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Can Small Organic Farms Feed The World?

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This article was originally published on JustPlainCooking.ca December 18, 2018. If you arrived here from a recipe post, welcome to Just Plain Living, where we talk about the bigger questions behind food, community, and sustainability!

Can small organic farms feed the world or can only conventional, chemical farming can feed the nine billion population expected by 2050?

The most common criticism against organic farming (or, you know, farming) is that it will not feed the world. Only conventional farming, the common wisdom has it, can feed the population of nine billion expected by 2050. But is that true?

Not only can small organic farming feed the world, but I believe strongly that it is the only thing that can save and heal our world.

Defining Our Terms

Let us begin by defining our terms. This part is important.

Organic, as used here, has nothing to do with “certified organic”.

There are small-o organic farms without certification, and there are Certified Organic factory farms that would upset people with their “letter of the law” form of organic.

Don’t believe me? Check out this PDF at Cornucopia.org and see how many big, very non-organic companies own your favourite Certified Organic producers.

What can be done about it? Stick to small farms where you can meet the farmer and ideally visit the farm.

The essential definition I am going to use is that organic farms rely on biological diversity to deter pests, and replenish soil fertility without synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. Organic farming does not use genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It also aims to have animals live a natural life.

Similar practices can be called sustainable, regenerative, permaculture and biodynamic. (All of these have differences, but can all be considered under the umbrella of “small-o organic”.

Conventional farms, also called industrial, intensive, commercial or factory farms use methods that include synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs.

They can also use growth regulators and feed supplements, as well as buildings known as Concentrated Animal Feed Operations (CAFO).

 The definition of a CAFO is that it confines animals for at least 45 days during the growing season, is in an area that does not grow food, and meets certain size requirements.  For example, a large hen CAFO holds at least 82,000 laying hens.

If you don’t like those numbers, I’ll bet the hens like them even less.

How Much Food Are We Talking?

Before we begin, we need to realize that the question is, in many ways, a straw man argument.

Why?

Well, we already grow enough food, world wide, to feed everyone. The world currently grows enough food to feed ten billion people.

Really. TEN billion – that’s more than they expect will be on the planet in 2050.

Organic farming takes dirt and turns it into soil, while conventional farming takes soil and turns it into dirt.

The problem is not growing the food. It’s growing it where people need it, transporting excess to where people need it, preventing food waste and most importantly, getting it into the hands and bellies of people living on $2/day.

We’re not very good at any of those, really.

However, let’s look at the differences when it comes to conventionally grown food and organically grown food, at least when it comes to feeding – and saving – the world.

Is Organic Food More Nutritious?

Is organic food more nutritious than conventional food? Well, define ‘nutritious’. Certainly it contains vastly fewer pesticides. Read 9 Ways Conventional Farming Is Killing Us and tell me if organic food is healthier.

Studies have certainly been done that show organic food to contain significantly more nutrients than non-organic food, but other studies have shown no significant nutritional difference.

However, one undeniable fact is that organic food contains fewer pesticides.

Honestly, I think the argument that “organic food is no healthier” is intended to deflect us from the fact that non-organic food and conventional farming is killing our planet. And us, which is rather the same thing.

Yes, Snow White, the shiny red apple is full of nutrients!

Before you read more, check out this fabulous video. I teared up when I watched it. (It has nothing to do with the fast food restaurant by that name.)

Factory Farming and Our Water

Land that has been conventionally farmed begins to lose its structure and its ability to hold water.

That is pretty serious, especially when we consider that clean drinking water is becoming scarce in many parts of the world, and so many places are affected by serious drought. A warmer, drier world cannot afford farming that requires constant, extensive irrigation.

CAFOs, which produce millions of tons of manure – and in this case, this is a waste product, not a valuable form of on-site fertilizer – which pollute the groundwater. Again, and for the same reasons as above, this is a serious issue in our changing world.

Energy Use and Industrial Farming

Industrial farming uses a great deal of energy.

Right now, conventional farming uses three calories of energy to produce one calorie of food – and that doesn’t even include transportation and processing.

Organic farms have been shown to use from 25% to up to 90% less energy than conventional farms. Organic farms have the potential to develop a closed system that is also energy independent.

Imagine an energy independent, organic farm that focused on local customers …

As a note, both Certified Organic and conventional farms use a jaw-dropping 7 calories of energy in processing and transportation. Again, this points to the necessity of local, minimally processed foods.

What Farming Does to Dirt/Soil

It has been said that organic farming takes dirt and turns it into soil, while conventional farming takes soil and turns it into dirt.

The problem is, though, a huge, overwhelming amount of our food comes from … soil. The nutrients and micronutrients in the soil contribute to the nutrition in our food.

We have goats. (I love goats. Seriously.) One issue we have is with the soil in which their hay is grown. It is selenium-deficient. Ever hear of selenium? It’s okay. Neither had I until I had goats.
Selenium-deficient soil grows selenium-deficient hay.

Care to guess what that leads to?

Selenium-deficient goats. That’s a serious matter because selenium-deficient goats drop stillborn kids and have other health concerns.

Most of the soil in most of the world is now deficient in something, some micronutrient like selenium that most of us have never heard of, and conventional farming relies on NPK (Nitrogen Phosphorous Potassium) fertilizer.  It’s called that because that’s exactly what it is – nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium.

While organic farms can use organic fertilizers and soil amendments, one of the most popular and common is compost. Personally, I think composted manure is a glorious, wonderful, and life-giving. This summer, I tucked one little half-dead squash plant into my compost pile. By the time the frost hit, I had harvested three dozen fat butternut from it! We’ll be eating organic squash all winter.

Is Industrial Yield Really Better?

In the early years of organic farming, yields are often lower as the soil is being regenerated and rebuilt. As time passes, though, yields steadily increase until they meet or exceed the yields from conventional farms.

A friend of mine, an Old Order Mennonite in southern Ontario, Canada, advised me to start organic from the beginning.

She said that her community switched to chemical fertilizers several decades ago with promises of huge yield increases. Those increases did happen, but after a few years the Mennonites found that more and more fertilizer was needed to get the same result.

Because of that, and other problems with conventional farming, many of them are beginning to switch back to “old-style” farming with crop rotation, cover crops and manure.

They have realized that chemical-based farming only offers a short-term burst of productivity. It’s really hard to say no to that productivity, but what is the long term damage?

When studies are done showing yield comparison, they focus on the large Certified Organic farms, the ones that are commercial in size and scope and practice monoculture (large fields of one crop). In these cases, yield is often higher on conventional farms, but even then, the difference is surprisingly small.

Less industrialized countries see the most yield increase when they turn to organic methods.

And, honestly, these are the people who need it the most. When people talk about “feeding the world”, what they really mean is “feeding the billions in Africa and Asia”. And what kind of yield increase?

These struggling farmers, who cannot afford to buy hybrid seeds every year and use vast amounts of fertilizers and pesticides, can see up to a 180% increase when they use organic methods with heirloom seeds that they save and replant.

That’s rather a game changer, I think.

Rodale’s Farm System Trial

In 1981, the huge Rodale Institute began a project in which they attempted to take a conventional farm and switch it to organic methods.

Over the years, they have found that

  • organic and conventional crops have similar yields in good years
  • organic crops have a much higher yield during drought and flood years
  • organic crops use about 30% less energy
  • organic farmers do not create pesticide-resistant super weeds
  • organic crops store an incredible amount of carbon in the soil

And this leads me to the most important part of the answer.

Organic farming, unlike conventional farming, pulls carbon dioxide from the air and stores it – several thousand pounds of it per acre – safely in the soil.

The Rodale Institute found that, if all of the world’s farms became truly organic (as opposed to We’re Organic But We’re Owned By ConAgra), climate change could be reversed.

The Takeaway

Organic farming (and by that we mean small o-organic on small, biologically diverse farms)

  • produces food that is just as nutritious but with fewer pesticides
  • uses far less water and contributes less to the pollution of groundwater
  • utilizes manure as an on-site fertilizer instead of a polluting waste
  • replenishes soil instead of depleting it
  • uses less energy than conventional farming
  • can produce yields that match, and often exceed conventional farms, when properly compared
  • is an incredible carbon sink
  • works in resource-poor areas, growing food where it is most needed
  • grows resilient, pest and weed resistant plants instead of creating superweeds and superpests

We live in a world:

  • in which pesticides are poisoning our people, our land and our water,
  • where soil is being depleted of the ability to hold water and transfer nutrients to us,
  • where resource depletion has finally been recognized as a serious issue,
  • where superweeds and superpests are increasingly resistant to the chemicals used to kill them,
  • where commercial farming uses three calories of energy to make one calorie of food and
  • where food is most needed in places where it is not grown so that more energy is needed to transport it.

We know that this cannot continue.

So can organic farming feed the world?

The question is asked with the unspoken implication that conventional farming is feeding the world and will continue to do so.

The reality is that there are a billion starving people in the world today, even though we currently grow enough to feed ten billion.

Conventional farming has failed to fulfill its promise.

Conventional farming does not feed the world today.

Instead, it poisons our soil and water, leaving us with Snow White’s apple.

9 Ways to Boost Your Immune System (So You Can Do The Things!)

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Published on JustPlainCooking.ca December 6, 2019

Your immune system is vital to how your body functions. It is easier to take care of it now than to repair it after your immune system has failed. Here are some surefire ways to boost your immune system.

We talk an awful lot about our immune systems. Or maybe that’s just me?

I know that immune system health and natural immunity are topics that come up all the time around here.

Over the past couple of years, I’ve half-jokingly asked if anyone knew where I could buy a new one. I seemed to have misplaced mine because I was always sick and exhausted. It’s time to really start looking into how to boost immune system strength because without it, you can do The Things!

Ways to Boost Immune System Health

The immune system is a collection of special cells, organs, and substances that defends the body against infection and illness. It monitors the body at the cellular level and attempts to rid it of anything unfamiliar.

It’s …. important. I know, that sounded all geeky and weird, but the simple language is – your immune system is  your body’s defense system against germs and infection.

The most commonly known immune deficiency is, of course, AIDS.

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

But you can certainly have a compromised immune system without having AIDS. Allergies are an example of an immune system running amuck. Like a terrified dog attacking friend and foe, the immune system can’t tell the difference between a virus and a peanut. Considering that allergies can be fatal, imagine how very powerful a healthy immune system is.

Antigens and Our Immune System

Any substance that enters the body that the immune system does not recognize is known as an antigen. When an antigen enters our bodies, the immune response is triggered and the attack to get rid of it begins.

Our immune system, when healthy and working properly, has the ability to destroy anything containing a particular antigen, including, germs, viruses, and cancer cells.

It’s safe to say that without our immunity, we wouldn’t be around too long because our immune system is a tireless warrior protecting our health. There are bacteria and viruses everywhere, not to mention helminths (worms) and tiny mites that carry infection and our immune systems continuously fight all types of bacteria, viruses and various parasites.

We also use our immunity to fight and kill cancerous cells that can pop up in our systems. Clearly it’s not always successful – just like we get flu, colds, worms and other infections, we also get cancer. People with a poor immune system get cancer at higher rates than those whose immune system is working properly.

It is therefore of great importance to be sure and take care of our immune system health. Thankfully, some of the ways in which we can do this are also beneficial in other ways to our overall health.

What are some ways we can maximize the effectiveness of our immune system to stay as healthy as possible? The biggest problem I have found, when your immune system has taken a beating, is that you’re too sick and tired to get up and figure out how to fix the problem.

Choose Foods to Boost Immune System

This means getting enough nutrition through fruits and vegetables, and nuts and seeds. There are nutrients in these foods that act as antioxidants, scavenging your body for oxygen free radicals that can damage cellular systems. Research has shown that increasing the number of fruits and vegetables in your diet can improve the ability of immunizations to “take hold.”

When you’re feeling exhausted, and catching ‘every bug that goes around’, it can seem extremely difficult to make healthy meals. I have been there, groaning at the thought of even preparing pre-frozen meals. You KNOW you need to eat healthier if you want to feel better, but every thing you do is just a tremendous effort.

If that’s the situation you are in, please enlist help and find ways to get your fridge and freezer stocked with meals that are both healthy and super easy. Powdered greens, which can be added to water, both hot and cold drinks, and even mixed into food, are a super efficient way to boost your veggie intake, and it’s one of the methods I used to get my family back on our feed again.

There ARE others, though, and you may find locally-sourced powdered greens at your Farmer’s Market. Supporting your Farmer’s Market is a great way to eat local and seasonal food.

[adthrive-in-post-video-player video-id=”42wyIcd6″ upload-date=”2019-03-30T15:35:01.000Z” name=”9 ways improve immune system” description=”null”]

Stay away from tobacco smoke

Tobacco smoke ruins immunity, even if you aren’t the actual smoker.

Hopefully by now most of us are becoming aware of the health problems caused by living in a house or driving in a car where people smoke.

Children have an increased risk of getting middle ear infections and lung infections when exposed to second hand smoke by way of parents or family members smoking around them. Cigarette smoke in the household, and on the clothes of adults in the house, greatly increase the risk of SIDS. Adults are more prone to getting bronchitis and pneumonia when exposed to tobacco smoke.

The toxic ingredients in smoke lessen your ability to fight off all kinds of infections.

Cut down on alcohol

Those who excessively drink alcohol have an increased risk of getting infections from a poor immune system. Pulmonary infections are particularly likely to happen in heavy drinkers.

That doesn’t mean that it’s unhealthy to have a drink every once in a while. Just keep it in moderation. If you’re drinking every day, or finishing bottles all by yourself, you might want to look into that.

Eat probiotics

Most people now know what probiotics are.

If you’re one of those who hasn’t discovered them yet, probiotics are one of the best things to reach mainstream medicine. They’re found in some yogurts and in lacto-fermented foods and they can be purchased in capsule form.

Probiotics consist of living spores of healthy bacteria or living organisms themselves. They colonize the gut and displace the “bad bacteria” that can make you sick. With probiotics, you can have a healthier gut immune system and can avoid gastrointestinal upset from bacteria or fungi in the gut.

If you’re dealing with a compromised immune system, fermented foods containing probiotics should be part of your daily diet. Start your day with a dish of yogurt. Add a tablespoon of homemade kimchi or sauerkraut to your dinner plate.

Garlic is an antimicrobial agent in and of itself. It boosts the immune system in a general way but is inactivated by heat. This means you’re not getting the benefit when you cook with it.

To get the health boost, add garlic last to your meal just before serving.

Get vitamin D

Many people in the Northern Hemisphere are deficient in vitamin D and this can negatively affect immunity, particularly in the winter months.

You can get vitamin D with exposure to the sun or you can take a vitamin D supplement. As some people need a lot of vitamin D and others don’t need as much, have your vitamin D level checked periodically until you find a dosage of vitamin D that brings your level into the normal range.

In the summertime, just ten to fifteen minutes of sunlight per day can be a big benefit to your immune system.

Eat shitake and Maitake mushrooms

Studies have shown that really concentrated extracts of these types of medicinal mushrooms have enhanced the immune system of women who have breast cancer. While eating the mushroom alone hasn’t been studied, it may have a beneficial effect on the immune system of otherwise healthy people. Another that people are talking about is Chaga mushroom – which looks less like a mushroom and more like a piece of burnt wood attached to a tree.

If you don’t have any medical reasons to avoid mushrooms (like a serious fungal allergy), it is worthwhile to add them to your diet.

Immune Supporting Herbs

There are tons of immune-supportive herbs out there and probably yet to be developed.

Some important ones are eleuthero, Asian ginseng, astragalus, and American ginseng. These have been used in Chinese medicine for millennia to prevent infection and keep the body healthy. They can be found at health food stores everywhere and even at certain pharmacies. Do your research before adding these to your health care, and do speak to a medical professional.

Echinacea tincture

Echinacea is good for respiratory infections, especially when taken early in the course of the infection. Make a tincture yourself or get one from a reputable herbalist.

The important thing to remember about Echinacea is that you don’t take it all the time. Have it on hand so that you can dose up the minute you can feel an infection starting, but don’t continue taking it after you’re feeling better.

And here’s a bonus tip that I added after I created the graphics!

Detox Your Environment

Still struggling with health and immunity issues? Still wondering where your immune system went?

Recently, I went through my entire house with the help of a good friend. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. The funny thing is that I thought my household cleaners were generally safe. I grew up with Mr. Clean and these ‘ordinary’ cleaners, after all. And shampoo? I mean, it’s just shampoo, right?

They’re not TOXIC, they’re just … well, yes, they’re pretty toxic when you’re dealing with a weak immune system.

Over the course of a week, we replaced my soap and shampoo with an unscented African Black Soap (which I’m loving). I use it for my hair, face and body.

We tossed out window cleaners, floor cleaners and even dish soap and mixed up bottles of cleaners using castille soap.

The harsh Cascade dishwasher detergent was replaced with a natural brand using organic ingredients – suddenly I can be in the kitchen when the dishwasher is running and I don’t feel like an elephant is sitting on my chest.

Tide Free replaced the scented laundry soap, and I just found a local seller of soap nuts, so that’s next.

After a week, I’m noticing smells that I hadn’t been aware of before and I have more energy than I have had in the past several years.

A year ago, I wondered if I would ever get my immune system working well again.

Since then I’ve learned to decrease the constant but unnecessary assaults on it, improve my diet and take a few simple steps strengthen my immunity. Now my joke is that I’m aging backwards – and it feels great! If you’ve been wondering how to boost your immune system, rest assured that the answer is not difficult or complicated, but it’s definitely worth the effort!

How Positive Thinking Improves Quality of Life

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Published on JustPlainCooking July 28, 2019

Positive thinking is not about sticking your head in the sand and ignoring bad circumstances. In fact, positive thinking can improve quality of life in several ways.

Those of you who visit my Facebook page and interact with me personally know that I am very committed to positive thinking and a positive mindset.

But I’ve heard it dismissed more than once as immature and irresponsible. I’m told that I am keeping my head in the sand (like ostriches don’t actually do!) and ignoring the less fortunate parts of life.

Face reality, they say.

In response, I put my fingers in my ears and tell them that I reject their reality and substitute my own.

Jokes aside, any reality in which I must be unhappy and miserable just because bad things happen – that’s not a reality I choose.

OH, but the bad things?

Yup, they still happen.

I read the same news reports that you do.

My kids get sick and hurt.

Money problems strike at the Beausoleil house, too.

Sometimes I even ignore the fact that I’m gluten-intolerant and make myself a big sandwich on homemade wheat bread … oh, anyone of you who are off gluten know exactly how awful that was.

At any rate, positive thinking doesn’t mean I’m whistling and pretending my guts not tied up in nasty knots. It means that I approach unpleasant situations in a more productive way.

It means that I focus on how our food stores let us weather employment woes – instead of moaning and fretting because money is tight.

Or it means that I remind myself why I don’t eat wheat and go to bed early so that I can sleep off the gut pain. (After a cup of ginger and honey tea, of course).

So instead of thinking that no one is communicating with you and therefore they must not like you, positive thinking means you remind yourself that your friends are as busy as you are – so you pick up the phone or start a video call.

So let’s look at five ways that positive thinking can help improve quality of life.

Positive Thinkers Are Healthier

It’s not that they feel healthier – research shows that positive thinkers really are healthier.

A study done at Harvard School of Public Health shows that positive thinking – like self-acceptance and positive relationships with others – is linked to improved health.

Another study had also shown that when a first-year law student was more optimistic, they could fight off infection more efficiently and could take fewer sick days as a result.

Positive Thinkers See Failures As A New Start

A positive thinker knows that a failure is not the end, but rather the beginning of something great.

When we are stuck in a negative thinking cycle, we are going to fixate on negative possibilities and be trapped by the fear of failure. On the other hand, a positive thinker is going to be willing to consider the future and be open to new ideas, new experiences, and new possibilities, and is also going to be prepared to move toward those ideas expecting to experience great things.

Positive Thinkers Don’t Freak Out Over The Small Stuff

According to a study that was conducted at Quebec’s Concordia University, those who think positively produce less cortisol. Cortisol is known as the stress hormone, and when you produce less of the hormone, your body doesn’t react as strongly to stressful situations, by nature, being able to think positively means that you are less likely to be stressed out over things that would stress a negative thinker out.

Positive Thinkers Get More Job Offers

A study conducted by Duke University examined a group of MBA graduates entering the workforce, half of the subjects had a positive outlook and believed that their success was inevitable, and the rest of the subjects were much less hopeful and optimistic.

Researchers concluded that the positive group not only were hired more often, but also enjoyed more job satisfaction, had higher salaries and were also promoted more frequently than the more negative thinking subjects were.

Positive Thinkers Are Better Athletes

There is no proof that a positive thinker has more muscle mass or a greater athletic ability than a pessimist does, however having a more optimistic outlook and using negative criticism to motivate action seems to help athletes excel.

A study out of Penn Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania examined the effect of optimism and pessimism on swimmers. The study gave swimmers a false time when they had been instructed to swim their hardest, adding several seconds onto their time.

Those who were positive thinkers used the negative feedback as motivation to get an even faster time on their next swim, while those who thought negatively performed more poorly than their original time.

No amount of positive thinking will make you a world-class athlete without exercise and commitment, unfortunately.

If you aren’t an optimist, this doesn’t mean that you are sentenced to a life riddled with poor health, no promotions, and an unhappy relationship.

Optimism is a skill that can be learned, which means that you too can reap the benefits of positive thinking, all you must do is put forth a little bit of effort.

Short Term Survival Food Storage

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First published on JustPlainCooking.ca Sep 13, 2021

When you are sheltering in place, are planning on staying in a shelter, or even dealing with the possibility of being stuck out on the road, having food and water is your top priority in any disaster situation. You can make it without power, and a lot of creature comforts, but you can’t survive without food and water.

Emergency food storage doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive.

In fact, it can be mainly comprised of items your family is already eating.

Before you go out and start buying all the water, bread, and milk you can get your hands on, figure out how long you want to prepare for.

Having at least a week’s worth of food and water stored up can be a great idea during a natural disaster. Keep in mind that you not only have to ride out the storm itself, but that it may also take extra time before help and supplies can make it to you.

Water

Start with your water supply.

Hopefully you will continue to have running water, but don’t depend on it as your only source of drinking water. We have our own well, a good one that has never gone dry, but we always keep water stored.

Buy water bottles, or fill up milk jugs, soda bottles and the like to ensure you have enough clean water to safely drink for a few days. You can make it much longer without food than without water. This should be your number one priority.

Non-perishable food

Next think about non-perishable food that your family will eat.

And oh, yes, always keep in mind ‘food that your family will eat’. I have cricket powder stored in my pantry but it’s not likely to be used in an every day disaster.

Choose food that you can eat as is.

Crackers and peanut butter are a good choice, as are canned beans, soups, and similar.

Canned tuna or chicken makes for a great protein source. Bread is another good option along with your favorite non-perishable sandwich toppings. Don’t forget about things like granola bars, protein bars, nuts, or beef jerky that you can eat right from the package.

If you have a camping stove, or a grill outside, you may also be able to heat and cook some foods. Instant oatmeal, coffee, hot chocolate mix, soups, and even instant rice are great options if you have the ability to heat water when the power goes out.

Last but not least, stock up on some favorite treats like chocolate, chips, pretzels, cookies, and others that keep well. It will make getting through those tough disaster days a little more bearable.

Start with a list of things that you know your family will eat and things you’ll use up even when you don’t need them during a disaster.

From there, start to round it out with things that will keep you full and healthy and pick those up as needed. For example, you may eat canned vegetable or chicken noodle soup regularly, but aren’t a big fan of tuna (although you’ll eat it if the power’s out and you’re hungry).

Keep a small supply of the soups in your pantry at all times (rotating through them as needed), and pick up a few cans of tuna as needed.

Talk to your family about your survival food supply and let them have input into what you should stock and keep as well. It will give them a sense of control and responsibility and of course ensure that everyone is happy with the meals available when things get serious.

You’re Not Too Poor to Prep

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Originally published on JustPlainMarie.ca on July 20, 2016 and then on JustPlainCooking.ca

You can certainly start prepping for trouble and disasters if money is tight!

You Can Afford to NOT Prepare

In fact, you really can’t afford not to – even if you’re on welfare and visiting the food bank regularly, you’re not too poor to prep.

Do you really believe you’re too poor to prepare for disasters?

If you ask people if they would like to survive in a disaster situation, every one of them would tell you yes, obviously. (And by disaster, I mean anything from job loss to devastating hurricane!)

But if you ask them how many of them are actually prepared, you’d see maybe only a third of them (and that’s being generous) would say they were.

While everyone wants to survive a natural disaster or economic collapse, not everyone will actually work a plan to make sure that happens.

There are always a variety of reasons that people give for not preparing.

Topping the list is always the excuse that putting a survival plan in action costs too much money.

And at the back of this excuse is the belief that the government will always pick up the slack during an emergency.

After all, isn’t that what the government is there for?

What they fail to realize is that most governments aren’t in the position to help people during a catastrophic event. Sure, the government can step in and help if an area or two is hard hit – but we saw how well that went in the United States during Hurricane Katrina (and Maria and Harvey!) and other disasters.

Before 2020

I’m editing this post in 2025, and I have to sigh at what I wrote in 2015 when I wrote this. So much has changed in ten years. However, I’m not changing the next few paragraphs.

Now imagine a disaster of such proportions that it astounds the entire world. If something like an Ebola crisis began to hit hundreds of thousands of people in every city, for example.

I recently read a post-apocalyptic series in which humanity was almost destroyed by a fungus that took years to manifest fully. By the time it became apparent that the fungus was deadly, it had infected the world. Even on a lesser scale, any virus that doesn’t manifest quickly has the ability to travel far and wide.

Governments wouldn’t be able to keep up. If you weren’t infected and had to stay quarantined in place, you would become one of millions. How well do you think your needs would be met?

And Back to 2025

So now we don’t need to imagine. We know how quickly a virus will travel the world. We know how helpless governments everywhere will be. And we know that, in the end, we are on our own, relying on the preparations we’ve put in place before the crisis.

You can’t afford to rely on anyone else and you can’t afford not to prepare.

The problem that most people have when they use the excuse that they can’t afford to gear up for survival is that their outlook is far too broad.

They’re looking at a list of supplies as a whole rather than breaking them down and concentrating on building up in small increments. Or worse, they think preparedness means a bunker full of bacon or more toilet paper than they’ll use in a lifetime. (Never, ever, ever will I understand the run on toilet paper.)

You can set aside the supplies you need for survival even if you don’t have all of the money you need at once because you can do it on a budget.

Four Simple Things You Can Do

Even if you live paycheck to paycheck, you can afford to prepare. Buy just a little extra each month. And I mean a little – if your “extra” is $10, that’s what it is. It’s better than $0! As each month passes, your store of supplies will grow.

Concentrate on reaching small goals first.

Build Community

I know, I know. I said you can’t really rely on anyone else, and that’s true. But the myth of the lone wolf living in the deep woods and never speaking to anyone else – it’s a myth. People need people.

Two incidents here in Nova Scotia made me realize how much we all need community – Hurricane Fiona in 2022 and then the incredible snowstorm in early February 2022 that dropped over five feet of snow in a weekend. From food to emergency lodgings to damage repairs, people relied on each other and we all got through both.

Get a good cookbook

Yes, this is a shameless plug for my cookbook, but if you read the reviews on Amazon, you’ll understand why. A Cabin Full of Food is designed to keep your pantry full of home-grown food and your table full of delicious meals made from that food. The recipes will work equally well in a fully equipped modern home and in a grid-down situation.

Even if you have no idea how to cook, the simple recipes in conversational format, will help you put food on the table. So your first step is to get A Cabin Full of Food – and then start using it. None of the ingredients are “exotic”, expensive or difficult to find, and the cookbook is in use from South Africa to France and all through North America.

Double Up

Let’s say you are planning to make a recipe using canned corn (and you haven’t yet canned your own) because you noticed that canned corn is on sale – Buy one, get one free.

Instead of buying the three cans that you planned to use this week, pick up six. You’re not spending any extra money.

Later, as you have more ready cash and are more comfortable with stockpiling, you might buy a case or three during the sale (which is what I usually do), but even if you buy three extra cans, you have painlessly added to your pantry.

Focus on Small Goals

You do not need to run out and buy a year’s worth of food for every member of your family. Start working on building your deep pantry. When we started prepping, we were poor enough that we qualified for food bank assistance and other help.

Building a deep pantry was one tool we used to pull ourselves out of that poverty.

The same thinking applies to other supplies. Watch for sales. Have a list and slowly pick away at it. Focus on small goals and celebrate your successes.

Someday you’re going to find that you’re researching how to build a chicken coop, the basics of goat care, and taking steps to full time homesteading, and you’ll look back and realize that you got there by starting when you were “too poor”.

It happened to us.

10 Real-World Skills for Life After Cheap Oil

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Published on JustPlainMarie.ca on Oct 8, 2015 and republished on JustPlainCooking.ca on January 9, 2020

Let’s play a game: Try to picture a world without oil.

It’s not just about gas for your car or plastic bags at the grocery store. Oil is everywhere: in the fields that grow your food, the trucks that haul it, the clothes on your back, the asphalt under your feet, and about half the stuff sitting in your fridge or medicine cabinet. Heck, it probably helped build the fridge.

Now, I’m not here to predict some dramatic overnight collapse. But if the last few years have taught us anything, it’s that supply chains are fragile, energy is expensive, and “business as usual” can vanish overnight – sometimes for reasons nobody saw coming. Whether prices spike, tech shifts, or policy changes, it’s not hard to imagine a future where oil isn’t cheap or easy. So the question isn’t if we need new skills and habits. It’s when.

Here’s what I’ve learned (sometimes the hard way) about preparing for a less-oily world—not by hoarding gadgets, but by learning the everyday skills that our great-grandparents took for granted.

1. Living in Community

Forget the lone homesteader myth. Technology lets us pretend we’re self-sufficient, but pull back the curtain and you’ll see a web of invisible support. If we lose access to that – by accident or design – we’re going to need real, face-to-face communities more than ever. And not just for work, but for all the messiness of human life: conflict, care, and compromise.

Skill to practice: Get to know your neighbours. Share resources. Learn how to resolve conflict without ghosting each other. The old ways (like the Mennonite practice of reconciliation before Communion) might start making sense again.

2. Low-Tech Gardening

“Gardening” isn’t sticking a seed in a bag of Miracle-Gro and calling it done. Oil-free gardening means no imported fertilizer, no rototillers, and no store-bought compost from three provinces away. Just compost, manure, hand tools, and grit. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll learn what doesn’t work (which is most things, the first few years).

Skill to practice: Start a compost pile. Save seeds. Learn which hand tools actually work for your soil, and what local critters eat your beans. Gardening is humbling—and it’s best to be humbled before you need to rely on it.

3. Food Preservation and Storage

Are you ready to live without a fridge? No, seriously. Can you get through a power outage—or a long winter—without easy refrigeration? Think root cellars, canning, fermentation, dehydration, and even ice houses or smokehouses. Not all methods work everywhere, and not every family will like the same foods.

Skill to practice: Try storing food without a fridge for a week. Learn to can, ferment, and dry things. Figure out what your family will actually eat after the first enthusiastic bite.

4. Animal Husbandry

Chickens, goats, cows, or even a couple of rabbits—livestock provide food, manure, and sometimes muscle power. But they’re not “set it and forget it.” In a world with fewer meds and supplements, keeping animals alive gets trickier.

Skill to practice: Learn natural animal care now—before meds are scarce or expensive. Get comfortable mucking out stalls, dealing with illness, and handling the messier side of raising animals.

5. Hunting, Fishing, and Foraging

Not everyone wants to hunt, and that’s fine. But wild food—if managed sustainably—can supplement what you grow. The catch? Knowing how to safely hunt, fish, or forage, and then prepare what you catch.

Skill to practice: Learn to identify wild foods. Get your hunting or fishing license. (And please, don’t snare your own barn cat by mistake.)

6. Living Without Power Tools

Power tools are a gift—but if the grid goes down, or parts and batteries are scarce, you’ll want to know how to handle a saw, ax, or shovel. If you’ve ever split wood by hand or dug a hole with a shovel, you know: it’s a different ballgame.

Skill to practice: Try building or repairing something with only hand tools. Get familiar with the muscles you forgot you had.

7. Making and Storing Your Own Energy

Solar panels, windmills, biogas—everyone’s selling the dream of “energy independence.” But most systems need rare parts, expert installation, and ongoing maintenance. Batteries wear out, inverters die, and not every “green” option is as plug-and-play as the brochures suggest.

Skill to practice: Learn how basic solar or off-grid systems work. Understand where the bottlenecks are. Experiment on a small scale and keep your expectations realistic.

8. Basic Medicine and First Aid

Modern medicine is a miracle, but a world without easy transport or cheap pharmaceuticals will mean fewer hospitals and more DIY care. At the bare minimum, someone in every household (and ideally every community) should have advanced first aid skills.

Skill to practice: Take a first aid course. Learn herbal remedies and old-school methods—but know their limits. Know when a cut is just a cut, and when you need to run for help.

9. DIY Everything

Soap, candles, simple repairs, clothes, tools—DIY is about more than Pinterest crafts. It’s the nuts and bolts of a functional home when there’s no box store down the road.

Skill to practice: Pick one lost art and master it. Soap-making, sewing, woodwork, basketry, metal repair, bookbinding—whatever calls to you.

10. Getting Along With People You Can’t Escape

Let’s be honest: most of us have forgotten how to live with a small, unchanging group of people. When you can’t just swipe, scroll, or move across town, conflict resolution and empathy are survival skills.

Skill to practice: Practice patience. Own your mistakes. Learn to apologize—and forgive. You’ll need those muscles as much as your back and hands.

Final Thoughts

A “world without oil” doesn’t have to mean catastrophe—if we start adapting now. The skills you build today, even a little at a time, will serve you no matter what the future throws at us. The truth is, we don’t need to become survivalists or move off-grid to start living more intentionally, locally, and resourcefully.

Because in the end, it’s not about oil. It’s about being able to bend, not break.

What skill would you add to the list? What’s the one you’re most curious (or nervous) about learning? Share below, and let’s figure it out together.

Are You Any Good?

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First published as a musing on CanadianDoomer.ca in 2012, but it’s even more true now, in a world that seems determined to keep us guessing about what’s next.

Let’s get something out of the way: Most of us don’t actually know how capable we are. We don’t get a report card for “surviving upheaval,” or a diploma for “navigating total chaos with only a spatula and two feet of duct tape.” No one hands you a medal for keeping your family fed when the pantry’s looking bare and the next grocery run is a week away.

I was reminded of this the other night, of all places, while reading a Barbara Hambly novel (Sisters of the Raven – highly recommended for anyone who likes their fantasy with a side of desert survival).

One character asks, “Are you any good?” Not at school or work or the easy stuff, but at staying alive when everything’s hard – climbing trees, dodging danger, keeping hope alive.

The answer:

“I don’t think she knows how good she is, any more than any of us do, until we have to find it out.”

It hit me like a brick. Because here’s the secret: most of us, especially those who’ve grown up with grocery stores, hot water, and phones that tell you the weather, have no idea what we’re capable of until we’re up against it.

You Learn By Living

If I’d understood how much work it actually takes to put up a year’s worth of food – shelves of home-canned tomatoes, enough potatoes to get through to May, and something other than jam for variety – I’d never have tried. Honestly, I would have quit before I started, just from the overwhelm.

And yet, every year, I get a little better.

  • The first year, I didn’t put up fruit. Who needs vitamin C, right?
  • The next, we ran out of root vegetables long before the last frost.
  • Some years, it was forgetting to label, so we played “mystery dinner” with the jars.
  • I’ve burned out the clutch on more than one manual kitchen tool and learned the hard way that a pressure canner is not a slow-cooker.

But here’s the thing: Each time, I failed better.

Capability Isn’t Comfort

The story we tell ourselves, the story the world tells us, is that if we were really good at something, it wouldn’t feel this hard. That the truly capable never doubt, never get tired, never make a hash of things and cry in the pantry.

That’s a lie.

If you’ve ever stood in your kitchen, exhausted, kids hollering, wondering if you can actually do this – keep going. You’re already doing it. You don’t know how good you are because the test is still running.

Most of us are shockingly capable when we have to be.

Not just at surviving, but at adapting, learning, even thriving.

That’s why I do things the old, hard way, sometimes – using manual tools, eating from the garden, figuring it out with what’s on hand. Not to be a martyr, but to find out where my edges are. Because I’d rather fail while learning than be blindsided later.

You’re Stronger Than You Think

If you’d asked me before I became a mother if I could handle childbirth (or, let’s be honest, raising a toddler while sleep-deprived and running a household), I would have said: absolutely not. And yet, like every mother before me, I did it. Heck, I did it six times! Not because I was ready, but because I had to.

So here’s my gentle nudge, for you and for myself: You don’t know what you’re capable of until you’re in it. The only way to find out is to keep going, one messy, imperfect, deeply human step at a time.

If you’re facing something hard, whether it’s learning to live with less, building new habits, or just figuring out who you are now, remember:

You’re already more capable than you realize.

The only way to know how good you are is to keep living.

And every “mistake” you make is proof that you’re in the arena, getting better as you go.

You might not feel like a survival expert, a household manager, or a builder of resilient lives. But you’re here, you’re still trying, and that’s more than good enough.

Build a life that bends but never breaks. You’re stronger than you think.

Are We Poor? Rethinking What It Means to Have Enough

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Originally published on CanadianDoomer.ca, November 10, 2011. Updated for Just Plain Living, 2025.

Let’s start with a confession: I’ve spent more than a few mornings nursing a coffee and trading “can you believe this?” stories with friends – sometimes out of solidarity, sometimes out of pure survival. The day in question? Water turned off (thanks, landlord), kids bouncing off the walls, and me mentally rearranging priorities before breakfast.

Enter our friend – the one who works for Children’s Aid. (Yes, she’s one of the good ones. She’s the sort who brings Timbits, not judgments, and somehow manages to believe we’re pretty great parents. I like to keep friends who challenge my own stories.)

We spent the morning discussing everything from the price of groceries to why modern schools make us both want to homestead in the woods forever. Somewhere in the middle, I said something offhand: “Well, we’re poor, and – ”

She cut me off. “No. You can’t say that. You’re not poor. I see poor every day. Families stretched so thin they crack. Parents who feel they have to compete with people making three times their income, so they rack up debt for Christmas and then have no groceries. No books in the house, no food in the pantry. Some folks earn more than you and EJ ever have, but a lost job or sick child would sink them overnight. That’s poor. You? You’ve got a huge library, food in the cupboard, money tucked away, kids who eat better than some doctors’ kids, and a home full of love. You’re not poor. You’re resourceful and low income, but you are not POOR.”

She was right – and her words stuck with me. Because in that moment, she redefined something I’d been carrying around for years: the idea that “poor” was about numbers, not about how we lived or what we actually had.

Later, when car repairs drained our emergency savings, my mother echoed it:

“POOR people don’t sigh because the car bill ate their savings. POOR people don’t have any savings. POOR people don’t buy 50lb bags of flour or keep food in reserve. Poverty isn’t just about what you earn. It’s about what you can withstand.”

It got me thinking. My grandfather used to say wealth was all about land – you weren’t rich unless you owned the earth beneath your feet. Around here, that would make us poor indeed, but I know farmers with hundreds of acres and barely two pennies to rub together. Meanwhile, I’ve met folks with fancy jobs and nice houses who owe more on their credit cards than they’ll make in years. Are they wealthy? Or just high-income and perpetually one step from crisis?

So here’s where I land:

We are not “poor.”

We are resourceful. We’re low income, maybe, but we’re rich in skills, love, food, and – most of all – in the ability to ride out storms.

True poverty isn’t just a lack of cash. It’s a lack of safety net, options, community, and hope.

If you’ve ever paid a bill from savings, cooked from your pantry, or watched your kids curl up with a book from your own shelves, you’re already ahead of the game – even when it feels hard.

What’s your definition of “poor”? Does it come down to money, or is there something deeper? Drop your thoughts in the comments. Let’s rewrite this story together.

Energy Hogs in Your Home

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Note: This was first published on justplainmarie.ca back in 2015, when I was still living in an 800-square-foot cabin deep in the woods, with nothing but a few solar panels and three car batteries for backup. It’s now updated for Just Plain Living in 2025 – because energy isn’t getting any cheaper, and frankly, neither is life.

From Solar Rations to the Electric Bill Shock

When I first wrote about energy hogs, I wasn’t just being frugal for fun. We didn’t have the luxury of being wasteful. At the cabin, our entire household was limited to a maximum of 2 kWh per day—and in December, you’d be lucky to hit that target. Short days, cloudy weather, and snow-covered panels meant there were nights when the only thing running was a single LED lamp and a (small, blessedly silent) propane fridge.

The laundry? Done outside with a wringer washer when the weather cooperated. Dishes? By hand, heating water on the stove. “Instant hot water” wasn’t a thing, and I learned more than I ever wanted to about what really matters when your power is strictly rationed.

But life has a way of forcing your hand. By September 2016, my health was declining, and we needed to move closer to medical care—something you simply can’t do off-grid in the deep woods. We moved into a sprawling (to us) 2,800-square-foot farmhouse with real insulation, real plumbing, and, for the first time in years, a normal electric bill.

That first winter, the house felt luxurious—until the first Nova Scotia Power bill arrived. I still remember the sticker shock, even after all the trade-offs we’d made for my health. Suddenly, I had the option of running the dryer, letting the hot water tank hum away, and plugging in every kitchen gadget. The reality? Convenience is expensive.

What I Learned About Energy Hogs—Lessons for Modern Life

I’m not living off-grid anymore, and I’m not going back. But those years taught me a lot about what actually burns through power, and how little you can get by with—willingly or not.

When Every Watt Counts

  • We literally couldn’t be energy hogs in the cabin – there wasn’t enough electricity to spare.
  • Cloudy week in December? The “to do” list shrank to “keep the lights on, keep the fridge cold.”
  • I learned the value of a backup plan (hello, candles and thermoses) and what “essentials” really means.

Household Shock: Going From 2kWh/day to 800kWh/month

  • The big house made daily life easier, but at a price.
  • That first bill was a wake-up call – electric heat, hot water tank, and (let’s be honest) kids leaving lights on in every room.
  • Lesson: The less you have, the more creative you get. The more you have, the easier it is to forget what things really cost.

Hot Water Tanks: Still Enemy #1

  • Whether you’re off-grid or on, the hot water tank quietly gobbles power, day and night.
  • What we do now: We got rid of the traditional hot water tank and switched to a propane furnace with on-demand hot water.

Clothes Dryers: Sweet, Sweet Luxury (That You Pay For)

  • Cabin days: line drying, even in winter.
  • Now: Dryer is back in use, but I’ll hang laundry outside all summer when I can. Old habits die hard – and that’s not a bad thing.

Fridge: Bigger Isn’t Always Better

  • We survived with a 3.3 cu ft propane fridge; now, a regular one feels huge.
  • Still, I try to avoid overfilling or keeping things in the fridge “just because” – if I wouldn’t run the fridge for it off-grid, maybe I don’t need it now.

Appliances and “Phantom Loads”

  • Off-grid, you learn fast what draws power even when “off.”
  • Back on-grid, we use power bars with switches for TV, computers, chargers – anything that doesn’t need to run 24/7.

Why It Matters Now (Even If You’re Not Off-Grid)

You don’t have to move to the woods, but with electricity prices climbing every year, every small win counts. I know not everyone can – or should live the way we did, and honestly, I wouldn’t want to do it again. But if you’re looking to survive modern life without watching your utility bill eat your grocery budget, maybe a few off-grid lessons are worth stealing:

  • Turn down the hot water tank. Insulate it.
  • Hang laundry when you can – even once a week helps.
  • Right-size your fridge and avoid phantom loads.
  • Remember: convenience is expensive. Sometimes it’s worth it. Sometimes, not so much.

Your Turn – War Stories, Hacks, and Surprises?

Ever tried to seriously cut your power use – even just as an experiment? Did you discover a new favorite trick, or swear you’d never do it again? Drop your best (or worst) stories below. Commiseration and tips are always welcome.

Copyright Marie Campbell Beausoleil, updated 2025 for Just Plain Living. Originally appeared on justplainmarie.ca (2015).

That Time We Accidentally Poisoned Ourselves With Carbon Monoxide

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Every so often, I trip over something in my old blog drafts that’s so real and unvarnished, I can’t help but dust it off and update it. This one’s from November 2012 on my very old CanadianDoomer.ca and then republished in 2015 on JustPlainMarie.ca – back when Rina was a brand-new baby, I was still healing from childbirth, and our life was a circus act involving a newborn, a slum apartment in the city, and the looming prospect of moving off-grid.

Babies, Burnout, and the Big Cabin Experiment

Rina was at that magical stage – just under three weeks old, and already worrying a small army of midwives, doctors, and (because life is never simple) the occasional social worker. See, every one of my six kids lost a lot of weight right after birth, then struggled to regain it.

They’re all healthy now but let me tell you: In those first days, every feed feels like a life-or-death negotiation. You don’t relax until the baby regains their birth weight – that’s the “deadline.” After that, you’re allowed (by law of new-parent exhaustion) to maybe sleep for longer than forty-five minutes at a stretch. Aonghus, in fact, currently 5’10” at 18, and with two hollow legs, spent four days in the hospital because he missed that deadline.

At the same time, we were wrangling with our city apartment – a place so lively the mice and ants had sublets, and the police made regular appearances because it was “that sort” of building. And, as if that wasn’t enough, we were knee-deep in paperwork and packing for our grand experiment: moving to an 800-square-foot, hunting-cabin-turned-home deep in the Nova Scotia woods. We moved the following April.

Spoiler: it was an experience. Amazing, yes. But also, let’s just say, it aged me faster than raising six kids.

Also for the record: Eve was born in that cabin, without running water or electricity, an hour from the nearest hospital. Would not recommend that for beginners – Eve was my sixth child, EJ had been hands-on with our other three, and he was a trained EMT. We also had our local fire department on alert in case there were issues.

Parenting, Canadian Edition: The Car Saga

Meanwhile, EJ was coming home from work every day looking like he’d lost a fight with a bad flu – headaches, nausea, sometimes actually throwing up, always exhausted. All the tests said he was fine. We’re pretty sure the doctor thought we were both just dramatic.

But here’s the kicker: every weekend, when he was home, the symptoms magically vanished. Coincidence? Spoiler: it was not.

Enter Canadian Tire. The mechanic, in true Maritime fashion, took one look at our car and said, “You folks been sick a lot? Headaches? Nausea?” Our exhaust system, it turned out, was more hole than metal, and it was venting carbon monoxide straight into the car.

So every drive was a low-dose gas chamber. Fun fact: Not something you want to put on your to-do list.

Pro Tips That Maybe You Don’t Need

  • Don’t let your car’s exhaust system rust out. Yes, even if you’re busy. Yes, even if you’re moving and sleep-deprived. Yes, even if you’re poor.
  • Even a small hole can leak carbon monoxide into your car. A big hole? You get the idea.
  • Chronic, mysterious flu that disappears on weekends? Maybe check your car before you check yourself into a medical mystery drama.

What Actually Matters

The happy ending: Rina gained her birth weight back (and then some). EJ survived his surprise foray into carbon monoxide poisoning. And by spring, we were out of the city and into the woods for three years of off-grid adventure – complete with composting toilet, wood stove, and a big bear that got into our compost one spring.

If you’re feeling weirdly unwell and nothing makes sense, check your car. And if you’re juggling a newborn, pest infestations, a move, and an existential crisis all at once? You’re not alone. Survival sometimes looks like stacking up enough tiny victories that you can breathe easy – literally.

Originally published on CanadianDoomer.ca (November 13, 2012), republished on JustPlainMarie.ca (2015), and updated for Just Plain Living, 2025. All content © Marie Beausoleil.