Catweazle wrote:Buying some land in order to support oneself is not filthy, it's a sensible way to spend the wealth you have accumulated through a lifetime of hard work in order to, perhaps, have a reasonable life into old age. "Filthy" is spending every spare penny in the pub, in the Costa del Sol, on flash cars, or supermarket whisky, and then expecting your kids tax payments to support you when you are old because you have made no provision.
The majority of people in this country cannot and will never be able to afford so much as an acre on top of their inevitable mortgage debt or rent
£10000 would be a pretty expensive acre.
£10000 would buy you very little in the way of 'the pub, in the Costa del Sol, on flash cars, or supermarket whisky'.
kenneal - lagger wrote:
The majority of people in this country couldn't see the point of owning an acre of land let alone have the faintest inkling of what to do with it.
If everyone had an acre of land, most sites would be a long way from where the owner lived. So there would be a lot of travelling involved getting there and back. Owning land for any sort of sustainable use by the owner would mean a complete change in where and how everyone lives. Or the owners of adjoining acre plots could rent them to someone who manages them on their behalf, in which case the manager may as well own them, like they do at the moment!
JohnB wrote:If everyone had an acre of land, most sites would be a long way from where the owner lived. So there would be a lot of travelling involved getting there and back. Owning land for any sort of sustainable use by the owner would mean a complete change in where and how everyone lives. Or the owners of adjoining acre plots could rent them to someone who manages them on their behalf, in which case the manager may as well own them, like they do at the moment!
If the government had any foresight they would encourage an "allotment culture" by providing affordable plots around towns. Tax payers money would be needed to provide water connections, planning regs would have to allow small storage buildings and fencing. A whole new generation would grow up understanding how to grow food, ready to disperse into the countryside. Surely it must happen some time.
We need a return of the "Dig for Victory" campaign of the second world war. As happened in Cuba more recently every spare patch of land in towns and cities was turned over to allotments.
Kenneal - if that were a proposal for
"Solidarity Gardens"
it would have my heartfelt support.
Famine is looming in many countries before this one, and doing whatever we can to reduce our drain on internationally traded food supplies is a moral necessity, as well as a pragmatic expedient. The importance of the name is in public education and public focus on the issues driving famine closer for billions.
kenneal - lagger wrote:We need a return of the "Dig for Victory" campaign of the second world war. As happened in Cuba more recently every spare patch of land in towns and cities was turned over to allotments.
Laudable, truly so.
There's another small point to consider, that of there already being enough calories produced globally to feed 14 billion humans.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
The problem with there being enough calories produced to feed 14 billion is that it is not evenly distributed and we take more than our fare share and then waste half of it. If we were to grow it ourselves we wouldn't waste so much, I'm sure.
Also, much of the food produced is then fed to animals to produce meat. More of the world's population wants to eat meat each year so very soon the calories produced aren't going to be enough. As the wealth is moving eastwards we are going to have problems buying any food that we don't produce so we need to start training people in the art of vegetable gardening. We are also going to have to train them in the joys of eating a little meat with our vegetables.
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
kenneal - lagger wrote:.....We are also going to have to train them in the joys of eating a little meat with our vegetables.
That might be easier than you think, a stir fry with a small amount of shredded meat is actually tastier than a big lump of the meat and separate veg. I don't know why, but when you get a morsel of meat on your fork it tastes great. Surprised me.
A home made lasagne or moussaka tastes very good as well and together with a Greek salad is excellent. Any of the basically peasant food cultures provides a combination of a little meat and/or dairy with a lot of vegetables.
Getting back to our acre: most Brits would not be able to defend an absent acre from other peope's stupidity (read: last night someone threw a fag-end on the compost heap on the Plot, and it went up in flames! Luckily it was spotted and extinguished by fellow Plotters, but not before its wooden frame had been totalled).
RenewableCandy wrote:(read: last night someone threw a fag-end on the compost heap on the Plot, and it went up in flames! Luckily it was spotted and extinguished by fellow Plotters, but not before its wooden frame had been totalled).
It needn't have been a fag end. Compost heaps as well as hay stacks can spontaneously combust.
