Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

latimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 90 posts

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#81

Post by s5300 »

offtop5 wrote: post #49
s5300 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea of literally being forced out of where you were born and raised due to richer transplants isn't particularly the best thing (in a figuratively first world/developed country that is)

For all of human history people have had to move to where they can feed their kids. The smart people are leaving, of course if you want to stay in LA and struggle your entire life you're free to

While this may be somewhat true, you seem to be misunderstanding the premise of living in the US

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#82

Post by namibj »

iammisc wrote: post #69
hypertele-Xii wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Wolfram Alpha, cashew nuts have over twice the calories of beef. [1][2] [1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=calories+in+1+pound+of... [2] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=calories+in+1+pound+of...

Except one steer gives you about 400 pounds of beef ( https://www.skipperwbreeders.com/recommendations/quick-answe... ). 400 pounds of Cashew nuts? Man that's a lot of trees. Not to mention the other nutrients in beef. A piece of beef contains everything a human needs to live. You could just eat beef and you'd probably not be great, but have all your nutritional requirements met. Cashew nuts... no. According to https…

You forgot that the pigs/cattle need food.

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#83

Post by offtop5 »

s5300 wrote: post #81
offtop5 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For all of human history people have had to move to where they can feed their kids. The smart people are leaving, of course if you want to stay in LA and struggle your entire life you're free to

While this may be somewhat true, you seem to be misunderstanding the premise of living in the US

How ?

My ancestors migrated from other parts of the US to California. If you want to survive you need to move.

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#84

Post by david38 »

iammisc wrote: post #14
burlesona wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like food desert is a very relative/subjective term. The article mentions there being a major grocery store one mile away. On a recent trip to Atlanta I visited a neighborhood where there was no significant grocery store for more like a 5 mile radius. That’s quite a lot worse. And there are plenty of outer suburban/exurban locations where the a particular neighborhood may be 10 miles or more from the nearest gr…

Yeah, the other thing is that these food desert studies fail to take into account ethnic differences. For example, hispanic corner stores often basically are a mini grocery store, with fresh produce and stuff. They are not the equivalent of a 7-11. But these studies often only count the Safeways and Albertsons. And plus, I grew up close to these areas and was often in South LA, and they're not food deserts. I have no…

This is not my experience. I’m Hispanic and most Hispanic mini groceries, while they have vegetables, are loaded with very unhealthy food.

A lot of education is needed to educate people on food choices once more options become available. Just because we ate that food before doesn’t mean we have to keep eating it, especially in a much lower calorie lifestyle.

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#85

Post by LA-resident »

VincentEvans wrote: post #65
LA-resident wrote: post #61

This article is working on a 10 year past. Food desserts in 2021 Los Angeles are fiction. There are more than 8 grocery chains and online services that will deliver any produce, meat , packaged food that you want. Many also accept EBT cards. This is the extension of a popular fallacy, by lazy journalists.

Any delivered food, be that take-out, or food-in-a-box subscription services, or services that shop for you, even if provided by the chain itself - are very expensive in my experience, compared to typical super-market food. When I usually hear food deserts being discussed - it is usually in the context of how it affects low income areas and population. And any services that charge extra for convenience and that on to…

Unprepared and standard groceries are the same price online as they are in the store. Delivery fees are waved for 30$ + orders. A smart shopper and meal planner can order once a week and get nutritional and fresh food delivered to their home. A bigger problem in low income areas is people are more likely to eat fast food or higher priced prepared delivery food, because they don’t want, take time or know how to prepare the food.

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#86

Post by cageface »

iammisc wrote: post #69
hypertele-Xii wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to Wolfram Alpha, cashew nuts have over twice the calories of beef. [1][2] [1] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=calories+in+1+pound+of... [2] https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=calories+in+1+pound+of...

Except one steer gives you about 400 pounds of beef ( https://www.skipperwbreeders.com/recommendations/quick-answe... ). 400 pounds of Cashew nuts? Man that's a lot of trees. Not to mention the other nutrients in beef. A piece of beef contains everything a human needs to live. You could just eat beef and you'd probably not be great, but have all your nutritional requirements met. Cashew nuts... no. According to https…

You could just eat beef and you'd probably not be great, but have all your nutritional requirements met

You'd get scurvy, just for starters. Not to mention what a job a complete lack of fiber would do on your digestive system.

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#87

Post by adrianN »

cageface wrote: post #86
iammisc wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except one steer gives you about 400 pounds of beef ( https://www.skipperwbreeders.com/recommendations/quick-answe... ). 400 pounds of Cashew nuts? Man that's a lot of trees. Not to mention the other nutrients in beef. A piece of beef contains everything a human needs to live. You could just eat beef and you'd probably not be great, but have all your nutritional requirements met. Cashew nuts... no. According to https…

You could just eat beef and you'd probably not be great, but have all your nutritional requirements met You'd get scurvy, just for starters. Not to mention what a job a complete lack of fiber would do on your digestive system.

You need to eat at least some of the meat raw, but humans can survive on a 100% animal product diet (it might not be particularly healthy though)

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#88

Post by mastazi »

natmaka wrote: post #66
mastazi wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my mind small scale aquaponics seems to have the advantage that it's not as labour intensive as small scale traditional farming (e.g. it seems to me that things like transplanting and weeding tend to be less labour intensive and you don't usually need to apply fertilizers because the fish do it for you). This is relevant because I believe that labour is a significant factor in making micro farming viable (more so…

AFAIK aquaponics is less labour-intensive than traditional (soil-based) farming (all parameters being as equal as possible). Pest control is also less of a burden and risk factor, in my opinion especially with ebb & tide systems. It, indeed, cannot be certified as organic. However some found ways, such as selling (or even creating) to high-end restaurants. Pertinent (with labour) studies: https://ag.purdue.edu/agecon…

Thank you very much for those links!

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#89

Post by natmaka »

mastazi wrote: post #88
natmaka wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AFAIK aquaponics is less labour-intensive than traditional (soil-based) farming (all parameters being as equal as possible). Pest control is also less of a burden and risk factor, in my opinion especially with ebb & tide systems. It, indeed, cannot be certified as organic. However some found ways, such as selling (or even creating) to high-end restaurants. Pertinent (with labour) studies: https://ag.purdue.edu/agecon…

Thank you very much for those links!

You are welcome!

I'm quite astonished to not see more of such projects here, as there an elegant, efficient and interesting cross between aquaponics (and even hydroponics) and IT, as automation is key when it comes to lower labor costs and various risks. The whole domain (high-end food) is economically booming. Launching an experimental project isn't difficult nor expensive, and scaling up is possible. It comes as a fair mix of abstract-and-applied and also buy-or-build challenges, of work to do on a desk and also in the field... It also enables (partially) remote maintenance and expert-diagnostic. All this without any real philosophical tension (no user to lure or to spy on!). One may even avoid killing fishes, for example by raising ornamental species.

Last but not least such a project is satisfying because you design, create, maintain... you see it running, instead of working on a component of a component (...) of some huge abstract org.

Re: Microfarms come to South L.A. frontyards, bringing fresh produce to food deserts

#90

Post by iammisc »

david38 wrote: post #84
iammisc wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the other thing is that these food desert studies fail to take into account ethnic differences. For example, hispanic corner stores often basically are a mini grocery store, with fresh produce and stuff. They are not the equivalent of a 7-11. But these studies often only count the Safeways and Albertsons. And plus, I grew up close to these areas and was often in South LA, and they're not food deserts. I have no…

This is not my experience. I’m Hispanic and most Hispanic mini groceries, while they have vegetables, are loaded with very unhealthy food. A lot of education is needed to educate people on food choices once more options become available. Just because we ate that food before doesn’t mean we have to keep eating it, especially in a much lower calorie lifestyle.

Um sure, because that's what the populace wants. If the populace demanded differently, things would change.
Post reply on HN