So, what are you gonna talk about this month?

How about hurricanes? Let’s talk about Katrina, Rita and all the others ravaging the U.S. shores of Gulf of Mexico and pushing the price of gas to mind-boggling heights. This rude escalation in the price of crude – albeit temporary, you’ll see – has brought to light something rather disquieting: the vulnerability of our agri-food complex. Even if there is an abundance and diversity of food – over 20,000 products are currently available in supermarkets – this is in large part because of relatively low oil prices. In short, there’s a shameful affability in the oil-food relationship.

I was reading in a recent issue of La Terre de chez nous that the rise in oil prices would penalize Quebec producers at the rate of $60 million. Dreadful, and that’s only what we can see! Because on a farm, fuel and electricity represent only 40% of all energy costs. What we can’t see is included in essential inputs, such as pesticides, plastic skins and fertilizers. Have you ever thought about the phenomenal quantity of energy required to extract, process and transport potash or phosphate from countries as far away as China, Russia, the U.S. or even western Canada?

But that’s not all. In a food system as modern as our own, the energy consumed by a farm represents a mere 20% of the total energy bill! As the old adage goes, this is only the tip of the iceberg! The other 80% is used for transporting, packaging, selling, refrigerating and preparing food in the home. Furthermore, more a product is sophisticated, pre-packaged, jazzed up, colourful, over-processed, over-packaged, and frozen, the higher the energy bill. Oil is our food system’s Achilles heel.

When the price of energy becomes too high, three trends become apparent: less fortunate consumers increasingly depend on basic products, such as steak, corn and potatoes. Then, farm proximity becomes increasingly attractive (transporting kiwis over 12,000 km is obviously more expensive than turning our bruised apples into apple sauce) and farm management as well as the logistics for the whole system become tighter.

In Chinese, the pictogram that defines the word “crisis” includes two elements: one is catastrophe, and the other is opportunity. Every crisis is comprised of opportunity! What didn’t make sense six months ago has become “whack” today. For example, the farmer’s job is being called upon to evolve. Feeding the world in no longer enough; farmers are now required to warm up the world. Traditionally, this was done with fire wood, now, they’ll be doing it with biodiesel, ethanol, upgraded residues and even wind power!

Okay, let’s not get too agitated! We’re not there yet. Our own in-house expert, working with Sonic, believes that current sky-high oil prices are only temporary and those prices will be progressively lowered throughout the next few months, more specifically in the first quarter of 2006. That’s good news Mr. Dupont.

I still want to say that, when looking forward, we had better keep in mind that farm energy production and energy conservation programs will become unavoidable. We’ll see such programs applied to cultivation methods, to the construction of increasingly solar-powered buildings, to ethanol production, to the purchase of “fancy” machinery and to the construction of large blade wind systems…

But that’s just me, don’t feel obligated or anything.