Thanks to Burnmeister Steve for sending me this article “The End of Oil. “The premise is that we have reached the peak of oil production, but the demand is rising and the gap is going to produce all kinds of problems. There are all kinds of web sites exploring this phenonemon, including the Oil Crisis site.

From the perspective of a small Iowa farm, this seems remote, but could have dramatic impacts for those systems (energy, food, manufacturing) which may become, by necessity, local or prohibitively expensive. So if you’re adept teaching your children to grow food without oil (big tractors, manufactured fertilizer and herbicides), adept at building useful contraptions that currently cannot compete with cheap plastic items and fiberboard items of all descriptions at Wal-Mart, then there may be a happy future.

I need to start researching what has happened to past cultures when fundamental changes in economy and infrastructure take place. We are often so arrogant to think that lessons from history no longer apply to us…