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How to Grow More Vegetables : And Fruits, Nuts ... - Shroomery

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Pounds of food produced per hour<br />

= U.S. Commercial<br />

Agricultural Average<br />

= GROW BIOINTENSIVE High<br />

apocalypse, is not ecologically sane, no matter how productive,<br />

efficient, or economically sound it may seem” (John Todd, in<br />

The New Alchemy Institute Bulletin, No. 2). Biological agriculture<br />

can sustain yields because it puts back in<strong>to</strong> the soil those<br />

elements needed <strong>to</strong> sustain fertility. A small-scale personal agriculture<br />

recycles the nutrients and humus so important <strong>to</strong> the<br />

microbial life-forms that fix atmospheric nitrogen and produce<br />

disease-preventing antibiotics.<br />

Potentially can reach the same as<br />

with machines as soil and practitioner’s<br />

skills improve and yields increase,<br />

and through the use of new, simple,<br />

labor-saving hand devices—when all<br />

labor inputs for both approaches are<br />

evaluated.<br />

Resource use as compared with U.S. commercial average, per pound of food produced<br />

= U.S. Commercial<br />

Agricultural Average<br />

= GROW BIOINTENSIVE Low<br />

(varies by crop, climate, and soil)<br />

= GROW BIOINTENSIVE High<br />

(varies by crop, climate, and soil)<br />

1<br />

1 /4<br />

Water . . .<br />

vegetables<br />

1 /31<br />

1<br />

1 /2<br />

Water . . .<br />

grains<br />

1 /8<br />

1<br />

1 /2<br />

1 /62<br />

Purchased<br />

nitrogen<br />

fertilizer<br />

(organic) . . .<br />

vegetables<br />

WHO IS ECOLOGY ACTION? 223<br />

1<br />

1 /2<br />

1 /8<br />

Purchased<br />

nitrogen<br />

fertilizer<br />

(organic) . . .<br />

grains

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