One of the biggest impediments to food security - both worldwide and in Ireland - is the lack of access to land. Worldwide, land is often perceived as no more than an asset to be exploited in order to make profit, rather than a resource for supporting and feeding local communities. Even where local farmers enjoy ownership or long term security of tenure, they are frequently at the mercy of an economic system that requires the most goods to be produced for the least cost. This leads to unsustainable practices, which may give good returns in the short term to 'successful' individual farmers, but lead to environmental degredation and the destruction of community. Meanwhile, the non-food producer is completely at the mercy of complex supply chains supplying supermarkets, with nothing to fall back upon in the event of supply chain disruption or collapse.
So what can individuals and communities do, in order to improve food security?
The obvious answer, to deal directly with local producers, will only work if local producers are willing and able to produce the food items the community needs. A large scale daily farmer, with large amounts of capital tied up in milking machinery and heavily in debt to the bank, is unlikely to suddenly switch to producing potatoes, grains or beef for local markets. Quite apart from anything else, the processing of any food item on a large scale, whether it be potatoes or lamb, requires considerable support structures: harvesting equipment, storage and food processing facilities, and easy access to customers. Also, the wider population will still have little control over the actual mechanisms of food production, and will be no better off in an energy scarce future in which agricultural machinery lies idle for want of fuel.
Allotments
At the other end of the scale we have gardens and allotments, where individuals can produce food themselves. The opportunities for food production are limited by the both the skills of the individuals concerned, and also the amount of land they have access to. Although skills can be learn, a typical urban garden is far too small to contribute more than a few percent of a household's yearly food requirements, though that few percent is still worth having. Allotments, where one can get them, tend to be around 100-200m² per plot , which although in theory is enough to grow a decent amount of food, has also to provide space for a tool or storage shed, compost heaps and non-gardening activities such as socialising with other allotment holders or simply hanging out.
The main problem with allotments, however, is the lack of them, and the very long lead in time for getting them established through local authorities. Very often, the process takes three of four years. This is too long to wait.
Land Cooperatives
Another approach is for people to form allotment cooperatives and then collectively purchase (or possibly lease) a piece of agricultural land large enough to provide allotments for everyone in the group. The going rate for agricultural land is between about €10,000 and €20,000 a hectare (€4-8,000 per acre) and the price appears to be falling, especially in the West. Small parcels of agricultural land are sometimes sold at auctions of farms that are spread over a number of sites. This is certainly common enough in the West of Ireland.
On hectare is 10,000m². A three hectare plot, therefore, will provide 50 very decent allotments of 400m² each, plus an additional hectare of communal land. At a probable purchase price of €40,000, this would represent a cost of just €800 per allotment holder, not much more than the average monthly household food bill. Assuming savings of €20 are put aside each week, the necesary funds could be assembled in less than one year.
More thoughts on this will be posted in the near future.
