The Project Issue #2 and Seed Caches

[mmartin798]

I do like seeing new material coming out for MP. Though in Issue #2 of The Project that just got released, I saw one thing that just seemed off and did the math as I am wont to do.

The article mentions a cache type for a community that is one Pelican case with 1250 packets of seeds. The seeds are chosen for the region, climate, etc and are enough to supply four 100 acre farms for four years. Looking at some agricultural data, the average amount of seed for an acre of land using direct seeding (planting directly in the soil versus starter bed and transplanting seedlings) is right around two pounds. The average density of seeds is about 30 pounds per cubic foot. That comes out to 200 pounds per farm per year or 3200 pounds of seeds, or about 107 cubic feet.

The largest Pelican case I can find is the Mobile Military MM08 Pallet-Ready case at 35.8 cubic feet (internal capacity). So three of these will do the job. It will still fit inside a large sewer vault as the article mentions, but to call it 1250 packets in a single case and imagining carrying the case, opening it and handing a farmer a few small packets to plant is not exactly the right image.