Renewable Fuel (For Humans): Earth is Weird/Space Australia

prowls-analysis:

Consider fuel–we humans are pretty cavalier about our food supply over the
long haul. We have famines because of distribution problems, soil damage/loss,
and crop failures, but the idea that there will come a time when we won’t be
able to find or produce any food at all doesn’t cross our
minds…because we live on renewable resources. We do not need advanced
machinery to find/raise fuel for ourselves. A farming community parked on
reasonably fertile land with some fairly simple tools (”fairly simple” meaning
“possible to make without using electricity, gasoline engines, or synthetic
chemicals”) and a few wagonloads of seeds can sustain itself indefinitely in
the same spot–and even produce enough extra to feed other communities,
depending on soil fertility and farming techniques. (Some draft animals make
the potential surplus MUCH higher.) One handful of seed can, if handled
properly, eventually produce quite a bit more than another handful of seed–crop
plants are astonishingly prolific.

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