4 ms·

All those farms have the potential to become wilderness with urban farming, lab meat etc. In Ireland there is a 3rd type of rural where every man and his dog ha

All those farms have the potential to become wilderness with urban farming, lab meat etc. In Ireland there is a 3rd type of rural where every man and his dog has built an eyesore of a house on their carefully manicured 1 - 5 acres of land. You can pretty much drive the country long and wide and never not be able to see a house like this (except in the designated nature reserves). I'm ok with smaller towns and cities as long as they are very high density. They tend to sprawl however.

yellowapple 8y ago
> urban farming, lab meat When these things become practical and ubiquitous and cheap, then sure, farmland could become wilderness again. > Ireland That kinda explains our differences in opinion, then. The US is a lot bigger and roomier, so more space to spread out beyond the small 1-5 acre plots (you do see them still - I grew up on an 8-acre ranch - but they're typically surrounded by plenty of more open fields, albeit typically fenced). > [smaller towns and cities] tend to sprawl, however Only if allowed to do so, which doesn't necessarily have to be the case. We could be surrounding those towns with protected wilderness, for example. Reno's an example where the very geography makes significant sprawl less practical (though it's still happening in the north and south to an extent). Also, one thing that often slows the sprawl is the sheer cost of extending utilities further and further from the population center (and that cost - at least here in the US - is the responsibility of the property owner). Even building your own self-sufficient alternatives (wells and septic tanks and solar panels and such) is expensive enough to be at least somewhat of a deterrent (if they're even practical in a given climate). When these towns do sprawl, it tends to be along roads that already have power lines.

yellowapple 8y ago

> urban farming, lab meat When these things become practical and ubiquitous and cheap, then sure, farmland could become wilderness again. > Ireland That kinda explains our differences in opinion, then. The US is a lot bigger and roomier, so more space to spread out beyond the small 1-5 acre plots (you do see them still - I grew up on an 8-acre ranch - but they're typically surrounded by plenty of more open fields, albeit typically fenced). > [smaller towns and cities] tend to sprawl, however Only if allowed to do so, which doesn't necessarily have to be the case. We could be surrounding those towns with protected wilderness, for example. Reno's an example where the very geography makes significant sprawl less practical (though it's still happening in the north and south to an extent). Also, one thing that often slows the sprawl is the sheer cost of extending utilities further and further from the population center (and that cost - at least here in the US - is the responsibility of the property owner). Even building your own self-sufficient alternatives (wells and septic tanks and solar panels and such) is expensive enough to be at least somewhat of a deterrent (if they're even practical in a given climate). When these towns do sprawl, it tends to be along roads that already have power lines.