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The quote "But their economies of scale come from mass distribution, and with diesel fuel costing more than $4 per gallon in many locations, it's no longer efficient to transport food 1,500 miles from where it's grown [Dan Barber, "Change We Can Stomach," New York Times, 2008.05.11].
Beside food, what other consumable or hard goods would be affected? At what price of fuel would a washing machine made in Amana, IA be cost competitive with one made in Hermosilla? [reader e-mail, 2008.05.15]
I offer the following reply:
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Indeed: growing food for one's community is a different economic endeavor from building all the washing machines, Toyotas, and 747s one's community might need. I look around at my small prairie town (population 6,500) and wonder where I'd get my lumber, bicycles, and computers if we had to produce everything ourselves.
Have you ever heard of Kirkpatrick Sale? He wrote a book in 1980 called Human Scale. I don't hear much reference to it, which makes me think either he's really full of bull or his ideas were good but too revolutionary to get traction (kind of like my presidential pick Dennis Kucinich). Anyway, he proposed that small communities could sustain themselves with local industrial production much more than we think. He proposed "microplants" that could manufacture all sorts of durable goods from local resources, both natural and recycled. (And believe me: when I see some farmers' junk piles around here, I realize there's a lot of material we could recycle.)
Madison, my hometown, does have factories that produce forklifts and skidsteers, plastic fencing and snowmobile parts, and even custom homes. I'd like to think with a little ingenuity, our hardhats and eggheads could retool that machinery to make other useful products for the local market. Unfortunately, I'm neither an engineer nor an economist, so that's more hope than concrete plan.
Do you have any experience with these manufacturing questions? To what extent do you think we are dependent on the global trade/resource network? Do you think there's any hope for smaller-scale economy and self-sufficiency, if not on the local scale, then at least on a regional scale?
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It occurs to me that even our Hutterite colonies, perhaps the most diligent pursuers of self-sufficiency on the prairie, still aren't building their own Chevy vans for bringing the ladies to town to shop. I don't know how far we could or should push self-sufficiency. But as energy prices increase (at least until someone invents Fusion-in-a-Can!), more elements of the economy that rely on cheap long-distance transportation will become unsustainable. We may get to the point where "growing our own" is cheaper not just for corn and tomatoes but for shoes and bicycles. And you know, restoring some of those skilled manufacturing jobs to our turf, jobs where people actually make something other than phone calls, might be just what our culture needs.
Over 20 years ago I read Mr. Sales first book, so much of what he wrote I have forgotton.
ReplyDeleteI started this post as a discussion of his works but soon realized that that(a discussion)would be impossible using posts.
Suffice to say, the conclusion I have drawn from his work is very simple and very different from what you have taken.
The political and social stability of the United States has been dependent on cheap transportation and cheap food.
Can the United States remain a politically and socially stable nation if transportation and food are no longer cheap?
This conclusion was reached over 20years, I might yet live to see the answer to that question.
Joseph G Thompson
Another Kirkpatrick Sale reader! Mr. Thompson, you definitely need to come out to the lake sometime, sit on the porch with Erin and me, and talk about that book (and everything else)!
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