My favorite afternoon pick-me-up! Shot of espresso with froth surrounded by nutella.

While out for the first stroll of 2012, we came across this little van in the playground area of Stormont (Northern Ireland’s Parliament) Gardens serving up some coffee for us outdoor types.  Check out their Facebook page Attridge & Cole.

Copyright: WFP/John Javellana

The world’s population has nearly doubled since 1970 and it is expected to reach 9 billion by midcentury. This rise along with the consequences of global warming with a drop in water supply and eroding soils means that the world’s food supply is unlikely to keep up with the world’s growing appetites. Foreign Policy investigates in its article: The New Geopolitics of Food.

Happy Holidays to all and happy eating!

North Antrim Countryside

So, back to the craft afternoon… We ended up settling down on Mary’s couches in front of a roaring log fire to watch the Academy-Award nominated Gasland. Mary had just been given a copy of the documentary as a large area of Northern Ireland (and North Antrim) could soon be affected by fracking and licenses have been issued for a number of areas in our small region, see link http://www.detini.gov.uk/deti-energy-index/minerals-and-petroleum/petroleum_licensing_2.htm. By the end of the documentary, my thoughts turned to “what the frak?”, “no fraking way, not on my doorstep!”. It took about millisecond to also get my parents on board. Prior to this visit, they had also been blissfully unaware of gas fracking and its environmental impact.

Fracking (Hydraulic Fracturing of rock) is a method used to extract natural gas from the ground. The process involves pumping millions of gallons of water, mixed with toxic chemicals, thousands of feet deep into the ground.  This is a highly controversial process  and the environmental concerns with hydraulic fracturing include the potential contamination of ground water, risks to air quality, the potential migration of gases and hydraulic fracturing chemicals to the surface, the potential mishandling of waste, and the health effects of these. The companies carrying out this procedure insist that they are doing so in a very safe manner with little to no environmental impact, but the swelling numbers of complaints by people affected by the negative impact of fracking would claim otherwise.

A screen-capture diagram from the Gasland site showing the process

Fracking is not a new technology, and was first used in 1949.  However, it wasn’t until 2004 that it really started to be used in a widespread way to extract gas. This was also the year that the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) declared that fracking “posed little or no threat” to drinking water. I don’t wish to go into all the political elements that may have led to that decision, but you can learn more about it in this Grist article Fracking with our food: how gas drilling affects farming. To date, there have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination near drilling sites in the U.S.* (*http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/fracking/), and the health impact on the people living in these areas is really rather alarming.

Fracking has been used in the USA and Australia and has caused widespread environmental damage,water pollution, including death to livestock and wildlife. Serious health issues for people living in the area are also reported, and a moratoria on fracking have been put in place in the state of New York, New Jersey(USA), the North Rhine (Germany), South Africa and France.

Mother with her lamb in North Antrim

While there have been a number of documented cases of water pollution, there haven’t been significant studies on the impact of fracking on farming and the food supply chain. Now, I am no scientist, (for those of you familiar with the British schooling system, I only took one GCSE science subject, chemistry, and got a D!), but it stands to reason that if your water supply becomes contaminated and you use that as drinking water for your livestock and for irrigating your crops that they might also become contaminated!  I do take pride in going to my national chain supermarket and seeing that I can pick up Northern Ireland sourced meat, dairy produce, potatoes & other root vegetables, along with oats & barley.  I fear though that if they start drilling for gas here my support for locally sourced foods will diminish.

A cow I came across in my friend's yard last week

Agriculture and tourism are Ireland’s largest industries, and we must take into account that the process could severely impact our tourism industry, agriculture, our water quality,environment and our health.  Further environmental and health assessments need to be made here in Ireland before any drill hits our beautiful emerald isle.

Murlough Bay - My Favourite Bay on the North Antrim Coast

There is some good news on the U.S. front though as only five days ago, the EPA did state for the first time that fracking may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution in Wyoming http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/09/epa-reports-fracking-groundwater-pollution. Let’s hope that this will be the start of many positive steps worldwide to safeguard our environment, countryside, health and food chain.

Additional resources:

Fracking & Farming Don’t Mix – Isn’t It Time We Exhibited Some Precaution?

www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/09/epa-reports-fracking-groundwater-pollution

For everyone who reads this Tidbit, here’s your chance to feed two/three children in under a minute. We will be keeping the quiz on our sidebar to the right as well.

While in Italy last week visiting my sister, we popped into the town’s only bakery that opens on a Sunday morning.  Closing time was noon and we got there about 11:40. There was quite the rush to get fresh bread to put on the table for Sunday lunch.  The smell was out of this world and the fresh rolls we got were still warm in the bag.

Enjoy and happy Monday to you all.

Food Security Map 2011 - Maplecroft

Here is a great analysis on the data by The Guardian’s environmental columnist, Damian Carrington, Food is the Ultimate Security Need.