THE URBAN - PERI-URBAN AGRICULTURE "TIPPING POINT"
Mission
Right around the time a barrel of oil was around $150 USD I stumbled upon an article from an "expert" saying that the solution to resolve hunger was to give more money to poor countries in order to buy more tractors and more agrochemicals! So wrong! Then a thought popped into mind: " Do something! No matter what! Anything is better than nothing! ". Mission: increasing awareness of hydroponics and aquaponics as key tools in fighting hunger around the world.
Roger Pilon, Editor
Hello everyone! How I got into hydroponics is a long story...let's just say that it involves a lot of tedious farm work as a child, unsuccessful 'dirt' gardens of my own and a near electrocution from a semi-submersible hydroponic pump. I've learned that hydroponic gardening is the only way to garden for me and I've been working at it for several years now. I've built ebb/flow, nft, Mittleider, wick and passive systems and I'm always on the lookout for the easiest and most efficient means of hydroponic gardening...If you have questions, I would be more than happy to answer them...
What is the Tipping Point? A historic case is the FAX. In 1984 there were 80,000 sold and in 1987 one million plus. See the Book for other cases.
In 1994 I was authoring a book on Urban Agriculture and visited the largest library in the world [Library of Congress]. I inquired via one mode after another and found zero entries for "Urban Agriculture". The same was true at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization library in Rome.
Today, May 6th 2008, Google lists 1,740,000, yes, a million and three-quarters.
There are of course many equally significant indicators to Google; < Number of vegetable producing vacant lots, < Number of municipal pro-agriculture policies, < number of Master's Thesises < and more.
I take this opportunity to nominate the Urban Agriculture "Tipping Point Event":
In December of 2007 the United States House of Representatives kitchen and cafeterias transformed to an 85 percent urban & peri-urban cuisine **. The criterion being applied is "same day delivery" which, in the case of Washington DC with limited access highways and rail access in all directions, is 150 miles.
As a sidebar it is noteworthy that the Capitol kitchens use an onsite food pulper to advance composting of all food waste.
"The Tipping Point", 2000, Malcolm Gladwell, Back Bay, (301 pages) "* Green the Capitol @ http://house.gov/greenthecapitol
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