"Lettuce" think....

[tomstractormag]

With all the talk of global warming, fossil fuels, gas price and on and on, think about this. What if everyone in the USA grew a head of lettuce? Just one per year. One head times 300 million people. How much energy would that save? Of course most could grow a good percentage of there own veggies. With the way or economy is crashing people will have to start doing more for themselves to survive. Buy, barter local goods and services. Make our own economy. Just a thought. Tom

[Windy in Kansas]

Nice thought, but according to all I have read head lettuce won't produce and form in Kansas. However leaf lettuce will. Never was fond of it though as aphids always seem to find it and they are a pain to wash off.

[BillHoo]

From an environmental point of view, I'm sure that planting a head of lettuce would certainly have an environmental impact.

From a survival point of view, there is little nutritional value in lettuce. You can feed an elephant all the lettuce it can eat. Eventually, that elephant will die of starvation and get pretty sickly in the process through lack of vitamins and minerals.

I'm growing tomatoes and soybeans in containers on my 18th floor hi-rise patio. Soybeans are particularly good for the environment as they return nitrogen to the soil and convert CO2 into fiberous plant material, edible carbohydrates and proteins.

From a survival standpoint, folks in the city don't have many options. I doubt I can grow enough to be self-sustaining. Although Eli Zabar of the famous Zabar's deli in NYC seems to have created a nice self-sustaining industry on his acre of rooftop space in Manhattan.

http://www.zeek.net/612ableman/

Other than that, I doubt people in US cities need to worry about surviving even in a complete economic collapse. We're a nation in which our poor are overweight. They'll figure a way to survive. Or decrease the surplus population in the process.

-Bill_H

[MELOC]

Originally Posted by BillHoo

We're a nation in which our poor are overweight. They'll figure a way to survive. Or decrease the surplus population in the process.

-Bill_H

i am sure over-eating happens, but i think your statement is true because good foods are expensive and junk is cheap. food processors have found ways to market by-products as the staple ingredients in the food most people consume. i honestly don't think i could ever afford to buy all of the food recommended for a healthy lifestyle. fresh veggies and fruit are not cheap.

[Junkmanme]

I don't do too good with lettuce. How about I grow Zucchini?

[tomstractormag]

Originally Posted by Junkmanme

I don't do too good with lettuce. How about I grow Zucchini?

lol Grow what you eat. Just trying to make a point about how little we could do andsave a bunch on our dwindling resources.

[veggrower]

Originally Posted by Windy in Kansas

Nice thought, but according to all I have read head lettuce won't produce and form in Kansas. However leaf lettuce will. Never was fond of it though as aphids always seem to find it and they are a pain to wash off.

"head of lettuce" in this case is a generic term. Leaf lettuce in the grocery store is sold by the 'head', as is butter lettuce and romaine, and head lettuce or iceberg.

[catmar]

My DB is in the east village & he grows tomatoes & basil (italian family taught him well), his apt is so small. He has plants on all widow sills and also hanging out the windows. I give him credit.

Now my DS who has a large backyard right outside the city refuses to grow anything because what the neighbors think.

Wait until she hears that Mom & I will be splitting a batch of chicks this summer. Can't wait to hear that fight. Maybe she'll learn something?

Cathy

[Beeman]

Originally Posted by tomstractormag

With all the talk of global warming, fossil fuels, gas price and on and on, think about this. What if everyone in the USA grew a head of lettuce? Just one per year. One head times 300 million people. How much energy would that save? Of course most could grow a good percentage of there own veggies. With the way or economy is crashing people will have to start doing more for themselves to survive. Buy, barter local goods and services. Make our own economy. Just a thought. Tom

The "head of lettuce" is just an example and a very good example at that. The very bottom line is to buy or barter locally. What has gottne us into a part of the mess we're in today is the big business controlled food and everything else supply.

[poorboy]

they are trying to force Nais on us to FIRMLY lock it into big business hands, thereby forcing us to buy their product or go without..

[edcopp]

Americans are just too lazy to lift a finger to produce food. Why should they when it is free. Food pantries abound with free food, just show up. Much of the free food is purchased with tax dollars, the dollars of somebody else. So why work, at least why work gardening?

[BobDFL]

Anyone watch Jericho?

It's the running joke in my DW and My families that if the scenario ever happens, they all will be coming to our place since we'll have food.

We are already raising asst. poultry and goats and are getting sheep and cattle in the future. We also are growing most of our vegetables and fruits. Grains just don't do to good here (to wet and humid).

Also if we are without power (like we were for a number of weeks during the 2004 hurricane season) we can still survive, especially in winter were we get only a few days a year that are freezing.

Bob D. in FL.

[veggrower]

The principle is good. I think everyone should have a small garden, even if it is just a few pots on the deck.

To put the 300million heads of lettuce in perspective--that is equal to how much lettuce is shipped out of California every week.

[veggrower]

Originally Posted by edcopp

Americans are just too lazy to lift a finger to produce food. Why should they when it is free. Food pantries abound with free food, just show up. Much of the free food is purchased with tax dollars, the dollars of somebody else. So why work, at least why work gardening?

Ed, have you gone off of your meds? Are you an American? Are you too lazy to garden? Gardening is HUGE in the US. How many people post in the garden forums here? Are they all lazy or are they just not Americans?

Feeding people is something close to my heart. I have bought and donated to various faith based food pantries/shelters literally tens of thousands of dollars worth of food over the years along with quality produce from my farm. I believe that most of the clients of the various food pantries aren't lazy, they just hit a bad spot and needed some short term help. I have given hundreds of turkeys with all of the trimmings out to families in need at Thanksgiving and Christmas. I don't recall seeing any of those parents being lazy. I see human beings who are hurting because they aren't able to provide a holiday feast for their families.

I have taught many workshops for a local organization who installs backyard food gardens in low income families homes. They also put in community gardens for apartment houses. The people who have attended the growing workshops I put on were just the opposite of lazy.

[veggrower]

Originally Posted by edcopp

Americans are just too lazy to lift a finger to produce food. Why should they when it is free. Food pantries abound with free food, just show up. Much of the free food is purchased with tax dollars, the dollars of somebody else. So why work, at least why work gardening?

BTW, several years ago, my 84 yo mother had to go to the local food pantry because she hit a rough spot and had to choose between buying food and her medicine. She was too proud to ask family for help. I have a brother and sister who live 10 minutes from her and neither one of them bothered to make sure Mom had food, but that's another thread.

My Mom is certainly not lazy. She grew up on a farm, left at 18 to go to the city and work. Got a business degree, was an accountant, business owner, land owner,, rental house owner. Even after she retired she kept working as a lunch lady at the high school, greeter at Walmart, volunteering to clean the houses of the elderly (this is when she was in her 70s). By anyone's measure, Mom is not lazy, yet she had to use a food pantry, and I am sure glad it was there for her. Had she just told me she was hungry, I would have sent her a few hundred dollars overnight, but after spending a lifetime working she was too proud to ask her son for money, so she went to the food pantry.

We are called to care for the strangers, orphans and widows among us. Thank God for food pantries!

[tomstractormag]

Originally Posted by edcopp

Americans are just too lazy to lift a finger to produce food. Why should they when it is free. Food pantries abound with free food, just show up. Much of the free food is purchased with tax dollars, the dollars of somebody else. So why
work, at least why work gardening?

Why garden? To be able to eat food that is not garbage. A lot of Americans have become complacent. Time for all to do for themselves as much as possible. If you really need help there is no shame in asking. If you can help others no shame in it either. That is how it used to be. Tom

[bgraham]

Tom,

I think if everyone grew some of their own food and bartered/traded for the things they didn't grow it would be absolutely wonderful. I believe it would make a huge impact. I love the concept of the 100 mile diet. Unfortunately, I'm not there yet but I'm working towards it.

While it's true that gardening is a HUGE hobby/past-time for many people, I think it's mostly tomatoes and flowers. Many people have the same train of thought as my mother ..."Why go to all the effort? They sell that at Kroger." My brother would starve if he had to grow his own food. You can't grow hot dogs and frozen pizza in the flower bed with the azealas or the flower boxes by the pool. And he's a professional in his thirties. I'm not sure what he eats when he's flying all over the country going to conferences and meeting with big whig government officials because hot dogs, french fries and pizza are just about his entire diet.

Beth

[highlands]

Originally Posted by edcopp

Americans are just too lazy to lift a finger to produce food.

My, my, what generalizations. Perhaps you are that way but don't generalize your assumptions. Many of us do produce our own food, including but not limited to lettuce. This is a homesteading forum...

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

[MsPacMan]

Originally Posted by Windy in Kansas

Nice thought, but according to all I have read head lettuce won't produce and form in Kansas. However leaf lettuce will. Never was fond of it though as aphids always seem to find it and they are a pain to wash off.

You don't have to try and grow lettuce in Kansas soil at all.


Get yourself a plastic or wooden half barrel and drill a few holes in the bottom. Buy a couple of bags of top soil or organic humus. Get some organic fertilizer; a mixture of blood and bone meal will do, or maybe a complete organic fertilizer like Garden Tone from www.espoma.com . Or get a bag of composted manure to mix into the top soil. Get some perlite or peat and mix in. Put the soil/perlite/fertilizer mix into the half barrel. Then plant your little seed or lettuce transplant. YOu have enough room in that half barrel to grow some radishes or onion or carrots too, around the side, with the lettuce in the middle of the half barrel.

[BillHoo]

Are there no prisons?... And the workhouses, are they still in operation?

Originally Posted by edcopp

Americans are just too lazy to lift a finger to produce food. Why should they when it is free. Food pantries abound with free food, just show up. Much of the free food is purchased with tax dollars, the dollars of somebody else. So why work, at least why work gardening?