this post was submitted on 13 May 2024
787 points (92.0% liked)

Science Memes

9194 readers
3729 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

Sister Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
787
It is very therapeutic to garden, though. (lemmy.today)
submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
340 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

I came to the realization earlier today that there are an alarming number of people who theorize that they can just live off homegrown and composting. They think they can challenge big agriculture by "going off the grid" and that society would be better without subsidized industrial farming.

That's why they would optimize for yield and cost effectiveness. They think they can compete.

EDIT: Also I've tried making tomatoes in colder climates before and they almost always succumb to disease. Huge success with zuccini and onions, though.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

man, you're going to be really alarmed when you hear about community gardens and greenhouses...

the idea for most people isn't to completely replace all farming, but to reduce it, grow food instead of a lawn, have some fresh delicious non-gmo shit...
have something to fall back on when the nuclear apocalypse happens...

industrial farming will never be as nutritious, delicious, or satisfying as home-grown...

p.s. working with soil has natural antidepressant properties...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Ok, I'm just curious, do you have a source for that soil antidepressants statement? Not being argumentative, legit want to read the source.

[–] Potatos_are_not_friends 6 points 1 month ago

This Pretty outdated (from 2007) and I position it in more pop sci than hard science. But from my own perspective, gardening makes me chill out for sure.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/66840#1

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

From a comment thread lower down:

permaculture.com.au/why-gardening-makes-you-happy-and-cures-depression/

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Absolutely you can compete my dude. Just not if you're doing it commercially. If you have the space you can grow everything you need and save a ton of money.

The problem is everyone can't do that. It doesn't scale. To feed 8 billion you need the big ag machine. But you, yourself, if you want to focus your time and effort on digging in the soil instead of being a corporate cog, can absolutely support your needs for very cheap.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

How northern are we talking? Our tomatoes didn't so well last year in Northern Ohio, but the summer before i was absolutely drowning in cherry tomatoes!

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

47th Lat, so a fair bit further but the high winds of my region could contribute to hanging crops declines.

[–] Windex007 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's certainly something besides latitude. Western Canada grows hella tomatoes and that's 49 lat at the bare minimum

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 month ago

British Columbia for sure has some very diverse hardiness zones.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

My parents are around 44 deg lat and their tomatoes do very well. It seems like something else must be limiting your success.