I hate cities. I really do. I’m a country boy and feel foreign to so much concrete, non sense and distance to reality.
I dreamt of living far from it, in my own eden. A dream of green pasture, self sufficiency and slow life.
But is this dream real? No. Cities won’t disappear just like that when sliding down the peak oil slope. They are hungry; hungry for development, expansion and more turmoil in our environment.
So what is the solution? Well… perhaps it is time to empower cities in being self sufficient with their greens, produce locally to avoid transportation or massive industro-agricultural production in the neighboring country side (not to mention deforestation).
Yes. City farming. Crazy? Certainly but the image is tempting. Picture yourself being in a city with green rooftops that inhibit the summer heat by evapotranspiration of the crops yielding food for the tenants of that building. Diminishing runoff in rainy seasons. Toilets separating faeces and urine that will be composted and used as fertilizers instead of treated in energy intensive waste water treatment plants, as sludge buried in a landfill and treated water dumped in rivers… no more synthetic fertilizer needed, no more loss.
Country side produces for the country side and cities produce fresh greens for the city. Transportation cut in half. Excess city sludge and urine back to the country side for staple food production (wheat, rice, potato, corn…)
Of course such ideal cannot work under a free market. But we can try, as a hobby first. Convince people that “shit” and “pee” is valuable free nutrient for food. Convince people that alternatives are there.
I hope the economical crisis will shake people’s head hard enough to make them seek those alternatives.
Let’s green up balconies with food and not just alien species of cosmetic value. Let’s reclaim lawns and parks that are monocultures of wasted water and space !
Unemployment ? Homeless people? let them grow food on these public lawns and sell that food for a living ! To convince the city council of doing so… let’s go “guerilla farming” those areas ! They will soon see the economical value it holds!
Let’s walk, cycle and unbuild parking lots of non sense supermarkets.
Let’s go back to nature !
In a more realistic way, we could use hydroponic principles on roof tops or undergrounds. Given the fact that we use solar radiation or lighting powered by solar energy for it. Home made fertilizers with tea compost and urine. Low energy, low water consumption (rain fall collectors) and home made fertilizers.
Are you “in” for it?
