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posted by martyb on Wednesday February 13 2019, @08:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the Balconies-and-roofs dept.

Phys.org:

Urban farming has grown by more than 30 percent in the United States in the past 30 years. Although it has been estimated that urban agriculture can meet 15 to 20 percent of global food demand, it remains to be seen what level of food self-sufficiency it can realistically ensure for cities.

One recent survey found that 51 countries do not have enough urban area to meet a recommended nutritional target of 300 grams per person per day of fresh vegetables. Moreover, it estimated, urban agriculture would require 30 percent of the total urban area of those countries to meet global demand for vegetables. Land tenure issues and urban sprawl could make it hard to free up this much land for food production.

Is urban farming a pipe dream, or can appropriating vacant lots for traditional farming or employing hydroponics make it work?


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  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:52PM (6 children)

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Wednesday February 13 2019, @11:52PM (#800790) Journal

    No. Feces is optional, other materials can be used. It certainly can be done:

    https://grocycle.com/how-to-set-up-a-low-tech-mushroom-farm/ [grocycle.com]

    The biggest problem is probably getting customers for your product, dealing with restaurants that don't pay you promptly, etc.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @01:10AM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @01:10AM (#800811)

    The best substrate is coarsely ground grains. Bake for a few hours at low temp and it's good enough, cheap, and easy to source.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:02PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:02PM (#801068)

      From an urban grain field?
      Because if you depend on conventional farming to grow the materials to grow your urban mushrooms, you're not doing a thing to, um, "improve food security". (A curious euphemism for "prepare for Civil War 2.0: Rural vs. Urban.")

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:13AM (3 children)

    by Reziac (2489) on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:13AM (#800859) Homepage

    The other problem is that mushrooms may be tasty, but they have just about zero nutritional value.

    Every time I see one of these articles, I'm reminded that very few urbanites have any concept of the *scale* of the agriculture it takes to keep them fed. Their idea of farming is a backyard chicken and a potted plant, but food itself comes from the grocer by magic.

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    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:57AM (2 children)

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Thursday February 14 2019, @03:57AM (#800871) Journal

      People buy and eat mushrooms, so there could be value in growing them in a city. And it's probably the most practical option out of all of the things urban farming can produce.

      100 grams of mushrooms [google.com] has some potassium, fiber, and protein, some traces of vitamins, and some unproven compounds [nytimes.com]. I'd have no problem eating a pound of them every day, cooked or raw, and I can get it as cheap as around $1.20-$1.50/lb sometimes. 1 lb of white mushrooms would provide around 27% DV of protein, 40% DV of potassium, and 18% DV of fiber, in just 100 calories (based on Google link).

      We had a story about blending mushrooms with ground beef in hamburgers [soylentnews.org]. It's not something I've done (I don't eat a lot of beef), and it does lower the overall protein content, but the calorie reduction could be helpful and the taste combo [wikipedia.org] is good.

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