03-01-2014, 03:34 AM
"your average family is in a good position to grow their own food, since most single-family lots are larger"
Your "average family" in the U.S. does not live on a single family lot. The majority of our population lives in packed urban areas in apartments, condos and tiny lots if they have a house at all.
"Whether people are "interested" in doing it is beside the point."
No, it's the entire point if your position is to have any meaning at all. People left the farm in droves starting in the late 1800's. They're still leaving and they are not returning. It's a big assumption that they could even afford to - where are the jobs Mr. Forester? Very few people want to become serfs simply to grow all their own food. And almost no one grows all their own food. This neo-back to the land movement doesn't begin to address the vast amounts of basic grains (wheat, rice, corn) that are required to feed our ever-growing urban population.
As for land productivity, a study in Nature indicates the hardly surprising conclusion that only under ideal conditions can large scale organic methods even begin to match conventional methods (summary only available): http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v48...11069.html
Your "average family" in the U.S. does not live on a single family lot. The majority of our population lives in packed urban areas in apartments, condos and tiny lots if they have a house at all.
"Whether people are "interested" in doing it is beside the point."
No, it's the entire point if your position is to have any meaning at all. People left the farm in droves starting in the late 1800's. They're still leaving and they are not returning. It's a big assumption that they could even afford to - where are the jobs Mr. Forester? Very few people want to become serfs simply to grow all their own food. And almost no one grows all their own food. This neo-back to the land movement doesn't begin to address the vast amounts of basic grains (wheat, rice, corn) that are required to feed our ever-growing urban population.
As for land productivity, a study in Nature indicates the hardly surprising conclusion that only under ideal conditions can large scale organic methods even begin to match conventional methods (summary only available): http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v48...11069.html