Quote from: fxtronic on August 23, 2015, 03:33:01 PM

http://www.gofundme.com/ewkjhgw4 what you think about douglas mallete and this project ?

Wish him good luck in his goals, but showing my age here , have a fairly long background with food production. Most of these guys talk about maintaining either a hydroponics or aquaponics type system, in multiple climates.

Flaws with these types of systems, is that you can not have a one type design that works well in every climate. A weakness in any area of their design caused by a different climate effect will cause an increase in input costs which will eventually raise prices and over time crash that system.

Flaws with hydroponics , #1 Taste, they lack it, you need healthy soil to get the perfect taste.
Although well meaning , it still places control of food in a central area.
The problems with modern food production, is it is completely foreign from what was done 100 years ago.
#1 Monoculture is foolhardy at best , 1000 acres of corn and of course the Bugs that eat it will be there in droves requiring pesticides.

Plus different plants grow better in different environments, finding the plants that are most nutritious per each environment and providing seeds to people would be better.
All People as individuals should grow some of their own food, that is the only way to ensure food security worldwide. You would be shocked at how much food can be grown on a quarter acre.
In a proper sustainable system animals are included, as they can eat things we can't, then provide milk , eggs, or meat , they make more land usable for food production. Plus they provide manure & urine, which is used to return nutrients to the soil.
One group that is doing sustainable food production already:
http://www.polyfacefarms.com/story/

Gardening Tips from an old timer:
If you spray poisons in your garden , stop.
If you have a bug zapper in your yard , turn it off.
It kills the good bugs faster than the bad ones.
The good ones eat the bad ones , and create a balance, so after ~3 years , you never need chemical pesticides. The ashes from wood fires is a good source of Calcium/Lime & Potassium and micro-nutrients .
Rain water or Urine or Bloodmeal or Manure can add nitrogen, also planting legumes pull nitrogen from the air directly into the soil. A lot of people from my day would plant rye grass (which is a legume, so it add nitrogen back to the soil) in the garden for winter, and once it got up a few inches let the livestock eat it, and the livestock would also pee & poop which would enrich the soil.
Then at the end of winter , move the livestock out , let the grass grow a few inches before they would till it under. The reason for this was to give the earth worms something to eat, as a little know fact,
Earthworm casts have higher available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and calcium contents than surrounding soil. http://extension.psu.edu/plants/crops/soil-management/soil-quality/earthworms

This planet is over 70% water, one of the biggest myths propagated is water scarcity.
What is being block by our corporate controlled governments, is access to that water.
They can run Oil Pipelines across a country, but Desalinization Plants or City Wide Cisterns from rain water are listed as too costly. Plus another option that is ignored that could be done anywhere with a decent humidity , is water can be pulled directly from the air , then filtered and pumped on it's merry way.
Run a dehumidifier , it is that same technology, without the filter tech.

One good book is The Art of Natural Farming & Gardening by Ralph & Rita Engelken .
http://www.motherearthnews.com/nature-and-environment/plowboy-organic-farming-zmaz83ndzale.aspx

Cool