How many miles are there on that fried chicken? And the french fries? And everything else that we eat?

Way too many.

It's hard to calculate, but that chicken most likely lived its brief existence on the DelMarVa peninsula, where almost a billion chickens are raised every year and then distributed across the USA. The potatoes for those french fries? Well, you know they probably grew in Idaho. The oil they cooked it all in? It was likely produced anywhere from Manitoba, to California, to southern Pennsylvania, if we're talking a Canola-blend with some safflower or sunflower in it. And the packaging? Well, it started out as petroleum, and it certainly didn't come from around here. So, what is the point of all this? That meal traveled a long way to get to your plate, and every mile required petroleum.

Our national addiction to oil is clearly seen in the way the food industry sources products and moves them around. You can't blame them; they were just doing what seemed like good business in the days of cheap, cheap oil.

But those days are over. Even in these economic doldrums, gas is still $2.79 here in New York State. If and when the economy picks up, that price is heading higher.

At this point, a good chunk of the cost of that meal lies in the fuel that moved it around. Add in the fuel that produced the chicken feed and moved that around, and the fuel that was used to make the fertilizer that grew the chicken feed. It is estimated that today industry uses about 10,000 calories for every 1,000 calories of food that is eaten by consumers. This is not sustainable, and so changes are sure to come.

Which leads to thoughts about Agricultural Districts, zoning, and the need for all of us to think about locally grown and raised food that we will be able to afford.

Right now, many communities are allowing the raising of chickens in places where they used to ban the practice. Communities are modifying their zoning codes to allow more food production, whether it be from big gardens or from a couple of dozen chickens.

Many people don't like the thought. Having grown up in the petroleum dependant age, folks expect to just drive to a supermarket and buy mostly packaged foods that have travelled many thousands of miles, before arriving on the gleaming, sanitized supermarket shelves.

That system is going to change; it has to. Travel costs will force a reconsideration, if only because the price of a box of crackers made in California and shipped to New York will no longer be competitive with the same crackers made right here.

What is coming, sooner or later, is a future blessed with roosters crowing at dawn, and tomatoes ripening in everyone's backyards, providing benefits to everyone — even those who disdain the whole idea of eating something that doesn't come in a shrink-wrapped package.