Backyard Sustainability

Kinda interesting interview with this guy (Scott McGuire) who wanted to see how much food he could grow in his 1/3 acre yard.

“It’s a group thing… You can’t have a local food supply by yourself. It has to be done with other people.”

Article: Self-Sufficiency Versus a Backyard CSA

video

This is not news to anyone, but clearly being green in a holistic sense has to involve getting more local and more solar (ala Michael Pollan) in many ways, and food is one of those ways.

It’s also exploring community/CSAs vs rugged individualism/homesteading.

Related:
– Great website: One Straw – “Growing Real Food in Real Spaces” / Yardening / Suburban Agriculture
– Shelburne Falls Food Security Plan

on self sufficiency in the 21st century

“Part of the point of being self-sufficient is to get away from the experts.  Look at the mass of people in cities: they live in houses designed by experts, they go to work in vehicles made by experts along roads laid out by experts, they make things designed by experts and sold by experts, they eat a meal produced by experts and they are entertained by yet more experts.  All they do for themselves is sleep.”

Andrew Singer, in “Methane, Fuel of the Future” (1973) as quoted on pg 300 “Solar Energy” (1976) by Daniel Behrman