One of the primary reasons Rudolf Diesel invented his engine in 1893 was to help ensure farmers were not dependent on an external/industrial source of energy, but rather could generate it on their own.

Unfortunately, the agriculture industry has gone the opposite direction from his (and the American populist platform of the People’s Party) and become entirely dependent on petroleum.

A new film made by Postgraduate students in London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where I did undergraduate work, looks at current food issues facing the UK.

Will a localized, resilient and redundant peer-to-peer energy and food model be able to displace the highly centralized, fragile and foreign-based client-server system advocated by petroleum companies?

Something tells me that the following statement on risk has more impact to policy than all combined comments by consumers feeling the pinch from rising petroleum costs.

“The Navy has always led the nation in transforming the way we use energy, not because it is popular, but because it makes us better war fighters,” stated [U.S. Navy Secretary Ray] Mabus.