My group is trying to develop and trial food systems for a
sustainable and independent Littleton CO. We hope to help others implement these systems for food security once we get good at them. I would really like some constructive criticism to reign in my inexperience. Here are my goals and ideas for reaching them for each system, and some questions afterwards. Scattered through my other threads are bits and pieces that will go into these.
We will continue experimenting till we reach our goals, or until wiser minds convince me that the goals are impossible.
System one.
System type:
Intensive container type system. 500 square feet per person.
Placement: for use near houses, on contaminated
land, tight sites, rooftops, and pavement.
Inputs:
Cost: less then 500 dollars to build initially.
Fertility: Designed to capture and utilize as many available free nutrient sources as possible in a worm bin, which is the heart of the system. However, can eventually thrive on the sole input of some ground rock minerals, and the manure from the goats and
chickens system into the worm bin.
Should generate a substantial amount of nitrogen for itself.
Water: The water that falls on the area (15 inches or 4675 gallons in an average year) and another 4675 gallons from 500 square feet of catchment, i.e. roof area. However, to account for drought years, I'd like to design the system to use half that, if possible.
Materials: Mostly salvaged. Probably a new piece of
greenhouse plastic every three years or so. Salvaged materials if possible.
Seeds: It should produce most of the seeds, new animals, etc. it needs.
Yields: 250 pounds of vegetables per year, especially leafy greens. (For this purpose, potatoes, sweet potatoes and other starchy
roots do not count as vegetables.) 4,500 grams of protein a year, ideally from fish, if we can make this work out. 800 calories a day, mostly from potatoes, sweet potatoes, or some other starchy
root.
Design ideas: potato and sweet potato towers, worm bin,
aquaculture of some type, mealworm or other invertebrate production, wicking beds and buckets, aquatic crops, minimally heated frames or hoop house, shade structures.
System two
System type:
Semi intensive in ground
gardening. 750 square feet a person.
Placement: community farms/ gardens, urban lots, greenbelts.
Inputs:
Cost: very low. Initial seeds, tools. No ongoing costs.
Water: the water that falls on site, concentrated into half the area.
Fertility: very little inputs, even in the establishment phase. Mostly rock minerals to balance soil, with continuing inputs to balance continued sewer use until that can be rectified. Should be able to produce all of its own biomass and nitrogen. Eventually, only inputs from the perennial/ animal system.
Materials: ideally, very few. Some fencing if necessary, low tech watering devices, a movable cloche or row cover.
Seeds: generates its own. Uses seedlings started in system one.
Yields: 100 pounds of vegetables a year. 1000 calories a day, mostly from root crops.
Design ideas: simple plastic catchment mounds to divert water into sunken beds. Rock and self generated
mulch. Herbaceous perennials and annuals. Dryland tolerant crops. Deep rooted, nitrogen fixing cover crops. Minimal digging. Potato trenches.
System 3.
System type
Animal and
perennial crops system. 500 square feet a person. 4
chickens. Maybe a goat per every ten to fifteen systems, otherwise more
chickens.
Fruit trees, hazelnut bushes. Greywater and
humanure beds.
Placement: near houses, some parts on community farms, open space.
Inputs:
Cost? What would be the minimum for this system?
Fertility: Greywater and humanure from one person. Rock minerals to balance soil. Bulk of feed for animals from farm system.
Water: ditto and rainfall; drinking water for the animals from rainwater catchment.
Seed: self regenerating.
Materials: some building materials, animal care items.
Yields:
Eggs,
milk, fruit, nuts. Makes up most of the shortfall in human nutrition from the last two systems, though there may still be a small calorie and protein shortage. Animal manure to system one. Humanure and greywater fed comfrey and other biomass to system two. Some
firewood.
Design ideas: greywater catchment, dwarf fruit trees, hazelnut shrubs, goat and chicken brows, mulch for critter production, comfrey beds for humanure recycling.
System four:
Farm system.
The details of this a vague; it is the only system I will not be trialing. Small farms and ranches located out of town, a few acres per each town person. Provides the living of the farmers, the animal feed for system three, and any shortfall in human diet. Also provides the bulk of the firewood, building materials, and cottage industry feed-stocks for the town. In this climate, probably dry land silvopasture on some sort of keyline system. I will have to take this system for granted in my system trials.
One big question: in my designs, how should I roughly account for the minerals currently exported in produce, so that I can provide just
enough replacement, simulating a closed system?
What of my goals needs to change in the face of reality? What ideas do you have to help meet the goals?