It’s spring again in New England and the gardeners are out in force. Most of my neighbors know I have a big garden, raise chickens, collect honey from my backyard bee hive and harvest greens throughout the winter in an unheated greenhouse.

So I often get the question (while walking Riley our dog), “Why do you want to do all that work?”  My first thought often goes to the reality of our current global situation, which in my mind includes the “perfect storm” of climate change, peak oil and economic downturn.

But rather than launching into my rap about the need for more community and family-level self-sufficiency in the face of this global crisis, I generally choose to tell my neighbor about a book I just read.

“Prelude” by Kurt Cobb is a fast-paced espionage story set in a time of escalating oil and gas prices. One of my favorite scenes comes when Cassie Young, a rising star at a Washington, D.C., energy consulting firm, asks a friend, Victor Chernov, “…so what do we do now that we know the truth about peak oil?”  For Cassie, this is a moment of despair, which many of us have felt.

And Victor’s response — grow a garden!  It seems this former oil executive is learning to grow tomatoes at his Washington, D.C. townhouse.

While not destined to become a classic, the appearance of mass market books like “Prelude” suggests we are beginning to accept the fact that we are facing an oil/climate crisis — and yes, at least one of the solutions might be to grow food for myself, my family and my neighborhood.

The author, a founding member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, proposes a simple response to the crisis we seem afraid to face. Cobb reminds us that “fear trumps hope” and finding a source of hope is a necessary first step toward developing solutions to a problem.

I believe that if we can’t imagine reasonable solutions to a crisis, then we are not going to face the problem – not matter how real and critical it may be. So yes, let’s grow more food. This might be anything from a single potted herb on a windowsill to a big family garden. For me, I like to give fresh eggs from my backyard hens to my neighbors.  One of my favorite local groups is Grow Food Amherst, which works to encourage others to grow food in my hometown, Amherst, Massachusetts.

We realize of course, that a potted herb plant, a few eggs or even bushels of tomatoes won’t solve global problems like climate change and rising oil prices, but it is a place to begin to find hope.

And with hope, anything is possible.

My neighbors often ask if I really believe the “perfect storm” was imminent.  So, I take a deep breath, give the dog another biscuit and launch into the “do it anyway” rap.  That’s the one that says that taking care of each other is a better way to live, even if there was no crisis. And if the perfect storm slams us sooner than any one of us would hope, at least we’ve begun to take some steps to be better prepared.

• So yes, let’s learn to grow more food.

• And let’s learn to cook real food.

• And let’s buy from local farmers.

• And let’s teach each other how to do all these things better by sharing our knowledge and experience.

I was interviewed by a TV news reporter recently about my involvement with Grow Food Amherst, that encourages others to grow more food. I asked her if she had ever grown a garden and when I learned that she had not, I encouraged her to start with a potted herb plant on the windowsill – and she did.

In fact she sent me a picture of herself with her first food plant which she purchased on her way home that same day!  It’s a beginning!

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