Hacker News Reader

Comment by namuol | Hacker News Reader

> “I think the whole thing is an overblown attempt to exert government power over us,” said Bob Allen, a Washington state apple farmer.

I'm really looking forward to the urban farming revolution.

View on HN

The urban farms would have the same risks if they're relying on greywater for irrigation (and if they're not, then they're needlessly wasting potable water).

Indeed they would; I wasn't clear in my comment, but basically the less we rely on rural farming, the less dogmatic fear of government regulation. (But mainly there's a ton of efficiency gains we could reap if we saw more large-scale urban farms)

I wouldn't consider using clean water a waste. Greywater for irrigation sounds disgusting, although I'll bet that's commonly done...

It's a very common practice, thoroughly researched, and very beneficial for small scale irrigation

I'm genuinely shocked at how many people commenting here seem to be completely unaware of where their food comes from. Is this a US thing?

It's definitely a city thing, in my experience/observation (but that experience/observation is limited to American cities, so it might be an American city thing). Rural areas tend to (for obvious/intuitive reasons) be at least slightly more cognizant of where their food comes from, since they're in much closer proximity to it.

What are you implying?

Most Earthlings live in cities.

Cities are way more efficient than spread-out rural towns and villages[1], but we still mostly rely on rural land for food, so they continue to exist. Because rural needs and daily experiences are very different from the average city-dweller, so too are their political beliefs.

The less we need to depend on rural land for food, the more people move into cities, the more efficient everything becomes.

[1] I'd recommend reading the chapter on Dense Cities from Whole Earth Discipline - totally changed my perspective on cities.

We need to find a way to make those rural communities not continue to exist. Their way of life is wrong and inefficient.

Is this sarcasm? Doesn't seem like sarcasm in context but the phrasing and "WTF?" reaction I had make it feel like sarcasm.

Yes, it is sarcastic. I disagree with the sentiment of the parent comment, so I rephrased it without the rhetoric to see how it sounds

Thanks for clarifying. Sarcasm is sometimes very hard to relay over written text in a comment section like this.

How do you feel about coal mining? Is that a way of life?

I have no feelings about coal mining because I know nothing about that industry. How is that relevant in a thread about agriculture?

I have no feelings about coal mining because I know nothing about that industry.

Why should that stop you from having a strongly held opinion that you can share to prove everyone else wrong?

Do you believe we should continue mining and burning coal? It's bad, but if we close all the coal mines and factories, a lot of people will lose their way of life.

Large-scale farming (which vastly dominates the rural land mass of the US) has similarly dramatic downsides.

Like I said, I know nothing about the coal industry so I can't offer an informed opinion. Commercial farming covers an order of magnitude more land and employment than energy extraction. There are alternative energies to coal. There are not alternatives to food. Urban agriculture is a logistical impossibility without removing all meat, dairy, corn, wheat, and soy from the world's food supply.

Why must everything be absolute? You can have urban farming and rural farming. Urban farming would obviously have to happen gradually, so start with easier stuff. It's not "impossible". The point is that it will reduce pressure from rural areas which are going to be stressed significantly in the coming decades.

Do you think people that are able to grow some, if not all, their own food and heat their homes with renewable wood is so wrong and inefficient?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com