PowerSwitch

Bilhook thanks for this. Food security has been of concern for some time. Seeing this summation raises my concern further. This article focuses primarily on grains. Does anyone know if grains are a good "indicator" of food security. I don't want to appear naive in asking that. Of course gr...

Hence a sustainable earth population for humans perhaps should be set at 1850/1900 levels. I'm pretty sure the UK had hit peak wood before that point Good point and related I am sure that there were areas in Asia which also had reached "peak rice". However worldwide I gain the impression ...

We need a buffer between a sustainable human population and the actual population. My suggestion is one hundred to one hundred and fifty years buffer period. Hence a sustainable earth population for humans perhaps should be set at 1850/1900 levels. 1.2/1.6 billion. Quiet an issue. Need a big turnaro...

Allotments are very good at providing a good variety of vitamins, minerals and flavours, but bad at providing energy. An allotment is usualy 300sqm, 0.06 of an acre I think I recently worked out half an acre of potatos would provide enough energy for 2 people, and thats about as energy dense as foo...

Agreed - Cuba has a year-round growing season which of course helps!! Not to mention an agricultural society with many insights to what is involved, excellent soils and wonderful rainfall. A great place for gardening. But market gardens used to be a major feature of British urban areas, supplying a...

Vortex, your last sentence broke me up. Thanks. In the same vein a firewood merchants advertises in the local paper: " Organic Firewood; burns with a warm inner glow." Your comments concerning likely social structures and outcomes I agree with. biffvernon I intended none of my comments on ...

As one reply said this is somewhat of a middle class thing. And following on from another post: the economic reality just isn't there for these ideas to work in Australia. These figures come from four years ago. I am a salad grower. If I was to sell at a local farmers markets my operating costs/retu...

keela, thanks for your observation and example. I shall keep it in kind, do the same, and use the calorie count to illustrate my point. Kenneal, Volcanic dust, compost and carbon all used here on my farming operation. Basically a good patch of dirt. Most of the trialling referred to has been on tree...

RenewableCandy I agree with the points you make. Certainly water and humus are big issues over here and certainly are limiting factors. I still grapple with the underlying issue of possible/likely production figures and land/water availability and most peoples perceptions of this issue. At a big sus...

The reliance on oil in order to achieve modern yields is certainly worrying, and without plentiful cheap oil I doubt present day yields could be maintained. We should however be able to do better than farmers of 100/150 years ago, since knowledge and technology has improved, and does not all rely o...

snow hope, love the name. Yep big place and dry. I am about 2 hours south of Sydney in the Southern Highlands. A third of the way to Canberra from Sydney. Can have good rainfall but variable. Generally good growing conditions. I have been here thirty years, growing vegetables commercially and trees ...

tomhitchman thanks for your reply. I am aware of the sources of information that you suggest and have read a good deal of it. I have also kept good contact with agroforestry here in Australia. I have been growing tree crops for thirty years. I still pose this question: ""Does anyone know w...

Looking at various sites concerning TSHTF I am puzzled that more efforts are not focused on tree crops. Anyone wanting an introduction to this subject should read ""Tree Crops - A Permanent Agriculture by J Russell Smith."" My puzzlement is that tree crops have so many advantages...

Keela, Thanks for the welcome and your reply.

I have started a new thread following on from this point.

There are many quoted figures about food productivity. How much land/ water is required to feed so many people and so on. I realise that it is difficult to reconcile what techniques etc may still be possible is a future world with less crude oil. That can only involve a good deal of crystal ball gaz...