M. Steven Grant, a friend who is the president of Junior Achievement on O‘ahu, sent me a bloomberg.com article yesterday. I found this very interesting:

Global food prices have spiked 60 percent since the beginning of 2007, sparking riots in more than 30 countries that depend on imported food, including Cameroon and Egypt. The surge in prices threatens to push the number of malnourished people in the world from 860 million to almost 1 billion, according to the World Food Programme in Rome.

Leaders of developing nations including the Philippines, Gambia and El Salvador now say the only way to nourish their people is to grow more food themselves rather than rely on cheap imports. The backlash may sink global trade talks, reduce the almost $1 trillion in annual food trade and lead to the return of high agricultural tariffs and subsidies around the world.

“Trade as the route to food security, that idea is on the ropes,” said Arvind Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “If the guy who is selling it doesn’t want to sell it overseas, then the guy at the other end is terribly exposed.”

The main point of this article is that free trade, as it applies to food, does not work for many poor nations.  Some who have depended heavily on free trade are now finding that their people cannot afford to buy food. They are coming to the conclusion that they need to take care of themselves and grow their own food.

Is it imaginable that one day we may not be able to afford oil? If the oil supply becomes short enough, won’t oil-producing countries cut off exports and take care of their own people first?

Wouldn’t we, if we were in their shoes?

Back in January, China had a big freeze. They stopped exporting coal in order to take care of their own people. Isn’t it safe to assume that oil-producing countries would do the same if they needed to?

It is starting to become very clear that we cannot depend on foreign sources of oil for security.

We are fortunate that there is so much going on today that aims to make us energy self-sufficient. Many of these innovations will be demonstrated at our E Malama ‘Aina Festival. Yesterday, Roland Torres of Kama‘aina Backroads, who is working/partnering with us on the festival, sent me this note:

Aloha Richard,
I’m running into Pahoa to meet the guy behind this.  I’m FASCINATED. http://greenpower-hawaii.com

Evidently, these generators come from India and are old technology from the days of Rudolf Diesel. The person selling them says that the small generator can power three houses and the large can do six. He says that in India, people use palm oil to run these generators and that one acre of nuts can power six houses.

Recently I heard of a person using a coil of 2-inch black plastic pipe and plumbing it in for hot water. Sounds really simple and effective.

On the 26th, Roland and I will go to Hakalau to see how hydrogen is made from electricity that is generated from water from a stream. Guy Toyama and the folks from H-2 Technologies actually have a scooter there that runs on hydrogen.

There are several wind options, as well. One spins like a top and it too is meant for small-scale power generation.

There are people doing things that are very hopeful and exciting. Not, no can. Can!!

We CAN free ourselves from foreign oil.