Why subsidized? A fair comparison would be subsidized home farming vs. subsidized industrial farming, or neither are subsidized.
The exact problem was discussed in Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott, where he reached a very different and nuanced conclusion. You can have a read if you are truly interested.
Subsidizing home farming isn’t really possible with our current society, and not subsidizing industrial farming could be disastrous and lead to famine. The subsidies guarantee that food options will be available at all times.
Agreed, my wife and I had that conversation recently, as it happens. Though, for some things, there are other benefits. Herbs is the best example, even the fresh, packaged herbs that you can buy at a grocery will be noticeably not-as-good as something that you picked fresh in the backyard 2 minutes ago. Dill, basil, thyme, mint, what have you. I’ve found the same to be true of things like bell peppers and jalapenos.
Where’s that 4chan post where all the BLM rioters tried to set up a new community in Seattle or something. Then they had everyone give there skills and what that want to do in the new world, everyone was saying they can grow food. Then there was the crappest plot of veggies I have ever seen.
I recall the one you’re thinking of, but did not find it. This is a textbook case of how photography is just another aspect of journalism that can be very biased depending on what you decide to show and the context in which you place it.
For my part, isn’t it more interesting to know that it was started by a scholar of energy and sustainability who used the opportunity to promote gardening skills and raise awareness of the history and politics of land use rights?
There is a whole thing about land use rights and energy and sustainability. But just because one guy was right on that doesn’t mean the whole movement wasn’t a complete disaster from the start.
As much as this website hates capitalism I’m still pro capitalist. But even I admit a lot needs to be changed. Land is one of the big things I have been contemplating lately. Having said that, there wont be any meaningful food production in cities for anything but mental health reasons.
What can I say except that I hope you’re wrong about food production? The allotment system in the UK is a good example of this, and could be expanded on to good effect for the overall goal of more mutually supportive communities. Obviously we’re not going to turn every city into homesteaders, but reducing the imbalances in our economic systems is worthwhile.
As for CHAZ/CHOP, I find it more useful not to judge it based on whether an impromptu short-lived anarchistic community can govern itself perfectly during that chaotic moment in time (especially as police had every reason to try and subvert it - after all, they did lose that precinct), but based on its vision and the hope it gave people. It only lasted a short while, but hopefully the memory of it can live on as a hope for what could be, and as a part of the dialogue between communities and state forces going forward.
Yeah sure, if everybody else is enduring and/or paying for the bad side effects of the way somebody conducts an economic activity, it’s “cost effective” for those doing that activity that way.
I think the hypothetical here implies transport would still exist for a primarily home-garden non-industrial agriculture replacement system. Or do you think the whole world should suddenly stop trading? Might as well since we’re writing a fantasy fiction, anything goes.
It may be true for ‘soldier’ plants. However there are thousands of plant species that can’t be both efficiently mass produced and shipped while still being of good quality. So you get a bad produce, very costly produce or both.
I can’t afford fresh Basil leaves, I maintained a plant in my kitchen in some of the apartments I lived in. The current one doesn’t have enough sun. It took 10 minutes of work to arrange and emptying left over water.
Also, if you never tasted cherry tomatoes straight from the plant you don’t what you are missing, and how shity is the produce in the market.
It sounds like you live in the US or something. Tomatoes from the market should be freshly picked overnight to be sold early in the morning. There’s literally no difference.
I just don’t live near a tomatoes field, however, it’s not just time, perfectly ripe tomatoes don’t survive transportation well. So mass production of tomatoes requires the picking of less ripe fruit.
I used to grow tomatoes myself and then transport them 80km away to my family. No issues there. They can survive a lot, especially if you have a refrigerated truck.
I worked a few summers on a commercial organic farm and for many years in a small family plot. Maybe we are talking about different scales of transportation, quality control or different species of tomatoes.
I can’t afford fresh Basil leaves, I maintained a plant in my kitchen in some of the apartments I lived in. The current one doesn’t have enough sun. It took 10 minutes of work to arrange and emptying left over water.
The basil plants you buy in grocery stores are designed to die after a while. It’s not lack of sun or water, it’s because there are just way too many plants in the tiny pot and basil does not like to be root-bound. They basically strangle themselves to death.
You can easily propagate the plant through cuttings or you can separate the grown plants and re-pot them in smaller groups.
Yea, I had Basil im some apartments. The current one has no sun at-all. Basil needs some. But when I bought plants my father guided me how to split them. Gifted my friends, don’t need more then one.
I used to hate tomatoes, then I tried home-grown and just realized grocery store tomatoes often suck by comparison. There are many plants that don’t store/ship well so you either can’t get them in stores (e.g. pawpaws) or they taste bad because of short shelf life/bruising.
I went back and looked at some of your posts on this thread because I was thinking “they can’t really be that unimaginative” and lo and behold, it’s true, you can be!
Maybe in utopistic communist fantasy where goverment farms grew me the produce I need, but in current capitalist world home grown is way cheaper to me than store bought.
Yeah like look up organopónicos in Cuba. Thanks to the collapse of the import market that fuelled industrial agriculture and government support of local growers, a good chunk of food in the country now comes from ecology-sound urban agriculture.
“Hi, this is Chett from the local government non-industrial agriculture office. We see that you grew 6 tomato vines this year and didn’t take advantage of our program to loan you the costs of 34% of maintaining the crop, as it isn’t your first year, would you like to be pre-approved for a $46.38 loan for next year? In return, we ask you to install flood barriers and have your soil tested regularly.”
The thing about it is that I’m keeping the benefit of the cost effectiveness myself instead of some farmers and taking heads elsewhere. It’s more efficient per dollar for ME.
I’m saving money for myself with my own efforts? It’s specifically to exclude external economics.
and here:
The thing about it is that I’m keeping the benefit of the cost effectiveness myself
By using your own efforts you retain more of the value for yourself. When you work for others you get paid only a fraction of the value you produce. Ie, your time is more valuable than you are getting paid for.
You think I can just go to my workplace and sit on the clock whenever I want? No. There are hours when I cannot be at work. Those hours are not equivalent to work hours.
Also, WTF are you smoking? These arguments are nothing alike.
Your time is not free. In fact it’s incredibly valuable. So why are you giving it away to corporations for pennies on the dollar? You could be getting 100% of the value of your time when you garden.
May I ask a favor? Make a distinction between small-scale direct-to-consumer farmers (ie the kind that sell at farmer’s markets) and large-scale commodity farmers and the huge agricorps that own them.
Why would I make that distinction when the point of it is that I’m saving money for myself with my own efforts? It’s specifically to exclude external economics.
Because (a) you say it in a way that comes across as derogatory. Unless you grow 100% of your food you need a farmer in there somewhere to live; (b) because the closer you get to the farmer (ie buy from small-scale farms) the more value you retain.
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