Urban Farming

[Jason Weiser]

I don't think most folks think about it Targan. Then again, I saw a pig get slaughtered for a family freind's communion. They were poor Spanish farmers, so it was knife meet throat. I saw it at 6, didn't bother me, and I ate pork afterwards. My wife? She didn't take well when she went to a farm recently with freinds and found out dinner has a face. I blame the schools....

[Webstral]

If the worst that happens to me after a nuclear exchange is that I eat my rabbits, I'll feel pretty good.

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Jason Weiser

I don't think most folks think about it Targan. Then again, I saw a pig get slaughtered for a family freind's communion. They were poor Spanish farmers, so it was knife meet throat. I saw it at 6, didn't bother me, and I ate pork afterwards. My wife? She didn't take well when she went to a farm recently with freinds and found out dinner has a face. I blame the schools....

There are some school textbooks provided by the meat industry in which hamburger patties are shown growing like corn.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by Webstral

There are some school textbooks provided by the meat industry in which hamburger patties are shown growing like corn.

Now that is just WRONG! How does anyone get away with that sort of deception? I'm all for blurring reality a little so the kids aren't scarred for life, but anything more than hiding the blood spatter on the killing room walls is going a bit too far in my opinion.

Mind you, I wouldn't mind a few T bone steak plants for my back garden if anyone's got a few spare seeds...

[Webstral]

The US has a weird relationship with public education. We resent having to pay for something we believe ought to be available for free. We want high home resale values, but we decry property taxes, which fund public education, as the tools of the Devil and/or socialism. Many of those without children complain bitterly that they shouldn't have to chip in for public schooling. Consequently, schools are often short of funds. Enter private industry, which closes the gap with some strings attached. Soda machines got into the schools because the distributors paid a fee. Textbooks like the ones in question get into the schools because they are provided for free. I could go on and on about the wretched hypocrisy of our attitude towards public education. It's little wonder that private education is thriving--especially here in California. Thank goodness Finland and Singapore are too small and distant to provide a real challenge.

[WallShadow]

ISTR that in the 2300AD universe, the meat ranches on the planet Aurore raised rabbit, guinea pig, and hamster....

[Webstral]

Back on topic, a good greenhouse can extend the growing season by more than 30 days at either end of the normal season. In some locations, this is the difference between having a growing season and not having a growing season. A good greenhouse can provide passive solar gain if it's attached to the south side of a house. Getting greenhouses built after the nuclear exchange is a bit of a trick, though. Still, necessity is the mother of invention and improvisation. A half-baked greenhouse is far superior to no greenhouse.

New England of 2000 has many such half-baked greenhouses. In southern Vermont, the Black Watch started as a survivalist group that ended up taking over the two southernmost counties. Pre-war, they did their homework on down-and-dirty greenhouses, which can be constructed from scraps and salvage. Unlike SAMAD, where most of the agricultural labor works on small intensive outdoor garden plots and the resource in shortest supply is water, in New England the scarcest resources are good soil for growing crops and days of the growing season. Greenhouses get around this problem by extending the growing season and by offering either intensive soil beds or hydroponics beds. One reason why the Blood Cross, a super-sized marauder band called a horde, is such a problem is that they have a tendency to raze everything in their path. Without the greenhouses (or their houses), the 30% of New England’s population still alive can’t make it another year.

[TrailerParkJawa]

Originally Posted by Webstral

Back on topic, a good greenhouse can extend the growing season by more than 30 days at either end of the normal season. In some locations, this is the difference between having a growing season and not having a growing season. A good greenhouse can provide passive solar gain if it's attached to the south side of a house. Getting greenhouses built after the nuclear exchange is a bit of a trick, though. Still, necessity is the mother of invention and improvisation. A half-baked greenhouse is far superior to no greenhouse.

r.

Agreed, I think jury rigged green houses would we well within the range of survivors salvaging materials from empty structures. Even in a place lie California with lots of sun greenhouses would still be critical for the winter months.