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Originally Posted by vivfox
Ooooh, this sounds exciting. Care to elaborate on some of those frightening prospects?
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One scenario that is frequently mentioned by experts in the energy sector is the near-complete breakdown of the world's food transportation system.
Think of it like this - the next time you go to a grocery store, see how many things in it you can find that come from less than 10 miles away. Also, look at the little stickers on produce and see how much of it is grown in your state - or even in this country. I'll tell you already - almost nothing. Without cheap fuel to transport food, prices will skyrocket OR the food won't be transported at all. For much of the rural United States that means no out-of-season fruit or vegetables (most people take for granted that they can get strawberries and avocados, for example, all year long), for almost all of the urban areas, that means no fruit or vegetables AT ALL unless they're grown locally - I live in an largely agricultural state and the nearest apples and peaches are grown 232 miles away in Palisade. For nearly all of the United States this means no frozen/canned/boxed/bagged goods. Even then, the factories that produce frozen/canned/boxed/bagged goods probably won't be getting their supplies delivered and could shut down production alltogether because they have no product to ship to stores. Animals will not be transported to slaughterhouses, which means no meat in the stores for our carniverous friends.
No cat food.
No dog food.
No grain for livestock, unlesss you grow it yourself (few meat producers do)
Not even food for the fish in your aquarium once existing supplies sell out.
Our entire global food distribution network is dependent upon cheap petroleum, and almost no one in America eats food produced locally.
Empty stores = pretty frightening.
When I was in Europe, particularly when flying over Germany to Italy, I noticed something very practical about their infrastructure - the cities and towns were mostly all surrounded by farms. Presumably to grow produce to sell to the people who live in those cities and towns. Conversely, America's farms have been sold off and developed into urban sprawl.