There is not need to go hungry

Philip,you are assuming far to much about what I know about Australia or some overseas countries.
I cannot reply in a proper manner to your post in this medium, it will take far to much time and space.
Regarding South America I know very well Argentina, grand part of Brasil, and Uruguay. I know dozens of small town with populations of 3000 people or less that do not have a supermarket of a shop were they can get fresh vegetables.
People grow their own food and when I was living in one of these town working for John Deere I have to grow my own vegetables. That was in 1977/78 and the people that worked in that town were earning about U$A 1000 a month.
I can go on and on.
We have to agree to disagree.
I guess that people have to go trough of what happens in Cuba when USSR stoped to support them with oil or what happens now in Detroit to find out that urban agriculture as it is called it is possible and works well.
By the way, 30% of the fresh food that it is consumed in La Habana is produced by people in community gardens. It is not an "some utopian vision";)
Please do not try to put my knowledge down, just respect it like I respect yours.

Trading and bartering is a dream for some. Very hard to achieve, unfortunately, because basically we don't HAVE to.

Until there is a major disaster or system collapse and we have to grow our own food, trade goods with one another etc etc, we won't. At least not on a big scale anyway.

There is so much waste in our society. That is proof that we westerners aren't poor or anywhere near it, therefore no need to barter/trade.

Each and everyday I head down to the local supermarket, with 4 X 240litre wheelie bins in tow. I pick up 4 X 240 litre wheelie bins full of vegetables and bakery goods being thrown out due to not meeting their criteria to be put on the shelf. I can tell you that if you saw what these guys throw out each and everyday of the week you wouldn't believe it.

I feed this stuff to my pigs, chooks and sheep. (and lately a cow who is fattening up quite nicely :D)

The cost of living in Australia is very high, but the fact that the supermarket can throw out so much good food is proof enough that we Australian's still have enough money to pay for the "primo" stuff they put on the shelves. If we didn't we'd be growing our own a lot more.

Anyway the fact is people won't do until forced (generally speaking). We grow a heap of vegetables here at my place. We've been learning which ones grow better than others, at what times of year etc etc. We also grow and harvest our own sheep, pigs and chooks, for meat.
We don't do this because we have to though. We do it because we want to. For various reasons.

Is that maybe another sign of how good we have it Australia? :D

The only question is for how long?

I sometimes wonder if we realise how well off we are in this country. People in many countries don't have the luxury of throwing away stuff like we do. They reuse it.

For example, I'm reading an excellent book about PNG at the moment and the writer makes the point that a study found that PNG Highlands residents in the subsistence economy can actually have good food supplies to support themselves by working several hours a day in their gardens. It's when they try to move into the cash economy that they're suddenly regarded as poor.

Another example is a book I read recently by someone who ran an NGO in Somalia and was embarrassed that the UN gave them rejected animal food donated by western nations to feed the people. It wasn't considered good enough for animals in the USA and similar countries, but it was considered good enough to feed people in Somalia.

We really are well off in this country.

You are spot on Mick, looking at some videos of Detroit make me thinking that no one town is safe if have all the eggs in one basket regardless of how rich is the country.
Necessity is what force as humans to look for Plan B.
Cuba was doing reasonable good up to 1990 when USSR pulled the oil plug. Until then Cuba was sending sugar in exchange for other goods including oil.
Since that time they realized very quickly that they need to produce their own food. Now there are 380000 cubans working in urban farming producing organic food for 30% of the population in La Havana and 60% for all the country.
Yes, when we need we adjust very fast indeed. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

.................................................. .........
We really are well off in this country.

---

I agree 100% is among the best countries in the world but we cannot take it for granted and "bring our arms down" :)
I would not even considering for a minute go overseas. :)

Healthy food, is young and still growing when picked, harvested or slaughtered.

As a youngster on our farm it wasn't unusual to have been served a dinner with ten different vegetables and meat, all freshly picked and grown on the property.

Potatoes,
Peas,
Beans,
Carrots,
Pumpkin,
Silver beet,
Swede,
Turnip,
Cauliflower,
Cabbage,

The meat produced on the farm was nearly always lamb, when sorting a pen of lambs for the sale, I would do as my Grandfather had instructed me and keep the best looking lamb from the pen for ourselves to butcher for the table.

Boxes of potatoes and meat were always given away to visiting relatives and taken to other members of our family for Christmas.

Times have changed for farming and the vulnerable monoculture practised today does allow the sole person running today's farm, enough time to work a large farm garden that was once would have been looked after by a couple of older farm hands.
.

Same here Arthur.
I was just thinking the other night that food these days has been altered so much that the flavour has been lost.
I was thinking back to my youth when I grew up on Pop's farm on Cowpasture Road. We had fresh food daily and I can remember my Nan's freshly cooked peas. Alas I shall never taste anything like that again.
Some Sundays we had as many as thirteen family members from far and wide stting at the table for dinner.
Below is a couple of pics, one of Pop standing in acres of peas and us kids collecting the stakes from a field of finished tomatoes. I am the kid in the middle on the left.
The best years of my life.