COVID-19 global pandemic has highlighted something we do no think about every day.

It is estimated that for example:
Hawaii has a seven day food supply.
New York has a four day food supply.
Los Angeles has a three day food supply.

These are just examples from US but if you take any other city in developed countries conclusions will be obvious. We are becoming to live on figurative islands. More than 95% of the food coming into LA or NYC is brought in by long distance trucking freight. An estimated 30% of the traffic on the George Washington Bridge in NYC is food delivery trucks.

We are not just island cities, we are island homes. Take a moment to consider that 50% of Americans were farming in 1880. Now less than 2% of the nation is employed in agriculture. From another perspective, in 1945 Americans grew 40% of their food in their backyard gardens. Now Americans grow 0.1% of their food in their backyards.

The logistics of Island reality actually now apply everywhere because in most cases in the western world we outsource everything. We have supply chains for toilet paper and surgical masks that often wrap 12,000 miles around the world.

Total globalization and dependent economy will lead to self-destruction. It is essential for every developed country to build a resilient, decentralized food and distribution system for every community. It’s ludicrous how distributed and outsourced our daily lives are.