infrarad needs botanists!
Restating my assumptions:
- Much of our happiness depends on how well we are eating, in two senses of ‘well’;
- We have a responsibility to ourselves to eat to maximize health, pleasure, and time spent with our family (be that family traditional or tribal);
- We are morally accountable for how the food we eat moves from chloroplast to plate.
Now, I won’t be surprised if it’s the off-the-gridders who have the winning strategy, but I love cities, I’ve always loved them, and I am going to fight for them for as long as I can hope for them. So, right now I’m thinking about how to maximize food production in urban environments.
The problem, of course, is that I know diddly-squat about growing plants, because, er, I live in the goddamn city.
The resources that I do know about:
- The community gardens. Ha ha ha good luck on finding a space before extinction;
- Green roofs. I became aware of green roofs showing up in Portland about 10-15 years ago. However, The Great Everything Crash of 2008 means there hasn’t been much new building of housing, and that means old buildings. These buildings may or may not have the structural integrity to add a ton of dirt, and they’re owned by management companies who aren’t all excited about handling the waterproofing problems. That doesn’t mean every horizontal surface (vertical with rainwater hydroponics) shouldn’t be covered in cherries—-only that there are significant political/economic problems.
- Urban foraging. As I suspected, there is a Portland Fruit Tree Project devoted to mapping trees and organizing harvests; half the fruit goes to the harvesters, half goes to food banks. I’m going to invite myself along on a harvest next weekend and see what I can learn
In short, infrarad needs botanists.
