Riot about Riot: The 95% Farm Puzzle
All right boys and girls. It is time for a lesson in sloppy math.
9,000,000 people live in NYC.
1 acre*** of land to feed 1 person
7,600,000 acres of farm land in NY state.
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What do those numbers mean? A whole lot of crabby New Yorkers looking for the rest of their acre.
Now keep in mind this does not include the other 10,000,000 non-city NY state people, which we probably wouldn’t share with anyway. If we had to share since they are the ones technically doing the farm work, detail, details, that means about 20,000,000 of us all trying to eat off of 7.6 million acres. We are down to less than 1/3 of an acre each. Now keep in mind that organic production rates tend to be lower for many crops than conventional rates. (The only two that I found studies saying had equal production were corn and soybeans.)And no farm works at 100% capacity all year. And crops, organic or conventional, are susceptible to any number of unpredictable nasties from Mother Nature. Not to mention, how much variety can you get in our climate? Even if we ALL switched to a vegan diet, as vegan locavores in NY we would have one boring ass diet. (Now…you CA people pipe down. Although we are FAR superior in many ways our botanical bounty isn’t quite as ample as yours.)
Please feel free to challenge any of my thinking on this for I am truly just tossing numbers around trying to see how it all fits together. I am, after all, a mere urbanite with very little knowledge of what Ol’ Mac Donald is doing all day.
And just for the record, this isn’t really an argument against Riot 4 Austerity, which I find invaluable in helping people, including me, assess and track their consumption. Just a pondering on how realistic their numbers are for my little neighborhood.
***I have found about 100 different estimates for how much land it takes to feed a person. Most say for an average western diet a little over an acre. Since I don’t know a single New Yorker who eats as much meat as they say is included in a typical western diet, I am going to round down to 1 acre. Most people I now have a much more fish/poultry/dairy based diet. This also accounts for the vegans in our midst…who can pack 10 on an acre. Plus, one has to take into consideration that there is never 100% production on any farm, plus not all crops make it, etc. Blah, blah, blah. Lastly, and most importantly for me, 1 acre per person makes the math soooooooooo much easier.
Here’s a possible solution:
http://noimpactman.typepad.com/blog/
Dude, isn’t that why you have New Jersey (the Garden State) there? Now you just need to figure out which exit your garden is on and you’ll be all set!
- Burbs, ex-Upstater
Arduous…the roof top idea is interesting but not that practical for most of us. First, many newer buildings are built with the water tank, generators, and even furnaces in some cases on the roof. (NYC is a bunch of islands and theoretically susceptible to massive flooding.) In rare cases some are even building solar panels. Unfortunately some are building cell towers too. In addition to those roof top piggies, there is the bigger issue of liability. Most people are not allowed access to their rooftops unless there is an emergency. I don’t know of a single building in our entire neighborhood which is mixed condo/coop/rental buildings that allows people roof access. The insurance, if it could even be obtained, would be astronomical. For those who can get the space, I say run with it.
In Rubbish, the book had some pictures showing how lower manhattan and I think the JFK airport had been extended over water by dumping garbage into it. So if part of the financial district is on a landfill, the solution is simple: have more people live on landfills which frees up more space for farming. I think Fresh Kills might be tomorrow’s hot new real estate.