Detailed reply to a comment

Mr. Ross Wolfe made a comment that I feel deserves a more detailed response than Blogger allows for in the "comments" section.

-----Comment-----

It's not a question of necessity. As Engels said, the passage into a post-capitalist society will be an emancipation, a passage from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom. It's an expression of human freedom that I can eat a banana in the middle of winter, a miracle of globalization.

Marxism stood for a global world system, international in character, with universal production and distribution and exchange. Lenin was personally somewhat ascetic, but he did not advocate an ascetic lifestyle. For the future society must be one of abundance, not of scarcity. Of freedom, not raw need.

------Reply-----

Let me respond with a question:

Let us suppose we are in a world where we have moved beyond money, the revolution is complete, we are in a society that focuses on the good of it's people, rather than unnecessary exploitation (of people or natural resources). In this society the price of something is measured in terms of the resources (man power and energy) required to provide the good or service.

So, in a very real sense you are now, for the first time, paying the full price of that good or service. Since bananas can be grown (with less COMMERCIAL viability) in California's southern regions we will use that as the geographic location as the source for our comparison. Let us compare the banana vs the local greenhouse banana vs hothouse cantaloupe.

Outdoor Banana

Amount: 1 tonne

Distance: 2,900 KM

Fuel (freight train with 250 KJ / tonne KM): 725,000 KJ (4.9 gallons of diesel fuel)

Fuel to grow: n/a (grown in the sun, outdoors)

Human labour to grow, harvest, ship: 18 months per tree, each tree produces about 40 pounds, thus 55 trees needed. Time per tree over 18 months: 2 days. Time for all 55 trees: 110 days.

Estimated energy of human labour: 17,245 KJ/day @ 110 days / tonne = 1,896,950 KJ

Total Energy use to bring bananas from California: 2,621,950 KJ

I have not included here the labour involved in inspections, borders, the construction and maintenance of the train and track itself, and so on. These are discounted for the purposes here. I have also not counted the pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers that are currently used because I would hope that in a society that focuses on efficiency, such things would be done away with in favour of more efficient natural systems.

Hothouse Banana

Amount: 1 tonne

Distance: 0 KM

Fuel: n/a (people come to the neighborhood greenhouse)

Fuel to grow: Heat from compost is free, and since each banana 'tree' only produces once, every 18 months there will be a great deal of compost. Furthermore, using insulating glass (these windows have R-value of 10 which is four times greater than fiberglass loose-fill) to you can greatly increase the heat retention of the greenhouse, and reduce the need for heat generation.

Human labour to grow, harvest: 18 months per tree, each tree produces about 40 pounds, thus 55 trees needed. Time per tree over 18 months: 1.75 days. Time for all 55 trees: 96.25 days.

Estimated energy of human labour: 17,245 KJ/day @ 96.25 days / tonne = 1,659,831.25 KJ

Total Energy use to grow bananas locally: 1,659,831.25 KJ

I have discounted the cost of the greenhouse itself and it's maintenance.

So, the local hothouse banana is only 63% the resource cost of shipping from California! That means that for the same cost as growing your bananas in California you can grow 37% more locally! Still think local is a crock? Even is the only savings were in the form of shipping, that is still 750,000 KJ, or 43.5 labour days!

Hothouse Cantaloupe

Amount: 1 ac of crop land (1 ac of hothouses) produces 18,000 pounds or 8 tonnes

Distance: 0 KM

Fuel: n/a (people come to the neighborhood greenhouse)

Fuel to grow: see hothouse banana

Human labour to grow, harvest: 2 days / ac for harvest time ( I am adding 2 day / ac for the rest of the life cycle)

Estimated energy of human labour: 17,245 KJ/day @ 4 days / ac = 68,980 KJ

Total Energy use to grow bananas locally: 68,980 KJ for 8 tonnes (8,622.5 KJ / tonne)

I have discounted the cost of the greenhouse itself and it's maintenance.

I could add to the hothouses the energy cost of electric lights for the winter, but since they would be solar and wind powered the cost would still be zero.

Another way to look at this is per pound, as fruit is purchased by the pound.

Outdoor Banana: 1,189.3 KJ/pound

Hothouse Banana: 752.9 KJ/pound

Hothouse Cantaloupe: 3.9 KJ/pound

Put into perspective in terms of the number of hours you would need to work to afford each of these items (1 hour = 2,155.6 KJ):

Outdoor Banana: 33.1 minutes/pound

Hothouse Banana: 21.0 minutes/pound

Hothouse Cantaloupe: 0.12 minutes/pound

The point behind growing local is to save resources. Not to deprive the selfish, pampered bourgeoisie of their luxury items. So if you want to spend your time / "money" on the luxury of a banana, that is up to you. No one is saying you cannot. But you can save yourself 10 minutes by shopping local.

Mr. Wolfe, I hope this answers your question / comment sufficiently. Also, to your comment about being eager to read more, I will be posting roughly once a week. I am squeezing the blogging time in between a number of other commitments. Be well.