Peak Oil Task Force Report - City of Bloomington - State of Indiana

population maintained health, while critical groups (pregnant women and children
especially) received extra rations.
Under conditions of food shortage, Bloomingtonians would likely be similarly motivated to
increase local food production by gardening, and could be expected to accept significant
changes to dietary habits. A modified American diet that incorporated relatively easy
adjustments would serve about 87 percent of the weight of food of the present diet and
would more than meet World Health Organization average daily nutritional needs while
requiring substantially less land—about 1.85 acres per person. (See table, following page).
Such a modified diet would:
• eliminate most caloric sweeteners (substituting smaller amounts of honey, maple
syrup, and sorghum syrup—all locally sourced sugars);
• reduce the amount of fats and oils by 60 percent while doubling the volume of nuts
and seeds;
• reduce dairy consumption by about one‐third;
• provide two‐fifths of the meat consumed today;
• add about seven times as many beans and legumes; and
• add about 50 percent more grain, flour and cereals.
This diet assumes no change in farming practices or land intensity of production, though
under such constraints, these would likely also shift.
It is reasonable to conclude that the land base of the seven‐county region surrounding
Bloomington is more than adequate to produce the amount of food needed to sustain the
present population of the area in a state of health. Indeed, a reduction in fats, caloric
sweeteners, red meat, and the substitution of whole grains and flours for denatured cereal,
plus the substitution of smaller amounts of wild game and other locally harvested wild
foods such as mushrooms for ocean fish now eaten would likely improve health.
Report of the Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force 184