Submitted 6 months ago by FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/d8a4329a-6092-4cc3-97e5-f629938186c5.png
Sure, but I don’t have to pay for the food they produce, just some seeds. Seeds are way cheaper than whatever is available from the local grocery.
It might yield a relatively small amount but I’m not feeding a city. I only need enough for me and my family.
If I can save a couple hundred bucks over the year, not buying produce at the shop, I’ll fucking do it.
The economy isn’t doing me any favors.
There are associated costs to even small homegrown crops. Unless you’re planting them randomly in the wilderness and hoping for the best.
Just got my bill from the sun today. I guess it takes time to snail mail over 93M miles.
I have some land prepared for a garden. It was pretty well laid out by the previous owner of the property. I’ll have some costs in getting it going, since the last guy used it mainly for flowers, so I want to put in some raised beds and something to keep the animals away from my food, beyond that, it’s all planting and waiting. It rains sufficiently here so no need for irrigation, and there’s plenty of sun. The soil is pretty decent too.
Direct financial costs will be minimal, year over year, and then it’s just the indirect cost of my time to tend to it as it grows.
You can have both and it doesn’t need to compete with industrial farming.
But it lets you grow the stuff you want how you want and eat it fresh without taking days and trucks on a highway to get it to you. If it didn’t have a positive impact why did they push victory gardens so much in WW2?
It feels good, teaches valuable skills and gives you healthy things to eat. It’s more than simply therapeutic.
You can have both, or you can have just industrial, but you cannot have only homegrown non-industrial.
Although I have certainly mentioned that 40+ acres are required to sustain a family agriculturally I believe that it is still worth it to grow food and herb and spices. Just don’t expect it to change the direction of inflation.
The only thing I grew at home (in a pot, because dogs) was chili, because it’s more scarce in stores than stuff like onions. Some do fear that the store ones are all “GMO” secretly, or even manufactured from some petroleum products, like my stepmother, who once learned that things like milk powder, egg powder, and meat powder exists, but she thought they all weren’t made of the real things, because she couldn’t believe those are being made out of the real deals.
The thing about it is that I’m keeping the benefit of the cost effectiveness myself instead of some farmers and taking heads elsewhere. It’s more efficient per dollar for ME.
some farmers
May I ask a favor? Make a distinction between small-scale direct-to-consumer farmers (ie the kind that sell at farmer’s markets) and large-scale commodity farmers and the huge agricorps that own them.
Agreed, my wife and I had that conversation recently, as it happens. Though, for some things, there are other benefits. Herbs is the best example, even the fresh, packaged herbs that you can buy at a grocery will be noticeably not-as-good as something that you picked fresh in the backyard 2 minutes ago. Dill, basil, thyme, mint, what have you. I’ve found the same to be true of things like bell peppers and jalapenos.
Ironically Jerusalem artichokes
If my home was on several acres of fertile land and I had modern machinery to cultivate it, I could reach pretty good production levels. But then I’d have way too much.
The quality and variety of what produce you can eat will be much higher, though. There's a lot of cultivars that don't make financial sense at scale but are wonderful to eat.
And yet industrialized subsidised agricultural continues to fail to feed millions while homegrown continues to feed more and more.
Imagine thinking that the billions of people on earth aren’t sustained by industrial agriculture.
Imagine believing an industry that’s heavily subsidised is supporting anyone.
Technically? They are being killed by it. Not to be toooo reductionist or anything…
mlg@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Also subsidized industrial agriculture: “lmao let’s grow nothing but corn in a pool of roundup ready corrosive acid”
“Here’s your high fructose heart attack, double dipped in glyphosates, in a can. enjoy lol”
FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Problems with quality is a regulatory issue that is not in any way addressed by trying to make your own corn.
Semjaza@lemmynsfw.com 6 months ago
The problems of quality with mass agriculture corn that has enough might to have lobbying power to influence regulatory policy aren’t solved by growing your own corn that you can regulate and control the cultivar and farming methods?
mlg@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah I know I just thought it was funny to point out the lopsided subsidized corn production because byproducts go brrrrrrrrr
enbyecho@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It makes me really sad that you’ve apparently never tasted GOOD corn. Like the kind where you start boiling the water before you pick the corn. Or just eat it in the field.