Has anyone done a study on how gardens would impact peak oil

Commanding_Heights · Heavy Crude Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 125

Has anyone done a study on how personal gardens would impact peak oil? If everyone started trying to raise some (not all) of their food what would be the effect on depletion? Instead of a Victory Garden a Peak Oil Garden. We could have Gertrude the gardener instead of Rosie the riveter. The government could put out an organic gardening guide kind of like the energy star guide.

If there is a study please provide me with a link because I haven't found one.

I know that Jevons paradox would creep in here somewhere and farm lobby wouldn't let it happen. I'm just wondering what the saving would/could be.

Commanding_Heights · Heavy Crude Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 125

Loki · Expert Joined: Apr 08, 2006 Posts: 976 Location: Cascadia

As for your garden question, we've had many many conversations about gardening here, including victory gardens and urban gardening. Check out the Planning Forum. And forget about the Jevons Paradox. It's an unfalsifiable hypothesis that some people here erroneously take as the gospel truth (mostly to rationalize their lack of conservation). Plus it has nothing to do with gardening.

Commanding_Heights · Heavy Crude Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 125

I don't believe I mentioned a single thing about stopping peak oil or global warming. Take a look at the last paragraph of my first post. I just asked what the savings would/could be. Your mistake.

Commanding_Heights · Heavy Crude Joined: Nov 09, 2006 Posts: 125

thuja

OK after the idiots have left the building- planting Victory Gardens, or PO gardens can have a substantial effect for the community you live in. When the Soviet Union fell, many folks had a small plot of land outside the city that they could grow gardens on and support themselves when they couldn't make ends meet.

We will witness the same thing once the price of food escalates rapidly. People will look to their backyard and community garden for supplements. As cost escalates, people will raise more chickens for meat and eggs. Semi-rural spots will see the return of the backyard goat for cheese and milk. People will start doing this not out of some plan to stop oil depletion, they will do it out of economic necessity.

Yes Jevon's Paradox does apply and yes oil will deplete just as rapidly. But communities that initiate a local foods movement will be able to weather the massive crisis better than those without the ability to raise much in the way of local crops (read: Arid SouthWest).

billp

Senior citizen is in process of rototilling his Albuquerque garden with more than 30 year old chain drive front tine rototiller bought in Pullman, WA in about 1976 for $99.
Senior citizen bought about $25 of onions and some gold yukon potatoes.
Senior citizen poured about a gallon of gas into 'tiller.
Senior citizen believes that energy gotten out of fun garden is substantially less that energy invested. EROEI.
But gardening is fun. And great exercise trying to horse heavy 'tiller around garden.

True story is that senior citizen is so busy with essential non-gas-wasting travel during the summer that he didn't harvest all of garden in 2006! 'tilling up old onions and potatoes in April 2007.

One more item of interest.
Senior citizen tried Kentuck Wonder pole beans.
A disaster. They all came ripe at one time. Then grew horribly large. And about collapsed the trellis.
Blue Lake bush beans work lots better.
They rippen at different times.

I am amazed at Peal Oil and the Oil Drum that apparently most, if nearly not all, readers did learn in high school, college or graduate school, or understand.

HEAT OUT = HEAT IN.
A fundamental principle of thermodynamics.
Regards from senior citizen
Who is into computing stuff, not energy stuff. But sure finds Peak Oil and Oil Drum articles interesting!
Including microcontrollers.

IanC

Germaine to this topic is more complete urban gardening. What given that many urban people don't have back yards, could we think creatively to expand cultivatable square footage in the city? How about planting fruit trees along the streets? There are some nice big grassy buffers between neighborhood streets and the sidewalks where I live. Could these be made into gardens? Probably root vegetables like potatoes, onions, and turnips would be best as they would be less likely to be easily stolen by passers-by. This would be a good way to connect with neighbors and expand the available calories for all involved. Fun.

-Ian C. (drumming fingers, waiting for Doomers to pile-on).

billp

mommy22 · Heavy Crude Joined: Jul 22, 2005 Posts: 264

I also think that it would be really interesting to see a study. I was with a group of people talking about gardening, and someone said that there should be an energy credit of some kind for anyone who gardens and produces a certain percentage of their food. Last summer, I actually kept track of how much my garden was worth by giving an amount that the same produce would cost in the grocery store. It came out to about $450. And I have a pretty small garden when compared to a lot of the gardening posters here.

billp

Laughs_Last · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 26, 2005 Posts: 851

billp

I weeded a bit.

Not much time spent on gardening.

Hey, we were off on to other non-gas-wasting senior citizen pursuits!

billp · Posted: Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:54 pm Post subject: time spent

Senior citizen spent some time weeding.

Then came essential senior citizen travel.

Senior citizen beleives that garden is a negative EROEI.

But fun.

Is coal a negative EROEI?

thuja

So gardening is a net energy loser--- I have to laugh- using fossil fuels of course...but organically gardening using compost and permaculture techniques? I'd have to heartily say "no."

When you plant an apple tree as a sapling- you just...watch it grow- maybe a bit of watering and pruning as the years go by. And then suddenly a few years down the road- an abundance of calorific apples- that you pick with your hands and eat. Net energy loser- I think not...