ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of major reasons why the present system of production and consumption is inadequate. It proposes the consideration of a bioregional systems approach. The chapter outlines initial work that the authors have done toward developing a sustainable bioregional agricultural production and consumption system. Overall demand levels for food are not likely to diminish, nor is the pressure to take farmland out of production. Pressure to export food to aid our balance of payments and to feed an increasingly hungry world, particularly when diplomatically expedient, will be with us for some time to come. The United States agricultural system has become an energy sink. An energy sink is a system that has the capacity to “absorb” large energy inputs without these inputs being reflected in greater energy-containing outputs. It is not a simple matter to change present food system energy use patterns.
