[P2P-F] how-1-million-pounds-of-organic-food-can-be-produced-on-3-acres

[Steve Bosserman]

Hi Michel,

These articles have some truth, but they don't tell the whole story.  For
instance, here's a similar operation to what the Wake-Up World post
highlights in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA area:
http://www.growingpower.org/.  They have a spin-off facility that
specializes in aquaculture: http://sweetwater-organic.com/.  They offer
training programs to help people in communities across the U.S. setup their
own food / composting / aquaculture systems.  The founder of Growing Power,
Will Allen, even won a MacArthur Foundation "genius award" to promote his
program
http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4537249/k.29CA/Will_Allen.htm.
 And he was selected as one of Time Magazine's Top 100 influential people in
the world for 2010
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1984685_1984949_1985243,00.html
.

The problem is, as even Will Allen will say, that these food production
systems require constant subsidy through gifts of time, materials, and
money, grant funding, or high-end markets where clientele can afford to pay
a premium for local food.  In other words, they are not sustainable.
 Furthermore, they only provide a small percentage of the calorie
requirements for the local populations they serve.

The answer rests in the community adopting a production-to-consumption local
agriculture system rather than attempting to establish a sustainable food
supply through production only.  That means the entire value chain gets
taken into consideration when designing the local system.  And it means
starting at the point of consumption, i.e., total number of affordable,
accessible, and healthy calories required to sustain local community
members, designing the system backwards to the points of production, and
allocating the revenue from sales of calories to community members such that
all participants in the value chain, i.e., preparation, processing,
production, and distribution, can, at a minimum, cover their costs.  Such a
system is very different than a "destroked" global system which is what one
has when only localizing production.

My opinion for what it's worth...

Steve B.

On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 8:47 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> http://wakeup-world.com/2011/07/14/how-1-million-pounds-of-organic-food-can-be-produced-on-3-acres/
>
> it would be great if someone more versed in agrifood production could look
> into this,
>
> Michel
>
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