[oowolf]

Corn produces 8500 calories per 100 square feet (grown biointensively). The same 100 square feet, planted in hazelnuts (filberts) can produce 87,000 to 300,000 calories. We're just so stupid we don't know what to grow, or how. In the near future, it will boil down to: Get smart or starve.

[gego]

First of all, I think that the USA is now a net importer of food. I do not know if this is measured by $ value or some other measure, but I was surprised to find out that we are no longer food selfsufficient.

That's really hard to believe. How about a link?

For the 2004-2005 crop year.

Corn
Production 11.8 billion bu.
Imports 0.011 billion bu.
Exports 1.8 billion bu.

Wheat
Production 2.1 billion bu.
Imports 0.07 billion bu.
Exports 1.1 billion bu.

Soybeans
Production 3.1 billion bu.
Imports 0.006 billion bu.
Exports 1.1 billion bu.

http://www.msu.edu/user/hilker/outlook.htm

Try this article:

http://www.energybulletin.net/3047.html

[oowolf]

Reference: How to Grow More Vegetables by John Jeavons. Permaculturists know nut culture has been sadly neglected in favor of agribiz fossilfuel-saturated annual monoculture.

An acre of perhaps 50 filberts and 40 edible kernel apricots, with garlic and other alliums grown between, and some perennial kale and about 15,000 sq. ft. of Jerusalem Artichokes (Helianthus tuberosus) would easily and healithly feed a family of 5 or 6. I know this because I've been working with these plants for decades.

This nation (USA) has squandered its topsoil to make oil-corporations (artificial persons) rich.

Stupidity of the highest and most tragic order.

[Ludi]

In my edition, pages 100-103, the max yield for filberts per 100 square feet is 158,180 calories.

[backstop]

Those who've yet to try Hazelnut Butter have a delight in store.

It beats the commercial peanut stuff hollow and releases an oil that will, in a pinch, fuel a submerged-wick type lamp.

Very good hedging tree too.

regards,

Backstop

[Heineken]

Hazelnuts are great, but like so many potential crops, one has to deal with several vexing diseases and, in parts of the eastern US, severe Japanese beetle predation. I'm trying to grow some; the jury is still out.

[holmes]

the soil has lost its trace and macrominerals. The fruit and vegtables we eat now are devoid of these minerals. They have only vitamins. Therefore to maintian health colloidal minerals are neccessary. another dillemma. Youll be eating and starving at the same time.
non colloidal minerals merely pass throught the body. oil is needed to process colloidal minerals?

[oowolf]

"Jeavon's book" Go to the Master Charts pages 88-111. Look at Section "E" to get a yield range in pounds per 100 square feet; then go to Section "MM" to get calories per pound. Multiply. Bear in mind these are "rounded-out figures". Climate, soil, experience are major factors.

The survival gardener has to consider the calories expended vs. calories harvested factor.

Here are some "good" yields for various crops (calories per 100 sq ft)
Plum=12000, Bean common dry=14400, wheat=15000, grape=19500, tomato=20000, onion=32000, jerusalem artichoke=47000, potato=56000, garlic=66000, parsnip=75000. Notice garlic gives twice the calories as onion. When the time comes that CALORIES COUNT, you won't want to waste effort growing "luxury" crops like lettuce and cucumbers. (Not that treres anything "wrong" with cukes!)

[Ludi]

the soil has lost its trace and macrominerals. The fruit and vegtables we eat now are devoid of these minerals. They have only vitamins. Therefore to maintian health colloidal minerals are neccessary. another dillemma. Youll be eating and starving at the same time.
non colloidal minerals merely pass throught the body. oil is needed to process colloidal minerals?

Deep rooted plants and trees bring up minerals from deeper strata, so this problem can be solved. Some plants concentrate specific minerals.

[Bytesmiths]

OUR Ecovillage announces its 10 week Permaculture Skillbuilder course, to be held May 31 through August 25, 2006. An optional practicum extends through September 29.

This is a fully residential program where you will do "hands on" running of organic food production systems on the ecovillage, including techniques such as no-till, biodynamic, bio-intensive, and more.

The program includes a full Permaculture Design Certification that exceeds the requirements of the Permaculture Institute of Australia.

Besides the Permaculture Skillbuilder course, OUR Ecovillage has a full schedule of sustainability and community programs, featuring luminaries in their fields. Permaculture Skillbuilder participants have access to all other classes and learning opportunities throughout the summer.

OUR Ecovillage is near Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island. Numerous outdoor activity opportunities abound in the area, which is about an hour's drive from Victoria, the capital of British Columbia.

So if you are into "immersion learning," this is an opportunity to have a summer unlike any other -- I hope you'll join us at OUR Ecovillage this summer!

[django]

http://www.energybulletin.net/19334.html

It's a little old, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Basically, what Hemenway is saying is that as long as you're FARMING, you're depleting the earth and practicing an unsustainable form of food production. We in the Peak Oil world like to take our shots at industrialized, petro-chemical heavy kind of agriculture, but he takes it a step further.

He then goes on to say the key to sustainability is GARDENING, that of which he relates to the older Horticultural practice which he says is akin to Permaculture.

Now, I've read some optimistic mathematically based statements that state that this kind of gardening can support at least a good deal of us (such as Greer http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/ ... uture.html )
but it's still an uneasy thing to think about.

Would anybody care to counter Hemenway's logic on large scale food production?

[NEOPO]

I wont even try but I will gladly reinforce the position that Totalitarian agriculture aka farming is bad

[AgentR]

As an absolute statement that is true, but in practice, there are ways of achieving a degree of sustainability that likely exceeds the length of time humans will be around.

Most particularly, returning as much material to the soil as possible, BUT ALSO, keeping in mind that there are plants and trees that send roots very, very deep to draw up minerals and water, these are then left in the near surface material in the form of leaves and such.

[MonteQuest]

As long as the production system is closed for nutrients it is sustainable. Nitrogen, potassum, phosphorus and certain micronutrients that leave the field as food must be returned to the soil periodically. Without fossil-fuel-mined minerals that means your piss, shit, and body have to be returned to the ecosystem or the land will eventually be depleted.

I might have said it differently, but this is the reality of a sustainable system.

It must complete a cycle.