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In our race to the cities and suburbs, Americans have given up an incredible amount of food sovereignty, both in terms of zoning laws and our own skills. Our gr
by rgrieselhuber 8y ago
In our race to the cities and suburbs, Americans have given up an incredible amount of food sovereignty, both in terms of zoning laws and our own skills. Our grid in the US is quite vulnerable and even brief interruptions could have catastrophic effects. Re-focusing on growing some portion of our food and sourcing locally as much as possible can alleviate many of these risks.
- crushcrashcrush 8y agoI also want to encourage people to just try with something basic. Get a planter box, and grow some Tomatoes! It's almost a wonderful luxury. What you eat and taste from the grocery store is a pale, awful facsimile of what real fruits and vegetables are.
- hopler 8y agoThis snobbery is one of HNs chronic illnesses. The stuff you grow at home isn't any more real. https://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/7-fruit-and-veggies-that-used-look-whole-lot-different-than-they-do-today https://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stor...
- chr1 8y agoMaybe real isn't a good word, but because you can grow varieties that are more optimized for taste instead of transporting, and you can pick up the fruit when it is ripe, instead of picking early to optimize for storage, locally grown tomatoes are on average better than greenhouse tomatoes.
- rgrieselhuber 8y agoI think real is a good word. The taste is night and day. Also, if you grow with heirloom seeds vs. GMO, you can harvest seeds for the next season.
- chr1 8y agowhile "real" is somewhat debatable, "GMO" in this context is certainly not a good word, all organisms are genetically modified, and all cultivated plants are modified by humans, the difference is that most of them were modified by waiting for random errors, and some were modified in a more controlled manner. It is counterproductive to group under one word things as different as seedless tomato, roundup resistant tomato, spicy tomato and millions of other possible varieties that can be created with crispr (often starting from the wild version of the plant).
- rgrieselhuber 8y agoFair enough. The things that are most important for local food and self-sufficiency are open (vs. proprietary / locked) and seed-bearing (vs. barren / sterile), IMO.
- chr1 8y agoI agree, but in many cases sterility is a very nice feature. For grapes and banana people managed to breed seedless varieties long time ago, and for other things like peppers or watermelon many would be prepared to pay extra.
- Retric 8y agoThe abundance of modern farming is hard to fathom. Local food is more expensive specifically because it’s less efficient and therefore less capable of dealing with significant shocks.
- tonyedgecombe 8y agoIncreases in efficiency make systems less resilient. Buffers tend to be optimised away.
- ben_w 8y agoDespite which, we have more overweight (~2e9) than hungry (~815e6) people in the world.
- rgrieselhuber 8y agoProbably a false dichotomy.
- rgrieselhuber 8y agoEfficiency is a loaded word in this context. Agricultural monoculture is destructive in many ways and yet is easily portrayed as "efficient."
- Retric 8y agoLocal does not mean 4 fold crop rotation, it just means close to the consumer. You have all of the same issues as regular agriculture, and add growing plants less suited for local conditions. It’s a pure net loss with zero benifit. More water use, more fertilizer use, more greenhouses, more pesticides, more machines, more labor, more of frankly everything.
- rgrieselhuber 8y agoI’ve noticed that efficiencies and the idea of net loss appears quite frequently in your comment history.