Comments on: Everything Starts with Grain http://mu.ranter.net I miss my frames. Wed, 28 Jul 2010 07:15:22 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Dr Shad http://mu.ranter.net/design-theory/food-basis/everything-starts-with-grain/comment-page-1#comment-83 Dr Shad Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:22:13 +0000 http://mu.ranter.net/design-theory/food-basis/everything-starts-with-grain#comment-83 The problem with vegetables has to do with farming and storage. With the exception of a few oddities (i.e. potatoes), it is harder to farm vegetables on the same scale as grains. More than this, however, grains can be stored easily for the months where there are no crops. Vegetables, on the other had, tend to spoil. There are cultures that developed very early farming techniques based on vegetable crops, but none of them was very successful. If you are interested in this subject there are two books I could recomend - "Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization" (ISBN-10: 0865476225) and "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies " (ISBN-10: 0393061310) The problem with vegetables has to do with farming and storage. With the exception of a few oddities (i.e. potatoes), it is harder to farm vegetables on the same scale as grains. More than this, however, grains can be stored easily for the months where there are no crops. Vegetables, on the other had, tend to spoil. There are cultures that developed very early farming techniques based on vegetable crops, but none of them was very successful. If you are interested in this subject there are two books I could recomend – “Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization” (ISBN-10: 0865476225) and “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies ” (ISBN-10: 0393061310)

]]> By: Leicontis http://mu.ranter.net/design-theory/food-basis/everything-starts-with-grain/comment-page-1#comment-67 Leicontis Mon, 11 May 2009 16:44:38 +0000 http://mu.ranter.net/design-theory/food-basis/everything-starts-with-grain#comment-67 Great article - very informative, while remaining understandable. My only question is where vegetables factor in - some can produce considerably more edible biomass than grains per unit of arable land (in some cases by as much as an order of magnitude), so what keeps them from becoming a primary food source? Insufficient caloric content? Lack of essential trace nutrients? Greater labor requirements? I'm running a game based around a newly-established colony, and once their preserved foods run out they'll live or die based on the success of their farms. Based on the numbers you give for wheat, and the fact that the initial colonists won't have many children with them, would it be fair to lower the farmer-to-nonfarmer ratio to something closer to 3-to-1? I'd be grateful for any feedback I could get on this! Great article – very informative, while remaining understandable. My only question is where vegetables factor in – some can produce considerably more edible biomass than grains per unit of arable land (in some cases by as much as an order of magnitude), so what keeps them from becoming a primary food source? Insufficient caloric content? Lack of essential trace nutrients? Greater labor requirements? I’m running a game based around a newly-established colony, and once their preserved foods run out they’ll live or die based on the success of their farms. Based on the numbers you give for wheat, and the fact that the initial colonists won’t have many children with them, would it be fair to lower the farmer-to-nonfarmer ratio to something closer to 3-to-1?

I’d be grateful for any feedback I could get on this!

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