hors d’oeurves to large family meals, most of us are wondering how we are going to shed 10 pounds rather than where the next meal is coming from. But with rising fuel prices, food insecurity could be at the doorsteps of more households in the United States than ever before.

As we enjoy our holiday festivities, many people in the United States are dealing with food insecurity and hunger. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Hunger Task Force, in 2005, 35.1 million Americans lived in households that were unable to afford the food they need for the year. With 16 percent of the people living here unable to have enough food to eat, Texas ranks in the top three states for highest percentage of the population living with food insecurity. Some Houston leaders and others who have researched the sustainability of the nation’s food supply are concerned that this number will rise as fuel prices go up.

What does rising fuel prices have to do with food security? The conventional method of producing, processing, packaging and transporting food is a high energy consumption system. It takes fossil fuels to make the conventional fertilizers and pesticides, run the machinery for processing and preservation, and to make the plastics for packaging. With the global food market, and fossil fuel is consumed in transporting food to the consumer.

Food miles are the distance food travels from where it is grown to where it is ultimately purchased. According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, on the average, produce travels 1,300 to 2,000 miles from farm to the kitchen where it is prepared to eat. Freeways are packed, day and night, with trucks hauling food across the country. And much of the imported food, is flown in. That much transportation takes a lot of energy and affects the cost of food as energy prices go up.

A 1996 study by John Hendrickson, Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, University of Wisconsin in Madison, found that transportation accounted for 6 to 12 percent of the cost of food. That was when gasoline was under a dollar a gallon and the U.S. was importing less food from around the world. Transportation cost is as much as one-fourth of the cost of food today. This figure does not take into account government subsidies for building highways and energy companies, which increase consumer taxes.

David Crossley, president of Gulf Coast Institute and editor of Tomorrow: “Houston’s Food Supply: Is it sustainable?” says he started thinking about food security in Houston after 9/11. “About the third day after 9/11 we couldn’t get fish in restaurants because we fly fish in by air transport. I saw how easy it is to cut us off from our food supply,” Crossley says. He also notes that the industry most impacted by fuel cost and emissions is the airlines. “If gas prices go up, do we get to a point where only people who have a lot of money can fly lettuce from Australia to Houston,” Crossley says. He goes on to say we may be skating on thin ice to rely on grocery stores to always be there. Like most businesses, restaurants and grocery stores are in business to make money. “Can you imagine McDonalds moving from food to real estate, or grocery stores getting into other businesses -- the ease of delivering food is tenuous,” Crossley adds.

So if we knew people in the U.S., even our own households, were heading for a food security crisis, what would we do? We could probably let go of that lettuce from Australia -- it grows really well year-round in Houston. Gita VanWoerden says 90 percent of food in Texas is imported and she thinks that is awful. You’ll see VanWoerden and/or her husband, Cas, at the Bayou City Farmers Market in Houston every weekend. Their farm, known as Animal Farm, near Cat Springs, Texas, also supplies some of the restaurants in Houston with fresh produce.

“As soon as trucking becomes impossible, too expensive, people will not be able to buy their food,” VanWoerden says. “Right now they go to the supermarket and they have peppers from Chile, New Zealand and South Africa; eggplant from Holland, which is absolutely ridiculous,” she continues, “because they grow them in greenhouses with artificial heating, and here we have the ideal weather for it.”

VanWoerden says two things need to happen: 1) People need to be aware of the seasons and eat according to the seasons, and 2) More farmers are needed close to the city so transportation will not be an issue. “People need to be aware of the fact that every time they buy products that are imported they are supporting that country and not their own environment, not their own city,” VanWoerden says. “We need to encourage our farmers, the few that exist, by supporting the farmers and markets and try to buy locally,” she adds.

In addition to buying locally, transforming lawns into food, flower and herb gardens would be beautiful and delicious with the added convenience of food ready to be gathered just a few steps from the kitchen. LaVerne Williams, green architect in Houston, says having garden space to grow food is a priority in siting new homes, even in the city. “It takes seven calories of fossil fuel to deliver one calorie to our table,” Williams says. “As energy costs rise, we will find we need to rely on locally produced food, which will mean grow your own and participate in community gardens and farmers’ markets.” (For more information see Building Better for the Future )

More space for growing food will be important considerations for planning and development and deciding where and how we build houses. Making garden space a priority affects the placement of the home. “If you are on a street that runs east to west, you will want to have your garden up front,” Williams says. “You will want to make sure restrictions allow for vegetable gardens in front of the house.”

When building a house in the country, Williams suggests looking at the entire property and using permaculture principles to maximize the use of the land. “Don’t place the house where the best growing is; capture rainwater where ever you can; and preserve native trees as much as possible,” he says.

Willams’ advice to participate in community gardens is easier in Houston than in most large cities. A surprising fact to many people is that Houston has about 150 community gardens and ranks in the top four cities in North America for the number and quality of community gardens.

Another important food security issues is knowing whether food is safe to eat. One of the advantages of growing your own food or buying from a local farmer is that you know you can find out how it was grown, whether chemicals were used to grow or treat the food and you can know that if it was harvested yesterday or today it is fresh. Produce in grocery stores can sit on a truck and then in a grocery bin for up to two weeks before it gets to the kitchen.

Cleaning up the polluted coastal waters, rivers and lakes so that the fish and seafood are safe to eat will be another priority for eating locally. Currently, people are fishing in parts of the Texas Gulf Coast, San Jacinto River and the Houston Ship Channel even though health warnings are posted against eating the fish caught there because of dioxin and PCB contamination. The fish in many of Texas lakes are unsafe to eat because of mercury contamination.

Much of the pollution that has contaminated the ocean, rivers and lakes comes from the processing of fossil fuel -- oil, gas and coal. Using less of it for the transportation and processing of food can help reduce pollution and significantly reduce the CO2 emissions that fuel global warming.

On January 16, 2007, The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center in Houston reported, “Last night, The Salvation Army sheltered just over 500 men at this facility. On a typical day, 700 meals are served at The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center – over 1000 meals are expected to be served throughout the day today.” The numbers of meals needed by those who can’t afford to buy food is likely to increase as fuel prices rise.

The good news is that transforming from a culture that depends on imported food to one that grows and eats locally can clean up the environment,improve health, and quality of life. Gardeners and farmers in the Northeast envy Texans for the ability to grow vegetables year round.