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I really wonder what how much food could be produced if all the lawn and empty lots in a city were effectively productive as vegetable plots. I know that it c

I really wonder what how much food could be produced if all the lawn and empty lots in a city were effectively productive as vegetable plots. I know that it can't be used because people like their lawns and things but often there is unused space in densely populated areas.

terravion 9y ago
It isn't even that they like their lawns. It is the cost of labor to do this. The Salinas and Imperial valleys (where 85% of US veggies are grown) concentrate labor and other inputs in a way that you never could in small plots. It is the same thing as we could assemble cars in almost any workshop or hangar, but we build cars at scale in only a few places.
- hs44 9y ago
  The trick would be getting people to have and grow their own edible lawns. Then the cost is the same as keeping the lawns of today, but there's a more useful return. It's only a values issue. In Russia for example small gardeners produce 40% of the nations food. http://naturalhomes.org/naturalliving/russian-dacha.htm http://naturalhomes.org/naturalliving/russian-dacha.htm And perhaps the evolution of tools like https://farmbot.io/ https://farmbot.io/ An intelligent 'lawmmower' makes your permaculture for you.
  - randomdata 9y ago
    > Then the cost is the same as keeping the lawns of today By far, the biggest cost of my lawn is the 5 minutes per week I have to spend cutting it. How does an edible lawn compete with that?
- flubert 9y ago
  >It is the cost of labor to do this Robots? Anyone know the state of automation when it comes to small scale gardening? Picking or zapping weeds and pests with a laser or whatever.