Back in uni I had some teachers that had actually done a scientific study on the possibilities of urban food growing, and the results were that it was unsuitable for anything more that just a recreational activity.
Even if those cultivating them still need to buy some other food, doesn’t it conribute to reduce their food cost?
Here many of them produce more than their family can eat, but face the problem that each type of vegetable tend to arrive at maturity at the same time. The usual trick they use is to be a community, sharing and receiving according to the quantity produced. I had friends into such, and they were eating some of their (or their communities’) production daily ; off course still buying non-vegetable food but it was not just a leisure.
For the few people being able to have access to those lot gardens, maybe.
The big thing is when you run the numbers.
The minimum amount of lang needed to feed a person in optimal conditions is around 1000m².
In a city like Madrid each person has available around 100m² and in that space it goes all the housing, public spaces, services, streets, etc.
How much space could be taken from everything else to create urban farming land? It’s really hard to think that it wouls be enough to even amount for more than a few percent points of what it’s needed.
And we have to take into account that all urban space dedicates to farm won’t be usable for anything else. When you try to universalize it the numbers are just really hard to reconcile.
Community gardens are not at all intended to be the only source of food, it allows a fixed labor cost from a family to produce the greens and veggies that would otherwise have to be purchased ‘fresh’ from the store. That’s it. So you can take someone who is under or unemployed and turn that unpaid time into a replacement for an otherwise expensive food for the family.
This, yes, if you want to feed the whole town from inside production, the try isn’t reasonable. I have heared London has a company doing soilless agriculture inspired by canabis factories… I am not sure how it went.
Yet if you take it at an individual level, being part of a 100m2 community (each have their own lot) can be interesting, if well organized.
Back in uni I had some teachers that had actually done a scientific study on the possibilities of urban food growing, and the results were that it was unsuitable for anything more that just a recreational activity.
Was it in the USA? Proving that in Europe would be very fun, and actually I would really like to read the study itself!
Spain.
I’ve been trying to find it but no luck for now. I will quote again if I find it!
Aren’t there allotment gardens in the cities Spain?
Yes! We have some of them. But the area and capabilities of the terrain doesn’t give nearly enough for actual food purposes.
You can have a few good tomatoes harvest, but nothing that could actually sustain people.
Even if those cultivating them still need to buy some other food, doesn’t it conribute to reduce their food cost?
Here many of them produce more than their family can eat, but face the problem that each type of vegetable tend to arrive at maturity at the same time. The usual trick they use is to be a community, sharing and receiving according to the quantity produced. I had friends into such, and they were eating some of their (or their communities’) production daily ; off course still buying non-vegetable food but it was not just a leisure.
For the few people being able to have access to those lot gardens, maybe.
The big thing is when you run the numbers.
The minimum amount of lang needed to feed a person in optimal conditions is around 1000m².
In a city like Madrid each person has available around 100m² and in that space it goes all the housing, public spaces, services, streets, etc.
How much space could be taken from everything else to create urban farming land? It’s really hard to think that it wouls be enough to even amount for more than a few percent points of what it’s needed.
And we have to take into account that all urban space dedicates to farm won’t be usable for anything else. When you try to universalize it the numbers are just really hard to reconcile.
Community gardens are not at all intended to be the only source of food, it allows a fixed labor cost from a family to produce the greens and veggies that would otherwise have to be purchased ‘fresh’ from the store. That’s it. So you can take someone who is under or unemployed and turn that unpaid time into a replacement for an otherwise expensive food for the family.
A quarter acre seems super low for subsistence farming.
This, yes, if you want to feed the whole town from inside production, the try isn’t reasonable. I have heared London has a company doing soilless agriculture inspired by canabis factories… I am not sure how it went.
Yet if you take it at an individual level, being part of a 100m2 community (each have their own lot) can be interesting, if well organized.