It's A Good Time To Shorten Food Supply Chains

Supply chains are breaking. Not so bad if we are talking about TVs, but when we are talking about food, we are in trouble. 

Growing your own food is the best way to shorten your food chain. Garden to table is the shortest chain you can get - one link. Garden. You.

Alternative to providing your own food, supporting local farmers and producers is the way to go. Localism is the new globalism.

Linda and I have been trying to shorten our food supply chains, and get off the local big box store as our sole supplier of food. Since getting a kick in the rear by the mayhem of the past 3 years, we have made some nice advances.

Many organic whole food staples we have been able to source locally by joining a food buying club. Many of their offerings were grown and processed here, which supports food security in the Maritimes.

We also switched to a small, family run fruit and vegetable store that sources as much as it possibly can locally. 

Things that can't be sourced locally are dropping off our grocery list. 

Avocados, for example. We are looking at (gasp) eliminating coffee from our grocery list, and bananas that come from thousands of km away are on the cut list as well. 

Hard decisions will need to be made in the immediate future, the way things are going. Not just because of supply chains, but also due to inflation. Groceries are getting more expensive all the time. 

Recently we have been talking with our neighbours about working together to keep laying hens. 

We don't eat chicken (but would if we had no alternative), but we do eat eggs. Getting them from our yard would shorten that supply chain and you can't beat the price. Plus, we love watching chickens.

We are lucky to have an apple orchard just down the road from us. They also grow strawberries and blueberries. Other neighbours make maple syrup.

Depending on food from far away never seemed like a good idea to me, and soon it may be dangerous for those that depend solely on it if that food stops coming.

They have been talking out food security for a long time. We figure now is a good time to continue to assess ours.

Not everyone can do it, but growing/raising your own food produces the shortest chains possible. 

Shipping food over vast distances is not only wasteful, but the quality of what you get is drastically reduced compared to fresh foods grown locally. 

Like in your yard.

Barring growing/raising food on your own, supporting local producers is the best way to increase food security, and shorten supply chains.

Grow a garden and/or support local and enjoy going back to a more sensible, resilient food future.