Dont You Need Land To Farm On? (0.00 / 0)

I admit that I have a limited understanding of farming principles but as I understand it, in order to raise crops you need to have land to plant them on.

This land:
A) must not have condos already built on it like about everything east of Worcester
or
B) must not be a solid slab of granite like about everything west of Worcester.

Thus I wonder about this topic.
I enjoy gardening but it is mostly for enjoyment as the yieleds I get are barely worth the effort and that is in good seasons (which there are so few of).
Isnt the topic of food production IN Massachusetts at best viewed as a hobby or a supplement?

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by: nomad943 @ Sat Jan 23, 2010 at 11:53:21 AM CST

Yeah, that's what I mean by "create farms" (0.00 / 0)

We would have to reclaim land, possibly removing houses and ripping up parking lots and demolishing strip malls, or at least stop more farm land from becoming turned into subdivisions and malls.  That's why it will take stimulus money, because no private investor is going to see that as a very profitable investment unless the state subsidizes it, and coordinates and organizes the eminent domain purchases where it is easiest and most practical to do.

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by: John Howard @ Sun Jan 24, 2010 at 13:07:11 PM CST

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How Would That Make Any Sense? (0.00 / 0)

There is already a sort of incentive in the form of chapter land, whereby owners keeping land open rather than developing it get to ride out time with a reduced property tax rate.
People arent biting.
Even with the tax incentive it makes no sense whatsoever to get slapped with the tax lien and a reduced property value. Land is going to revert to its "best use" and in New England that sure isnt farming.
The seasons are too short and the soil isnt particularly fertile. As far as efficiencies go there is no way spending government funding to create farming "opportunity" here is anything but a big waste of funds.
There are countless other things to spend it on that would make better sense. Couldnt you think of anything better? I could but then I cant stop government them from taking away our money to begin with so what do my thoughts on where the thieves should distribute the booty matter.

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by: nomad943 @ Mon Jan 25, 2010 at 16:04:24 PM CST

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Every place on earth is going to have to be more self-sustaining (0.00 / 0)

and we are no exception, even though our seasons and climate are not as good as other places.  We have to end factory farms.  There were farms all over the place here once, and then we entered the era of industrial petroleum-based farming and Massachusetts embraced suburbia and consumerism and our special brand of manifest destiny.  We shouldn't be spending our stimulus on more suburbia, bridges, interchanges, we should be preparing for the end of academic suburbia and the return of effort and work, even though it's not as efficient as getting other people to truck it to us.

This is straight James Howard Kunstler, of course, with some Jonathan Safron Foer and Micheal Pollan mixed in.  We are going to need local food production, both because of Peak Oil, and because of public health.  Sustainability is the new goal, not efficiency.  Efficiency usually builds on layers of complexity that can tumble down fast and wear down slow, and becomes less efficient when the full cost is taken into account.

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by: John Howard @ Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 13:43:44 PM CST

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Land Of Stone Walls (0.00 / 0)

History is a fine place to look for many things and maybe this is a good example. Indeed, there were farms all over the place once upon a time as evidenced by all those cool stone walls you see everyplace. I once read someplace that something around 70% of the entire state was actualy operationable fields at one point. A lot of that has grown back into woods.
But back to the point, ever notice how big of a spread a typical family farm was? Took something like 20-30 acres to support a typical family and there just isnt that much land around to support all of us at that yield rate.
Thats why efficiencies developed, it wasnt a choice, it was a requirement. People tend to adapt to what needs doing.
Right now one thing that doesnt need doing is converting the food chain into ethanol. Its ludicrous, it depletes the soil and the only way it can continue is to require the use of a whole lot of petrolium based fertilizer.
IMO there are just too many people on this planet. Thats whats going to catch up to us. But there is no reason to let stupidity speed up the matter and thats what any of these government initiatives inevitably are.

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by: nomad943 @ Tue Jan 26, 2010 at 14:08:32 PM CST

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