The Spin on Urban Agriculture
Can urban agriculture save the world? My friend David Tracey(Guerilla Gardening, A Manualfesto, New Society, 2007) and I did a series of podcasts that attempted to answer that question. All of our guests (there have only been three to date – a roof top farmer , an urban farmer, and a uniquely localcorner store) answered no or probably not. They are probably right.
Michael Pilarski, founder and director of Friends of the Trees Society, has explored the role of home gardens in world food production. Pilarski makes the case that 50 percent of the world’s food supply could be grown on 10 percent of the arable land. He ventures a guess that currently gardens supply somewhere between 10 and 20 percent. Guess it depends how you define home garden. He hauls out the usual urban ag precedents, the World War II Victory Gardens and Cuba after the Russians pulled out.
So just how much land do you need to feed one person? There are a lot of differing facts and figures out there. John Jeavons (How to Grow More Vegetables, 10 Speed Press, 1974) from Ecology Action in Willits, CA came up with a pretty good estimate: 10 feet by 100 feet (1000 square feet) or 1/43 of an acre. Pilarski says he can feed himself on about a tenth of an acre and puts in