The obstacles to local food production

[urbpan]

Many of us (reading and writing this blog at the moment) like the idea of local food. Eating food grown locally uses less fuel and builds a connection to the community. "Local food" implies small scale farms (not if your nearest local farm is a 2000 acre industrial food production facility, but I digress) and more sustainable farming practices. But half of us live in the city--local farms will have to be very near city limits to be truly local. Could the laws and culture of the city make the practices of the small farmer more difficult?

Read this. It's the experience of an lj friend of mine, who is a former police officer now trying to make a living as a farmer outside of Columbus Ohio. It's kind of long for an internet piece, but there's a lot of great topics for discussion within.

Comments

[deathling.livejournal.com]

Really interesting stuff.

[roaming.livejournal.com]

Ditto. I'll read more when my brain is uncramped.

I like the idea of having hydroponic food grown in local skyscrapers, with the grocery store at the bottom, and the "farm" on the upper levels. Don't know exactly what the downsides to that are, but the notion that each "community area" could have it's supply right there, and shielded from weather concerns -- among the long laundry list of other impediments -- is appealing.

[tb]

Found via friendsfriends. Thanks for the pointer.