Where would you find your groceries if your supermarket's shelves were suddenly empty? The threat of earthquakes, trucker strikes, power outages or a global market collapse make us vulnerable like never before. With spiralling fuel prices and unstable world economies, individuals and communities are demanding more control over their food supply.

Food Security for the Faint of Heart is designed to gently ease readers into a more empowered place so that shocks to our food supply can be handled confidently. As well as acquiring new skills and ideas, there are other compelling reasons to get better prepared. The local economy gains support and encouragement to expand, in turn boosting food's taste and nutritional value, along with the health of people and ecosystems. Community support helps low-income families eat higher quality food, and the preparation provides a psychological edge in an emergency.

Chapters are devoted to useful, transferable skills, including:

• Preserving garden food
• Saving freezer food during a power outage
• Managing through an earthquake
• Preparing quick herbal medicinals
• Foraging for wild food.

A humorous treatment of a sometimes threatening topic, this book will appeal to both long-time food security advocates, as well as to newcomers to the topic who are wary of it all and would prefer to avoid it.

Robin Wheeler is a permaculture activist, author, teacher and founder of the Sustainable Living Arts School. She teaches traditional skills, sustenance gardening and medicinals at Edible Landscapes (www.ediblelandscapes.ca), a nursery and teaching garden in Roberts Creek, British Columbia.

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