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The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#121

Post by biorach »

ROTMetro wrote: post #42
flangola7 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there really that many innovations in how to harvest a wheat field?

Didn't they just recently start desiccating with Glyphosate at the end of the growing cycle to speed their harvest up by two weeks and putting glyphosate into food a few days harvesting it (causing a higher concentration in food than previously)?

Yep. For decades. Plus frequently _before_ planting, Glyphosate is used to clear weeds and volunteer cereals from the fields.

Then, e.g. during the cereal growing phase there are regular applications of fungicide, insecticide, growth regulators and so on.

Bottom líne, if you are not buying 100% organic this is the reality of your food chain.

(Full disclosure: I do not buy organic)

Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#122

Post by biorach »

mikewarot wrote: post #16

There goes another possible experiment in regenerative agriculture, the only sustainable way for our great-grandchildren to avoid mass starvation. Industrial farming depends on oil as a chemical input , because the soil has been sterilized and turned into dirt in most places by ammonia based fertilizers. The process of tilling the land resulted in most of the remaining dirt being eroded over the past century. We're g…

> the soil has been sterilized and turned into dirt in most places by ammonia based fertilizers.

That's a massive, massive exaggeration.

Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#123

Post by biorach »

maxerickson wrote: post #75
colechristensen wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The future of land management is going to be cultivating, curating, and generally taking care of the living, mostly fungal, part of the soil which will displace some or all of the straight up chemical additions instead enhancing the natural symbioses between root, fungus, and bacteria on an industrial scale... but until then chemical additions are fine. The issue going forward is going to be cost not an existential t…

Abundant solar means you can just rip the nitrogen right out of the air. Sounds like the cost is in the ballpark already: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/01/19/pulling-fertilizer-ou...

This is speculative technology, still in early prototype phase

Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#124

Post by concordDance »

crtified wrote: post #38

Low wage industries struggle in high wage countries. Globalization displaces natural local supply and demand outcomes. The above two factors result in some very complex status quos. For example, take the country of New Zealand, whose significant apple growing industry is largely for export purposes - ostensibly, sending good fresh highly-valued NZ apples to other countries, where they'll fetch max $. Problem: apple w…

Get rid of minimum wage and replace it with UBI. Avoids the market distorting effects of minimum wage without leaving people destitute.

Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#125

Post by orwin »

checkyoursudo wrote: post #115
dauertewigkeit wrote: post #7

From an economic standpoint, there is no sense in small scale farming. From a personal standpoint, the sensible thing to do is to scale it down to subsistence gardening for yourself and your family. That is what my family does. I remember, when I was still young, they still used to sell some produce. Nowadays it is entirely consumed by the family or gifted out. The benefit of this, is that you are free from economic…

I like gardening and have been a very small-scale gardener my whole life, but mostly flowers and a couple of tomato and bean plants. How much space would you need for a true subsistence garden? Like a family of 4, producing all your own produce (or you know the vast majority of it, excluding that which cannot grow in your conditions), plus giving a small percentage to friends and neighbors. A quick search does not se…

Converting in US units, 10 to 12 acres should be enough? Maybe a bit more if you want well fed chickens (the trick is to let them go ham in your fields in between crops (my parents both farmed their peas this weekend and will probably plant salads behind next weekend, and in the meantime, the chickens enjoy the field). It's easier if you eat meat and know how to kill your chickens, as you can 'rotate' them out every 2-3 years, my mother's chickens have one egg a week max.

Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#126

Post by orwin »

orwin wrote: post #125
checkyoursudo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like gardening and have been a very small-scale gardener my whole life, but mostly flowers and a couple of tomato and bean plants. How much space would you need for a true subsistence garden? Like a family of 4, producing all your own produce (or you know the vast majority of it, excluding that which cannot grow in your conditions), plus giving a small percentage to friends and neighbors. A quick search does not se…

Converting in US units, 10 to 12 acres should be enough? Maybe a bit more if you want well fed chickens (the trick is to let them go ham in your fields in between crops (my parents both farmed their peas this weekend and will probably plant salads behind next weekend, and in the meantime, the chickens enjoy the field). It's easier if you eat meat and know how to kill your chickens, as you can 'rotate' them out every…

The 12 acres figure is with trees and berries, as well as some decorative plants.

Also people still steal chickens if its easy enough, so clip their wing and try to keep them on your property.

Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#127

Post by roel_v »

sgu999 wrote: post #117
dauertewigkeit wrote: post #7

From an economic standpoint, there is no sense in small scale farming. From a personal standpoint, the sensible thing to do is to scale it down to subsistence gardening for yourself and your family. That is what my family does. I remember, when I was still young, they still used to sell some produce. Nowadays it is entirely consumed by the family or gifted out. The benefit of this, is that you are free from economic…

> From an economic standpoint, there is no sense in small scale farming. I don't think this is true everywhere. It likely requires the right supply chain to work, but here in France small family farms are doing fine for instance. They have to go sell their products to local markets on top of growing them, but it's a sustainable business.

Without subsidies none of those would survive, especially the French ones, who are notorious for their 'traditional' (i.e., inefficient) farming practices.

Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#128

Post by nly »

somenameforme wrote: post #113
photochemsyn wrote: post #67

This 17-acre farm was enough to keep about eight humans alive if it had been the sole source of agricultural production to feed them. That's the fundamental equation, and it generally assumes a vegan diet as well. Nobody has ever been able to reduce this value, it's related to the solar input and the ability of plants to capture carbon into a human-digestible energy source. It'll be worse on Mars, of course, due to t…

China has around 330 million acres of farmland and, until relatively recently, they were a net food exporter with a population of 1.4 billion. That's around 4 people fed per acre, and that's not especially remarkable. Even urban homesteads are also able to match this. Here's [1] a heavily commercialized one that is/was operating on a fifth of an acre for a family of four. And meat also provides an excellent nutrient:…

Rice is a rich source of carbs and isn't grown on what westerners would consider farmland

Re: The last days of a 350-year-old family farm

#129

Post by defrost »

nly wrote: post #128
somenameforme wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China has around 330 million acres of farmland and, until relatively recently, they were a net food exporter with a population of 1.4 billion. That's around 4 people fed per acre, and that's not especially remarkable. Even urban homesteads are also able to match this. Here's [1] a heavily commercialized one that is/was operating on a fifth of an acre for a family of four. And meat also provides an excellent nutrient:…

Rice is a rich source of carbs and isn't grown on what westerners would consider farmland

Australia is a Western country and farms rice on farmland.

https://www.rga.org.au/Public/Public/Content/The_Rice_Indust...

I'm not sure where you get your odd notions from.

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