| I thank you for the time it took to write this! I'm looking at it from the perspective of already irrigated land though. Recently I've taken up urban harvesting. There's a loquat tree at a local gas station. Out by the river there's an orange and lemon tree. Near my office there's an avocado tree. We have mostly ornamental horticulture in urban environments. I'm suggesting it will tend to be more functional overtime as resources are strapped and people turn to more fresh, natural, and regional foods. The other aspect is that it's good for the psyche: urban harvesting is meditative and calming. There's been a large rise in community gardens and a number of schools have set aside plots of land for it. In a way, you need to categorize it with physical recreation. Put it in the same group as say, jogging, yoga, martial arts, pickup soccer. Every trajectory in rich-people's food culture is going exactly this way. When I introduce the idea to my peers in the 100k+ income group, something clicks and now they are mapping out where the trees are and some have started planting their own. I routinely engage with teenagers (through aikido) and when I've told them about this, the reaction has been almost universal: "Oh you just started doing that? Do you know about the pomegranate tree over yonder, or the kumquat tree near this fence?" Those are the people that will be running the world in 2050. And what about the low-income people who have succumbed to food deserts after the corporate supermarkets exited the market? Recently, in south LA, cooperative farming initiatives have been popping up. There's one I saw in Lynwood and two in South Gate. I've heard about a budding one in Compton. This is the communities response to the corporate exit. The change will and has always come from the people - not their possessions. |