I think it is a great option for certain applications but it is not a replacement for commercial scale production, how many acres per farmer are you cultivating?
I think that someone will figure out how to do organic no till farming but the amount of nitrogen required to grow a certain amount of plants is also a math problem to some extent and so is how much can be fixed naturally and how much can be derived from other natural sources. I am sure you can make good money growing hardwood and mushrooms but that won't produce the amount of corn, soy, wheat and oats that humans need and if everyone did it then the prices of hardwood and mushrooms would plummet and then it would be much less profitable. I would like to grow hardwoods, ginseng, mushrooms honey and maple syrup at some point but if everyone did that then it would ruin it as a money maker.
Yes you make very good points, luckily there are lots and lots of different species to grow ;p
We start by fixing as much nitrogen as we can, growing lots of forrage and grazing sheep to keep the weeds down. I know all about erosion, in the Colombian Andes we deal with some of the steepest cultivated slopes in the world!
And we must take every solution available, I think lab grown meat might have an important place in the future even though I have only read about it and am working on other solutions. I think a lot of urban spaces need more green, window pots, green roofs, whether or not they are growing food or just flowers, they reduce energy costs (more natural gas left for fertilizers, if need be ;p).
My idea is to go for everything, I can only do so much but I know that others are working on a lot of other stuff. So if I say that we are increasing output with less input by going '4d', [the third dimension is vertical (agroforestry) and the 4th, time (rotational)]. We fix as much as we can and do bring in rice husk, saw dust and some chicken manure.
Even if this generation can only achieve less artificial nitogen per calorie, we know that the right direction is mimic-ing natural systems more not further increasing global economies of scale with monoculture.
Our micro region has 8 families on 80 acres but we are cultivating less than 40 and have a vision that will lead to many more famies and a sustainable community in our area. It will take probably longer than our lives to do everything that we dream of doing ;p
I agree with all that but it also brings up another important problem, the average American farm is over 400 acres and we have a serious shortage of farmers now, in fact the government will pay and support anyone willing to get into farming because of the shortage.
So true! I noticed you grow a bit of your own food - Do you consider yourself a 'farmer'?
No, just an avid gardener although in the past I have sold some excess to restaurants. Being a real farmer is hard work. I did look into the beginning farmer program at one time and it is interesting. There was a piece of property I was looking at for a tree farm at one point.
I have done tree farming since I was 11 years old, but even that was my grandfather's 'side hustle'. I made more on steem last year than I did from farming. I see a future where lots of people grow some food, and only some people are full time.
Agroforestry requires lots of labor, but its not anything like the farming that is counted in those statistics that you mentioned. We are also facing a future with ever rising unemployment and underempmoyment, people will grow their own food when they get hungry, me and you at least started before that.
Which trees did you farm? Farming is a tough row to hoe ;) Around here you can make a fortune with a farm but not really by farming, it's a tourist trap.
I predicted long ago that machines would take over everyone's jobs and we would be paid for online commenting, then one day I found Steemit.com. But now I am not so sure that will happen, automation has been proceeding faster and faster and yet unemployment in the US is at record lows, even among the uneducated. There is still a buggy whip factory near me going strong. As many jobs as machines eliminate there will be something else for people to do.
LOL! I also don't believe in the end of work, because there is always work to do in an abundant world that we are building. Everywhere I look there is so much to do!
We grew christmas trees, norweigen pine, blue spruce and douglas fir, rjen laster got into colored maples and other such trees for landscaping.a
I will fully admit that the future is not under my jurisdiction, but I see so many options and so much opportunity, even if the malthusian math looks sad today.
You're an interesting fellow to chat with!