Journalism or farming?

I've been reading this pop-culture science book called "The Long Emergency" about many of the struggles and challenges we face as a species in the 21st century with the coming climate changes, oil shortages and general failing of our current economic and political systems. The author is a journalist who has written for the NYTimes magazine, The Atlantic and also has written several books. He's an engaging writer, definitely draws from a plethora of sources and creates a convincing argument/portrayal of the future that is scary and frightening.

He talks about how America will have to undergo a painful downsizing, localizing of how we produce goods (mainly food) and how we won't be able to continue our pursuit of bigger, better, more, etc. Globalization, he argues, is a passing trend that is unsustainable. In the future, all of the things we take for granted (driving 75 miles to work, eating mangos in December, and travelling whereever we want) won't be cheap commodities. He discusses how value and monetary systems will become obsolete concepts leftover from the hey-day of industrial capitalism. In the future, after Peak Oil and drastic climatic changes, skills like non-industrial agriculture and carpentry will be what decides who survives and who doesn't. (The thought strikes me that no one gets out alive in the end, but whatever.)

This book renewed the on-going debate in my head: should I be learning skills like organic farming and other basic wildnerness survival skills or should I continue on this journalism trip? I'm not too sure. I'm not a big fan of the paranoia sown by pop-culture scientists/journalists, but he does raise important points, like how am I preparing for the future after our country's oil addiction goes through the inevitable and painful withdrawl? The conflicts over scare resources aren't going to be solved diplomatically, if the Iraq War redux has shown us anything, and I'm not going to depend of the idiots on the East Coast to help me out.

My dream would be to strike a nice balance between practicing journalism and growing my own food. Eventually I think our country is going to go through some very painful bubble-popping when energy stops being cheap and our industrial functions cease operating as usual. I just wonder how to prepare for this?