Why Cities Can't Grow All Their Own Food

[angelatc]

http://conservationmagazine.org/2016...heir-own-food/

If all of Seattle’s land in full sun were planted out with crops, it would produce just over 21 percent of the food necessary. But this would require installing gardens on every rooftop, as well as ripping up streets and other impervious surfaces to plant vegetables. And at a certain point, a city without a functioning street grid isn’t really a city anymore.


If grassy areas throughout Seattle (not just in residential zones) were converted to agriculture, this would yield four percent of the city’s food needs. The tradeoffs here aren’t trivial – where would the kids play soccer? – but the authors say that this number represents a reasonable estimate of Seattle’s maximum food crop production capacity (MFCPC)

[oyarde]

I do not think you could cut anything off the vine in Seattle , knives are illegal there if I recall , city ordinance .

[euphemia]

This would be true in most cities. New York City has almost no green space, but I can go to Washington Square Farmer's Market and find the most delicious apples ever, grown not too far away. There is a permanence to farming. Land has to be set aside and tended. It doesn't really belong in a place where there is no place to do it. There are many places where farming is doable and desirable. It's good that people aren't concentrated in those areas.

[presence]

I think this is pretty obvious. It takes a 60x60 plot to grow a 50lb bag of rice in a season. Urban agriculture is more about supplementing fresh vegetables and salad; maybe some small scale aquaculture... not land intensive meat and grains that provide bulk calories.

[TheTexan]

Or what about doing indoor farming with massive underground hydroponic farms, that should be feasible I think.

[donnay]

I believe that where there's a will, there's a way. All it would take is people going hungry and every resident would be out planting.

City living has become too convenient for people to run to the market or other places to pick up their food. Most people have become too dependent on others to supply them with food.

Victory gardens were planted during WW I and II to prevent food shortages. Hopefully, history will not repeat itself.

[dannno]

Lots of farmland southeast of Seattle..

But ya nothing like pulling up your own organic kale out of the ground and sautéing with some butter and garlic.

[Origanalist]

http://conservationmagazine.org/2016...heir-own-food/

This is true of all cities. Hell, could Rome grow enough to feed itself?

[Origanalist]

I'm sure I'm missing some point being made here..maybe carry over from another thread...?

[heavenlyboy34]

Lots of farmland southeast of Seattle..

But ya nothing like pulling up your own organic kale out of the ground and sautéing with some butter and garlic.

Hipster food. :P

[Origanalist]

Lots of farmland southeast of Seattle..

But ya nothing like pulling up your own organic kale out of the ground and sautéing with some butter and garlic.

Make sure the soil is high in heavy metals.

[Suzu]

It's not true where I live. There's enough bare land in town here to grow all the food needed for everyone in a hundred-mile radius, but people would rather just raise big lawns and roll over and over the ground on their riding mowers, compressing the soil and filling the air with the stench of incompletely-burned gasoline and the sound of unmuffled internal combustion engines about 16 hours a day from April through October, while pouring their money into gas and oil and mower parts and service and herbicides and artificial fertilizer. All because it never even occurred to them to do anything else with that land.

[Ronin Truth]

Protection from theft costs?

[Origanalist]

It's not true where I live. There's enough bare land in town here to grow all the food needed for everyone in a hundred-mile radius, but people would rather just raise big lawns and roll over and over the ground on their riding mowers, compressing the soil and filling the air with the stench of incompletely-burned gasoline and the sound of unmuffled internal combustion engines about 16 hours a day from April through October, while pouring their money into gas and oil and mower parts and service and herbicides and artificial fertilizer. All because it never even occurred to them to do anything else with that land.

Most people in the city don't have lawns big enough to justify a riding lawn mower. And in Seattle probably a majority of them use electric or push mowers. But I see all kinds of of yards with vegetables being grown in them there, that doesn't mean they are self sustaining though.

[Bern]

I thought this was really cool (video quality not so great, video content fascinating):



Their site:
http://www.growingpower.org/

Article:
http://wakeup-world.com/2011/07/26/p...ed-on-3-acres/

[donnay]

Eliot Coleman lives in Maine.

Year-round Growing with Eliot Coleman
http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/year-round-growing/

[FindLiberty]

Chicago is full of the wrong kind of dirt to grow anything other than more corruption.

[Natural Citizen]

It's not true where I live. There's enough bare land in town here to grow all the food needed for everyone in a hundred-mile radius, but people would rather just raise big lawns and roll over and over the ground on their riding mowers, compressing the soil and filling the air with the stench of incompletely-burned gasoline and the sound of unmuffled internal combustion engines about 16 hours a day from April through October, while pouring their money into gas and oil and mower parts and service and herbicides and artificial fertilizer. All because it never even occurred to them to do anything else with that land.

Well, you know, the kids need to play soccer and stuff. They do it for the kiddies, man. They do it for the kiddies. Heh.

[Natural Citizen]

Anyway. I planted some seeds this year. I'm not in the best of health at the moment to be turning dirt and whatnot so I just planted in last year's plot. Not really meant to feed me and the kid but just stuff that I want that I don't like to buy/will not buy from mainstream agricultural suppliers.

[fisharmor]

There is ONE, and only one reason why cities can't grow their own food.
It's because as soon as someone undertakes figuring out how to do it, the city is going to shut him down.

[presence]

but people would rather just raise big lawns and roll over and over the ground on their riding mowers, compressing the soil and filling the air with the stench of incompletely-burned gasoline and the sound of unmuffled internal combustion engines about 16 hours a day from April through October, while pouring their money into gas and oil and mower parts and service and herbicides and artificial fertilizer.

I always saw such a bitterness in that process. lol

[donnay]

Well, you know, the kids need to play soccer and stuff. They do it for the kiddies, man. They do it for the kiddies. Heh.

Yes, reminds me of a Janet Reno explanation of Waco. "We had to kill the children to save them."

[donnay]

There is ONE, and only one reason why cities can't grow their own food.
It's because as soon as someone undertakes figuring out how to do it, the city is going to shut him down.

Exactly. Agenda 21

[Natural Citizen]

There is ONE, and only one reason why cities can't grow their own food.
It's because as soon as someone undertakes figuring out how to do it, the city is going to shut him down.

Hey. Knock it off, man. Where else will the kids play soccer!?

[angelatc]

It's not true where I live. There's enough bare land in town here to grow all the food needed for everyone in a hundred-mile radius, but people would rather just raise big lawns and roll over and over the ground on their riding mowers, compressing the soil and filling the air with the stench of incompletely-burned gasoline and the sound of unmuffled internal combustion engines about 16 hours a day from April through October, while pouring their money into gas and oil and mower parts and service and herbicides and artificial fertilizer. All because it never even occurred to them to do anything else with that land.

Damned straight! I have zero interest in being a farmer, but not because it never occurred to me. More like, it totally occurred to me, I grew a little and said, "Screw this! I'll happily pay someone else to do it for me."

Division of labor is a win/win.

(what do you think farm tractors run on, sweetie?)

[fisharmor]

Exactly. Agenda 21

I wasn't even thinking that far. I am thinking about all the petty dictators running the city bureaucracies.
The moment they find out about something like that, it's all over.

A bag of compost is a fire hazard.
This area isn't zoned for it.
You didn't pull the permits for that structure.
The engineer in charge of that permit has never heard of anything like this, and they don't pass plans they don't understand.
Hey, our inspector was there at exactly 2:30, and he waited for a whole 45 seconds. It's your fault: be on time next time.
You can't have livestock within city limits.
Our officers aren't trained to tell Quinoa from Marijuana. It's your fault for growing that many plants. Be happy it was just your dog and not you.

And on, and on, and on.

[donnay]

I wasn't even thinking that far. I am thinking about all the petty dictators running the city bureaucracies.
The moment they find out about something like that, it's all over.

A bag of compost is a fire hazard.
This area isn't zoned for it.
You didn't pull the permits for that structure.
The engineer in charge of that permit has never heard of anything like this, and they don't pass plans they don't understand.
Hey, our inspector was there at exactly 2:30, and he waited for a whole 45 seconds. It's your fault: be on time next time.
You can't have livestock within city limits.
Our officers aren't trained to tell Quinoa from Marijuana. It's your fault for growing that many plants. Be happy it was just your dog and not you.

And on, and on, and on.

Where do you think they are getting their talking points from?

Additionally, and here’s where the story gets frightening and should cause concern for all property owners in the United States, it appears that in this case these ordinances were adopted verbatim from the United Nations Agenda 21 charter for global sustainable development. Across the United States, and the world, cities and states are adopting, ICC (International Code Council) codes aimed at bringing uniformity to the enforcement of sustainability as decided by regulatory committees acting under the purview of Agenda 21.

http://www.wakingtimes.com/2014/02/1...0-fines-weeds/

[fisharmor]

Everything I mentioned has been going on for over a century.
I can totally appreciate not wanting international government to meddle in our local affairs.
I can totally appreciate not wanting federal government to meddle in our local affairs.

I'm talking about local government meddling. That has been going on forever, and it's the worst kind, because there are so very few of us who are tuned into it. Lots of Americans are ready to get out of the UN or eliminate the FDA. None of those anti-government types is going to give up on the possibility of calling the cops first when their neighbors are playing music at 10pm.

[erowe1]

The division of labor is a good thing. Not everyone should be devoting resources to farming.

[presence]

The division of labor is a good thing. Not everyone should be devoting resources to farming.

I think every adult should have at least a bonzai tree. Just personal suggestion.