Building the Harbor Freight 10x12 Greenhouse. Making Western Agriculture More Sustainable, by Folke Günther. PDF versionBiographical Sketch The energy crisis plus a shortage of phosphate fertiliser will change settlement patterns by forcing people to source their food from local farms. Modern Western European agriculture is heavily dependent on services that often are taken for granted. However, if we are to discuss how it can be made more sustainable we need to consider all the support systems necessary for the entire field-to-table chain.
This is seldom done although several authors (Odum, H.T., 1971; Odum, E.P., 1973; Huang & Odum, 1989; Pimentel et al., 1989). have explored the topic. Cheap and continuous supplies of fuel. Some of these support systems are so vital that their failure would be disastrous for those who depend on the sector for their food. Dependency on material and industrial energy support Pre-industrial agriculture was a very local activity. In contrast, the sun is not modern agriculture's main energy source. Cheap fossil energy? Energy price is hard to calculate. 1. 2. Permatopia: a graceful end to cheap oil. About the farming… | Tiny Farm Blog. This page is missing 2009-2010, a pair of ultimately crazy, disruptive years. They’re…coming up! (Mar. 2011) Tiny Farm Blog is one day to the next on a small organic farm… Starting with zero farm and garden experience near the end of 2002, I’m still at it full-time and more into it than ever!
The first four years (2002-2005), it was mainly a one-man show, with much help from a few, and support from many. In Year 5 (2007), I began to include (and rely on) a small crew coming on various days of the week. After the Year 6 (2008) season, the entire tiny farm moved to a new farm, about 30km away. Here we are in Year 7, 2009, and it’s pretty much a whole new start, almost from scratch, turning a hayfield into a market garden in time for the spring market. It’s a lot of work, the focus can get blurry at times, but really, what fun!
Where am I? The plot is located in southern Ontario, Canada, about 95 miles (150 km) north of Toronto. It’s organic!? The plot is divided up into big squares. The Gear. Hydroponics: The History and Mystery of Hydroponics Gardening: G. Posted by Lisa Carey In this two part series on Hydroponics find how what is behind the history and mystery of this tried and true, where old becomes new again growing trend for plants. Hydroponics is defined as “the cultivation of plants in nutrient solution rather than in soil,” or simply as “the science of gardening without soil.” As early as 600 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar II built the “hanging gardens” in the dry, arid and rain-starved area of Babylonia. These famous gardens, tagged as one of the Seven Wonders of the World, blossomed with plants grown, not in soil, but in a steady stream of water from converted from the Euphrates River.
The practice of hydroponics can be traced back to Ancient China, Egypt and India. Clearly it was a well-known fact but the recording of the idea that “Plants need certain mineral elements in order to grow,” is first attributed to Leonardo De Vinci in 1492. About Lisa Carey. About urban farming: impractical romanticism for a lost age. Taipei Times - archives. Urban farming is a growth industry in New York city’s concrete jungle, and with little open land, agriculturalists and beekeepers have taken to the rooftops to pursue their passion. Andrew Cote uses the emergency fire ladder to climb up to the roof of his East Village building, where he tends to 250 bee hives. Cote, a professor of Japanese literature, doubles up as president of the New York City Beekeepers Association, and is happy that the city authorized beekeeping in the middle of last month after an 11-year ban.
“The city wants to plant 1 million trees, and the trees need to be pollinated,” Cote said. The ban forced beekeepers into hiding, fearing a US$2,000 fine if caught. “Our bees pollinate, and they clean the air. Bees also produce about 45kg of honey per hive per year, he said — honey that he sells at the city’s various farmer’s markets. “I began the green houses 15 years ago,” Zabar said. About half of the items Zabar sells in his deli comes from rooftop farms. Envisioning sustainable communities (parts 1 and 2) In this 4-part series on sustainable communities, we critique dominant western conceptions of 'community', try to help clarify confusions of the term in EB feature articles, review various approaches to "building community", and call for clarity in our dialogues about "building sustainable communities".
In Part 3 to come, Gary Clausheide gives a short history of "community" -- how humankind lost it, and how we might regain it. In part 4 to come, we present a radical theory on building sustainable communities, drawing on lessons from the past, and arguing that there is no more important question for us to grapple with than the question of how our community and larger society should be organized. We show that if you want sustainability and equality “at the end of the day”, you have to build them in at the start.
Introduction This question is a further expansion that we hope to see in EB discussions of community. We chart out this line of thinking in four parts. Not really.