Maine (COULD) Feed Maine & other states could feed themselves, too!
Here is a great question & article link from Lisa Fernandes (of Portland Permaculture):
This is an interesting piece about some Cornell research regarding the state of New York's ability to feed itself (or not). Does anyone know if this level of research is happening in Maine?
http://tclocal.org/2009/06/can_new_york_state_feed_itself.html
& here's a reply we posted:
Good question!
Lisa, as you know from, "A Farm for the Future", a conventional farm can feed 5 people per acre, while "edible forest gardening" can feed twice as much ( 10 people per acre ) with NO fossil fuel!
Therefore, the answer to your question reduces to elementary arithmetic! ...which is refreshingly simple!
MAINE (our state): has
POPULATION: 1,274,923
FARMS: 7,196
TOTAL ACRES (land): 19,589,136
ACRES CULTIVATED: 1,369,768
ACRES NEEDED (conv): 254,985
ACRES NEEDED (efg): 127,492
SO! Maine has plenty of land available and already produces enough food to feed itself.
Therefore, Maine provides at least one example of a state that can feed itself.
However, this is rare. But, with careful planning & concerted effort, we submit: most states probably could feed themselves.
http://sites.google.com/site/mainefoodsystem/me-food-sys-by-the-num...
http://www.mainefood.us
This is an interesting piece about some Cornell research regarding the state of New York's ability to feed itself (or not). Does anyone know if this level of research is happening in Maine?
http://tclocal.org/2009/06/can_new_york_state_feed_itself.html
& here's a reply we posted:
Good question!
Lisa, as you know from, "A Farm for the Future", a conventional farm can feed 5 people per acre, while "edible forest gardening" can feed twice as much ( 10 people per acre ) with NO fossil fuel!
Therefore, the answer to your question reduces to elementary arithmetic! ...which is refreshingly simple!
MAINE (our state): has
POPULATION: 1,274,923
FARMS: 7,196
TOTAL ACRES (land): 19,589,136
ACRES CULTIVATED: 1,369,768
ACRES NEEDED (conv): 254,985
ACRES NEEDED (efg): 127,492
SO! Maine has plenty of land available and already produces enough food to feed itself.
Therefore, Maine provides at least one example of a state that can feed itself.
However, this is rare. But, with careful planning & concerted effort, we submit: most states probably could feed themselves.
http://sites.google.com/site/mainefoodsystem/me-food-sys-by-the-num...
http://www.mainefood.us
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