3 ms·

100x100 meters is a lot of meters to be "garden farming", it's not a hobby anymore but a part-time job.

by franciscop 3y ago

lostapathy 3y ago
That’s also WAY more than you need to farm - no household will eat even 10% of that total yield.
psunavy03 3y ago
And this is why the human race only flourished after being able to have trade and a division of labor.
fbdab103 3y ago
25,000kg (68kg/day) is a lot for a human to consume, that was just the scale given in the article. Drop it by 2 orders of magnitude (10mx10m) and you are looking at 250kg /year. Which sounds like a reasonable amount both for a large garden and human consumption.
- MandieD 3y ago
  285 kg/year was the approximate per capita potato consumption around 1900 in Germany, before pasta and rice were inexpensive and convenient, and disposable income broadly high - as of 2008, it was only around 63 kg/year: https://taz.de/Das-Jahr-der-Kartoffel/!5170413/ https://taz.de/Das-Jahr-der-Kartoffel/!5170413/ This article also reports that Niedersachsen potato fields (large state in northern Germany) produce an average of 45,000 kg/hectare, or about 18,000 kg/acre.
cvoss 3y ago
And from thence comes the whole concept of "it's my job to produce way more X than I need to survive, and I will trade my surplus X for Y" where Y is something you also need to survive but didn't have time to do because of X. It's way more efficient for everybody to divide labor this way than to have each household be its own independent and self-sustaining system.
- qp11 3y ago
  Thats only in a day dream about how surpluses in the systems work. Read the history of banking. Wall St will show up and convince you to hand over surplus to protect it, and handle all the hassles of dealing with others who need it. This way they control the price others pay. And make sure they are in their debt forever or go bankrupt. As my econ prof loved to say all models of the world dont assume there is mindlessly ambitious J P Morgan out there. And have nothing interesting to say about what to do about him.
defrost 3y ago
Sustainable food is steady work but not all time consuming. Potatoes alone take 60 to 90 days to grow (weather and varieties) and 'only' take up two to three days of full work (at most) per bed per crop (split the above into (say) three or four rotating beds). The work is to turn and fork grown potatoes out, and prepping | weeding soil at same time, and then (same time) working new potato cuttings with eyes back in - then cleaning and storing - as potatoes are consumed bits that have budding eyes can be cut out and set aside for planting next time. If you've got a spare back acre you can pretty much swap gym time for garden time and stay active, healthy, and mostly eat food you grow yourself (location dependant).
- Foobar8568 3y ago
  And your back will be broken by the time you reach 60.
  - defrost 3y ago
    I'm already 60 - I still do agriculture work with my father who was born in 1935 and still gets up at 4 am and walks 10km before getting into the main work of the day. His back's fine and he spent a decade on shearing teams. Work steady, smarter not harder.
- nenaoki 3y ago
  Courses/programmes for people interested in this would be a boon.

100x100 meters is a lot of meters to be "garden farming", it's not a hobby anymore but a part-time job.

lostapathy 3y ago

That’s also WAY more than you need to farm - no household will eat even 10% of that total yield.

psunavy03 3y ago

And this is why the human race only flourished after being able to have trade and a division of labor.

fbdab103 3y ago

25,000kg (68kg/day) is a lot for a human to consume, that was just the scale given in the article. Drop it by 2 orders of magnitude (10mx10m) and you are looking at 250kg /year. Which sounds like a reasonable amount both for a large garden and human consumption.

MandieD 3y ago
285 kg/year was the approximate per capita potato consumption around 1900 in Germany, before pasta and rice were inexpensive and convenient, and disposable income broadly high - as of 2008, it was only around 63 kg/year: https://taz.de/Das-Jahr-der-Kartoffel/!5170413/ https://taz.de/Das-Jahr-der-Kartoffel/!5170413/ This article also reports that Niedersachsen potato fields (large state in northern Germany) produce an average of 45,000 kg/hectare, or about 18,000 kg/acre.

cvoss 3y ago

And from thence comes the whole concept of "it's my job to produce way more X than I need to survive, and I will trade my surplus X for Y" where Y is something you also need to survive but didn't have time to do because of X. It's way more efficient for everybody to divide labor this way than to have each household be its own independent and self-sustaining system.

qp11 3y ago
Thats only in a day dream about how surpluses in the systems work. Read the history of banking. Wall St will show up and convince you to hand over surplus to protect it, and handle all the hassles of dealing with others who need it. This way they control the price others pay. And make sure they are in their debt forever or go bankrupt. As my econ prof loved to say all models of the world dont assume there is mindlessly ambitious J P Morgan out there. And have nothing interesting to say about what to do about him.

defrost 3y ago

Sustainable food is steady work but not all time consuming. Potatoes alone take 60 to 90 days to grow (weather and varieties) and 'only' take up two to three days of full work (at most) per bed per crop (split the above into (say) three or four rotating beds). The work is to turn and fork grown potatoes out, and prepping | weeding soil at same time, and then (same time) working new potato cuttings with eyes back in - then cleaning and storing - as potatoes are consumed bits that have budding eyes can be cut out and set aside for planting next time. If you've got a spare back acre you can pretty much swap gym time for garden time and stay active, healthy, and mostly eat food you grow yourself (location dependant).

Foobar8568 3y ago
And your back will be broken by the time you reach 60.
- defrost 3y ago
  I'm already 60 - I still do agriculture work with my father who was born in 1935 and still gets up at 4 am and walks 10km before getting into the main work of the day. His back's fine and he spent a decade on shearing teams. Work steady, smarter not harder.
nenaoki 3y ago
Courses/programmes for people interested in this would be a boon.