Speculative trading has rocketed the price of food, and yet we're all able to grow this stuff, for free...it can't be that difficult to grow vegetables, can it?
We've grown lazy - some kids in UK schools are oblivious of the food chain, so used to the idea that vegetables come in plastic bags.
As food speculation and demand seems to determine an inexorable rise in food prices, why aren't we getting stuck into growing this stuff, at a micro-level for ourselves?
I think this year more people lived in urban areas than the countryside, and so urban food production might become more and more important (vegetable patches on garage roofs etc?)
I'd love to get started with this, and I have zero experience of growing my own food, so I'd love to hear from people who've done this
What are the self-sufficiency initiatives at a micro scale? City Farm? Anyone involved with food growing in their local community? and reasons why this might be a bad idea.
Shall we have a open conversation in one of the smaller rooms? I'll bring some veg :-)
I'd be interested in talking to people about self-grown food - initiatives at a micro scale
Photo from urbangrow.blogspot.com/
17 comments
Organic Farmer?
At Reboot 7 (I think), there was a wonderful speaker who had set up organic farms in Denmark. He gave a wonderful talk about the symbiotic nature of plants and the animal ecosystem.
Whilst a commercial farmer, I'm sure he'd be a fantastic speaker. If only I could remember his name!
He also supplied fruit during the breaks. Yum!
My father does that
After my father ended his career as a veterinarian, he started as anorganic farmer selling on small markets (his Dutch website: www.keller.luna.nl). This is in the countryside though, urban farming is somewhat of a contradiction of terms. Check out a movie of him at work:
www.keller.luna.nl/Resources/kellerrondje.mov
I always thought my grandparents must be very rich...
...because they grew their own vegetables. You could just walk into the garden and eat. I thought that utter wealth. :)
Getting that farmer again to Reboot, as Guy mentioned, would be cool. Don't remember who he was though, but Thomas will know.
The organic farmer was Thomas Harttung
His site is at www.aarstiderne.com/
Good find Ton
Now, wonder if we can get Mr Harttung to come and speak at this year's Reboot as well?
The Botany of Desire (book/talk)
Worth mentioning, I think; Michael Pollan's book 'The Botany of Desire' was a wonderful read, and got me thinking a lot about the food production cycle and humanity's relationship with plants. Reminded myself to add this, as I finally caught up with Pollan's TED talk on a plane journey today - worth 15 mins of attention, if you're interested in growing (y)our own food.
Harttung
Thomas Harttung is participating in reboot10. Perhaps ask him to join the session and share his wisdom? email: th@aarstiderne.com
Thomas Harttung is going to participate
Thomas Harttung has offered to participate in the conversation and offer his insights and expertise in farming, which should give a fantastic perspective for the discussions.
Anyone else have any experiences in gardening/food/farming/city farms/etc. that they'd be happy to share in the discussions?
The 'social' Element
Really interesting Idea. I listened to Nicole Simon's (the undisputed pre-conference Champion) Interview with Guy the other day. Very true that kids in schools are oblivious of the food chain, not only in the UK but also in other western countries. Definitely growing your own vegetables would help to reconnect to the nature, but 'own' in the sense of 'private' would be backward thinking (80's Ego). We have the opportunity of doing something what might be called 'shared food growing'. Let me paraphrase this in Reboot's Spirit by what we all learned from Jyri before: Every Social Network needs a social object. So how about a social network around home-grown-food?
This is going to be a conversation I am very much looking forward to.
An idea on how we can run the open discussion
I was really inspired by the unconference format described here: www.bloggercon.org/II/newbies
I'll do some advance preparation (discussion points, some relevant facts, anecdotes) so I can facilitate (at least initially) the conversation.
If you're coming along, here's a guide, based on the BloggerCon guide referenced earlier.
- Everyone is an equal participant, and so should have at least a little think about the subject in advance,
- Read through the main description, follow the links in the comments.
- Bring some ideas and opinions to the session.
- Prepare some questions/discussion points in advance.
this is not the answer
this is not the answer to world hunger; GYO for my family is at best a productive hobby and we enjoy it. But soon we have a glut and fear more of the same from the neighbours. We freeze our surplus, compost the rest. The world needs the freedom to grow as much as possible on all available arable land.
the GRS Garden project
The Get Rich Slowly blog has been working on a project to see how much they save by growing their own food:
www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/01/06/year-long-grs-project-how-much-does-a-garden-really-save/
Thanks everyone!
A great talk; thanks for participating and sharing your experiences and ideas.
Special thanks to Thomas for sharing his insight - really inspiring.
Er, did anyone take any notes (or record the conversations?) :-)
Thomas Harttung's Yale lecture
Thomas mentioned a lecture at Yale we might be interested in, here's the transcript (70k PDF):
My session notes (from memory)
What I remember from the session: please also add your notes/thoughts. I really liked this session, it flipped a switch to "enabled" in my head.
T Harttung on Medieval villages as cells: Rings of less intensive gardening, ending in forest. Super-resilient to change. Enabled Europe to wage wars all through hundreds of years: the year after a place was pillaged, it was up and running again.
Brain-drain from the country-side has taken away many might've-been agri-entrepreneurs and food hackers, to cities.
Why soil-less won't be good: Stowe B: "Energy comes from electrical lamps" Me: "OK. But what about growing outside, sun-lit, but soil-lessly?" Someone: "The trace elements you need in your food won't come from anywhere but from good soil. The Earth is a great ally." So, in essence: Your food will suck.
Greening land is step 1: Good, fertile soil is needed in urban areas. We need to create it. Two steps: Greening, then gardening. The soil quality of the first greened land will be crap (from what I understand), but it'll be a step towards arable land.
I can not do it all.: "How do I get all the stuff I want on my plate? My mini-garden... will that thing scale?" Community organizing is needed for some tasks. Diversity through division of labor is one part of it. You grow peas, the neighbor grows tomatoes. Trade. Harttung said: "This sort of thing needs early adopters, showing the way."
Existing traditions that do this sort of thing already: Me: "Permaculture, google for that." Better yet: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture
Agri-business, and local: If you buy a share in a local organic farm, the money you put in there will stay in the community. It'll be used locally, strengthening the local commerce, being used 4-5 times before moving out of the area (to taxes, interest, etc.).
Pedro Custodio: I have seen farms on the land in-between the highways, run without electricity.
Peter Rukavina from PEI, Canada on Trusting the Producer You Know: The Farmers' Market makes you think of food as coming from somewhere. The salmon bagel I buy there, I know who pulled up the fish from where, and so forth. I know the person. Here in Copenhagen, it occurred to me that I knew no one involved in the production of a piece of fish I bought in a store.
Pedro on The time aspect: You can buy all things at all hours in supermarkets. Strawberries in the winter. This is madness. With organic farming, following seasons, you put a constraint on when you can get certain stuff. (No one mentioned the fenno-vegans, Finnish vegans eating only food made in Finland.)
Pedro: How did this guy's garden run? Shared work. Friends came over on weekends, and got to tend the garden. They got interesting work and a share of the crop for their sweat.
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Organizing local networked production of food will be more and more important. I agree. Both for developing and developed countries - whether for ethical reasons or out of necessity. I also have zero experience but I like these analog (organic) hacks :)