"Buxqi" > wrote in message
...
On Mar 10, 7:48 am, "Jim Webster"
> wrote:
> "Buxqi" > wrote in message
> news:59efd2f5-c0db-4189-a512-
>
> >
>
> Look up my post on "Forest Gardening".
>
> It's an intruiging idea. Where can I buy the produce of
> forest gardening?
> Could any of the products reasonably
> become dietary staples like grain or beans?
>
> --------------------
>
> the problem with forest gardening is the yields are too low for sustaining
> world populations

Hmm. Well the cynical part of me says that if it produced good
enough yields it would be more widespread but think about it.
When you plant out a wheat field you get one layer of crop.
In a forest garden you have canopy trees, large shrubs, shade
tolerant smaller shrubs, herbs, ground cover, climbers and
vines and root crops - that's seven layers of plants, each
producing edible food.

------------
but you only have one source of energy, the sun, and that limits output, and
also the wheat produces stem and grain, you have to compare the power to
weight ratio ( ;-)) of the forest garden for the same
It is a difficult calculation, and the other thing to remember is how well
does it work, for example, in Northern Europe, and how well do commodities
bulk up to feed city populations who produce very little food of their own


Apparantly the system is already commonly used in
tropical zones but a recent inovation in temperate zones,
partly because not enough light penetrates the canopy for
most of the better known species but lesser known shade
tolerant plants can be used instead.

> and it doesn't happen in any significant extent

Doesn't mean that it couldn't although in the
context of reducing one's ecological footprint
without growing one's own food if I can't locate
a commercial forest garden, it's a bit irrelevant.
Also a diet that is both vegan and forest garden
seems a bit too restrictive. One or the other,
maybe. Both is a step too far...
--------
It doesn't mean it cannot happen, or it cannot work, but to advocate it for
every area is as silly as advocating continuous cereal cultivation or just
putting everything down to grass and converting to pure pastoralism
Just because something works in one area doesn't mean it will work in
another

Jim Webster