RE: Considering standard of living (was Re: Land of let's only talk about whats wrong with the US)

From: Barbara Lamar (barbaralamar@sanmarcos.net)
Date: Sat Aug 23 2003 - 12:46:04 MDT

  • Next message: Dehede011@aol.com: "Re: Considering standard of living (was Re: Land of let's only talk about wha..."

    Robert Bradbury wrote:

    > I would like to see someone cite some Google references on the actual
    > land area required to produce 2500 calories per day. (There seems
    > to be a lot of hand waving going on here).

    I can't cite a Google source, but the best book I've ever seen on the topic
    is *How to Grow More Vegetables* by John Jeavons. It contains comprehensive
    charts with information on calorie yield per square foot, not only for
    vegetables but also for grains and fruit and nut trees. The yields are given
    for poor medium and high quality soils, so one can get an idea of what one
    can produce the first year, and in subsequent years after one has had a
    chance to build up the soil.

    While many of the horticultural methods discussed in the book are excellent,
    I find some of the "biodynamic" stuff silly, but the charts alone are well
    worth the price of the book.

    http://www.cambiumgardening.com/books/growing_food/1-58008-233-5/

    > I think one thing missing in the discussion is what happens in various
    > regional areas as we concentrate the houses in ever-expanding (cheaper?)
    > suburbs while concentrating the jobs in core centers. An ever increasing
    > fraction of time and money must go into transporting oneself from the
    > far flung suburbs to the core centers. I knew people that would spend
    > one or two hours (each way) commuting from the North Bay to the South
    > Bay. Seattle is rapidly becoming similar.

    Three things local governments could do to move real estate development the
    other direction would be to give tax incentives for inner city development,
    impose higher taxes on parking lots and parking garages, and stop building
    more freeways. The main reason for suburan development seems to be
    economics -- at the moment, it's cheaper for the individual to live outside
    the city and drive in than to live inside the city. Whether it's *actually*
    cheaper if you include the externalized costs is another question, and I
    don't know the answer.

    Individuals and developers could, of course, reclaim inner city areas on
    their own with no government incentives at all; and many people (including
    Damien and me) are doing that.

    Barbara



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Aug 23 2003 - 12:57:22 MDT