Re: Urban Sprawl
From: Paul Zelizer (paulzlaplaza.taos.nm.us)
Date: Sat, 18 Nov 1995 08:26:37 -0600
On Wed, 15 Nov 1995, James Kalin wrote:

> Urban sprawl is abating in regions and communities with strong open-space
> and farmland preservation laws and regulations.  It can and is being
> controlled where citizens are active and working smart and hard to make it
> so.
> 
> For example, in the greater SF Bay Area a citizens group called Greenbelt
> Alliance has for years been instrumental in enacting effective anti-sprawl
> laws and government regulations.  In California, the Williamson Act
> legislation helps protect farm land from sprawl encroachment by keeping
> urban fringe farming land taxes at levels farmers can afford.
> 
> The loss of America's, and the world's, farmland, through paving,
> residential and industrial development, industrial ground water depletion
> or pollution, acid rain, etc, will this decade cause global food supply
> disasters, and political and military repercussions, of unparalleled
> proportions.  There are NO technofixes available, now or in the foreseeable
> future, that will handle the global food supply shortfalls caused by
> farmland loss.
> 
> As an ex-farm advisor, with extensive knowledge of alternative
> agritechnologies, I am convinced that loss of farm land is one of the most
> critical global environmental problems we face on our small planet.  And
> urban sprawl, in the US and elsewhere, is a leading cause of farm land
> loss.  Doing our part as cohousers to halt or mitigate urban sprawl is a
> wise use of our time.
> 
> 
James,

I appreciate and share your concerns re: urban sprawl.  However, I find 
the tone of your message to include a little too much doom and gloom for 
me.  As to possible ways out of the food shortages you predict, check out 
permaculture.  Permaculture includes ideas of how to help urban areas 
grow enough food for thier own population.

Paul Zelizer
paulz [at] laplaza.taos.nm.us

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