2009, but the effects can't help but start appearing during president Obama's first term. The effects will get more serious here, too, expanding from the shadow inflation we see now into outright food shortages. This is already starting here - a quick Google will show many food banks that are either under stress or already closed entirely.
http://www.wmur.com/...
http://www.kltv.com/...
http://www.newschannel10.com/...
So, globally there is nothing to do but take our medicine with regards to the massive population overshoot we're in the middle of, but individuals with arable land can protect themselves in some ways.
Gardening requires nothing more than a bit of will to get started but it takes a lifetime to master. A good beginning for this, if you were not raised in a rural area where gardening is the norm, would be purchasing seed and reference books from Seed Savers Exchange or a similar organization that maintains heirloom seed lines. Many of our members are in the upper Midwest and the Decorah, Iowa based SSE's climate is just exactly the same one we have. Perhaps those in other areas of the country can suggest similar operations that provide seed and knowledge appropriate for their climate.
We here at the Stranded Wind Initiative are working on things that will influence food security at the regional and national level by providing renewable fertilizer and renewable farm fuel. Our task(s) will be made easier if those here in the United States become aware of these problems and willing to push policy on behalf of our plans. We'd like to encourage everyone to act on an individual level by planting a Victory Garden, or otherwise engaging in local food production.