Comment on Rural Britain is becoming ‘food desert’ for lower-income families, study finds

• Zombie@feddit.uk ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  To begin with, it takes three acres of land for the industrial food system to feed the average American for a year, compared to maybe 5% of that area—or even much less—to feed a person for a year on a balanced diet of garden vegetables.

  unsustainablemagazine.com/home-gardens-vs-farms-e…

  Written by a professor of botany justgrowityourself.com/about/about-david-fisher/

  I have a tiny plot, far smaller than most rural gardens, and currently have growing: peas, beans, nasturtiums, lettuce, beetroot, spring onions, garlic, brown onions, chard, broccoli, kale, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, basil, rosemary, thyme, parsley, fennel, apples, chives, nettles, dandelions, bay, marjoram, and fenugreek. All are edible, even if some are deemed weeds or just flowers by most. You’d be surprised how much can be packed into a small area!

  Don’t take my comment to mean I think it’s the solution to food desserts, but it’s certainly part of it. Obviously in winter it’s pretty useless, but for most of the year it can go a long way in helping. Not to mention the mental health benefits for individuals playing outside and the environmental benefits for communities increasing biodiversity.

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  • Calfpupa@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Interesting, though that quote seems like it’s misrepresenting the industrial situation by not calculating what the footprint of a similar diet would be. I’d bet that if you ignored the meats, grains, dairy, sweeteners, and soy, you’d find costs to be much closer to equivalent (or industrial less expensive).

    I’m unsure using WWII time period as a reference is a good one, as everyone was relatively malnourished at that time and 40% of vegetable intake is nice but not even the primary source still. Most jobs at that time supported 3+ other people and were less hours, if I (and everyone else around me) are working 40+ hours a week, how do I have time and energy to tend a garden? Averaging an hour a day seems nice but that comes to ~365hrs per year, which is another 10 weeks of work in my year.

    I am intrigued and will look more into it, but ltimately, that article is an ad for a book. It may have more great info in it, but it’s still an ad for a book (determined by the lack of sourcing from anywhere else).

    How many pounds of food are you producing a year with this setup? Is it your primary food source the garden, ie over 50% of your food mass intake? Are your nutrition levels good?

    When it comes to food deserts and community gardens, especially in the US, are a few concerns I see: malicious zoning by the state/no space to do a 35×40 (or more) for each person within a traversable area (most live in multifamily housing with no land access), people who live in food deserts are often poor and work 2+ jobs, and, the biggest limitation, a lack of community in these spaces.

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