I was only able to eat perhaps 1/5-1/10th of the fruits from my many, many trees this year. Right now I probably have 50 x the apples I can eat. So I'll trade you apples for eggs! I'll trade you fresh fish, from the pond, for milk from your cow!
http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-end-of-cheap-food.html
Of all the modern-day miracles, the least appreciated is the incredible abundance of low cost food in the U.S. and other developed countries. The era of cheap food is ending, for a variety of mutually reinforcing reasons.
We've become so dependent on industrial-scale agriculture fueled by diesel that we've forgotten that when it comes to producing food, "every little bit helps"--even small backyards / greenhouses can provide meaningful quantities of food and satisfaction.
Virtually every temperate terroir/micro-climate is suitable for raising some plants, herbs, trees and animals. (Terroir includes everything about a specific place: the soil type, the climate variations, sun exposure, the bacteria in the soil, everything.)
We've forgotten that cities once raised much of the food consumed by residents within the city limits. Small plots of land, rooftop gardens, backyard chicken coops, etc. can add up when they are encouraged rather than discouraged.
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Global food production rests on soil and rain. Robots don't change that. What few of us who rely on industrial agriculture understand is that it depletes soil and drains aquifers by its very nature, and these resources cannot be replaced with technology. Once they're gone, they're gone.
Soil can be rebuilt but it can't be rebuilt by industrial agricultural methods--diesel-powered tractors and fertilizers derived from natural gas.
Few people appreciate that the dirt is itself alive, and once it's dead then nothing much will grow in it. Whatever can be coaxed from depleted soil lacks the micronutrients that we all need: plants, animals and humans.
Every organism is bound by the Law of Minimums: heaping on one nutrient is useless unless all the essential nutrients are available in the right proportions.
Dumping excessive nitrogen fertilizer on a plant won't make it yield more fruit unless it has sufficient calcium, sulfur, magnesium, etc. All dumping more nitrogen fertilizer on the field does is poison waterways as the excess nitrogen runs off.
Irrigation is another miracle few understand. Over time, the natural salts in water build up in irrigated soil and the soil loses fertility. The drier the climate, the less rain there is to leach the salts from the soil. Irrigation isn't sustainable over the long run.
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Due to our dependence on industrial agriculture, we've forgotten how productive localized (artisanal) food production can be. Small operations aligned with the terroir can produce a surprising amount of food.
The future of sustainable, affordable, nutritious food is in localized production optimized for what grows well without industrial interventions. The satisfaction and well-being this connection with the land and Nature generates is under-appreciated. It is not accidental that the long-lived healthy people among us--for example, the Blue Zones Okinawans and Greek islanders--tend their gardens and animals, and share the bounty of their labor with their families, friends and neighbors.
It's fun and rewarding to grow food. It might even become important. Those who can't grow any food would do well to befriend those who do.
The goal isn't to replace industrial agriculture. The goal is to reduce our dependency on unsustainable global systems by reinvigorating localized production.
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