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Lindsay · 09-19-2008, 10:29 PM

We need to be careful not to just look at land area divided by people type calculations for the production of food. The entire land area of the earth is not all "farm able" land has to be fertile, crops have to be rotated which leaves land sitting fallow (not producing) etc. It's a much more complex calculation than just area v people. I have read that a 3 acre farm is the perfect size form sustainable agriculture, to support 1 family. 3 Acres can produce enough food and also allow rotation etc ( much more complicated than that of course) I own a farm of 3000 acres and it cant support 1 family ( it's a hobby which produces about 1/4 of my annual off farm income.So an interesting calculation would be ( arable land / 3 / families ( 7 billion /4?) ) Even so this would only be a rough number. What will be the additional "natural" rescources needed to produce that amount of food ie water? Fertiliser? Chemical?. Each new question raises more things to be taken into account. I'm not suggesting it can't be done, but Im am sure it is a way more complex issue than some would believe. On the other hand what do we produce world wide now? it has been said that we produce enough but the distribution is wrong, that maybe true I have seen thousands of tons of fruit dumped for $ reasons, surely that could have fed hungry people, but it wasn't "viable" to send it to a poor country so it was dumped.
Anyway, I'm ranting........

Cheers, Lindsay.

09-19-2008, 10:29 PM	#17
Lindsay Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: South Australia Posts: 12	Re: Important Question for George Greene We need to be careful not to just look at land area divided by people type calculations for the production of food. The entire land area of the earth is not all "farm able" land has to be fertile, crops have to be rotated which leaves land sitting fallow (not producing) etc. It's a much more complex calculation than just area v people. I have read that a 3 acre farm is the perfect size form sustainable agriculture, to support 1 family. 3 Acres can produce enough food and also allow rotation etc ( much more complicated than that of course) I own a farm of 3000 acres and it cant support 1 family ( it's a hobby which produces about 1/4 of my annual off farm income.So an interesting calculation would be ( arable land / 3 / families ( 7 billion /4?) ) Even so this would only be a rough number. What will be the additional "natural" rescources needed to produce that amount of food ie water? Fertiliser? Chemical?. Each new question raises more things to be taken into account. I'm not suggesting it can't be done, but Im am sure it is a way more complex issue than some would believe. On the other hand what do we produce world wide now? it has been said that we produce enough but the distribution is wrong, that maybe true I have seen thousands of tons of fruit dumped for $ reasons, surely that could have fed hungry people, but it wasn't "viable" to send it to a poor country so it was dumped. Anyway, I'm ranting........ Cheers, Lindsay.