You can grow your own food. We can help.

34,000 Acres a Day

34,000 acres of new farmland needed per day
Roger Doiron
May 16, 2012
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Food security

If you have a couple minutes, or, better yet, 60 of them, check out John Jeavons' talk at Google headquarters last week. One stat he shares shines a pretty harsh light on our global food challenge. Each day the planet welcomes 216,000 new people (births minus deaths). To feed them, we ought to also be "welcoming" 34,000 new acres of farmable soil into production each day (roughly 40 Central Parks!) when in fact we're losing farmland due to erosion, desertification, and sprawl. 

Before you hurl yourself onto the nearest compost pile in despair, take heart: kitchen gardens and gardeners are part of the solution! Together, our gardens represent thousands of acres and there are thousands more to be brought into production by reaching out to and helping new folks to join the fun. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Roger Doiron
Father, husband, son, brother and uncle. Garden activist, advocate, writer, speaker and photographer. Founder of KGI and certified garden geek. Growing lots of good stuff on the coast of Maine.
Author's link
Twitter @rogerdoiron
Other posts by Roger Doiron >>

Comments

Jessica Still
John Jeavons' book *How to Grow More Vegetables on Less Land Than You Can Imagine* was my first written inspiration for growing methods. He first asked the bottom-line question: *How much land does it take to feed one person?* Using biointensive growing methods skillfully, the answer is 4,000sf for a nutritious, vegan diet. He notes in this video that the amount of land used to provide the excellent & mostly organic food famously served in Google's cafes is ~30,000. So there's a lot to learn to maximize our own joyful gardens!
Jessica Still
He first asked the bottom-line question, *How much land does it take to feed one person?* Using biointensive growing methods skillfully, the answer is 4,000sf for a nutritious, vegan diet.
Jessica Still
He notes in this video that the amount of land used to provide the excellent & mostly organic food famously served in Google's cafes is ~30,000sf. So there's a lot to learn to maximize our own joyful gardens.

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