It’s weird to think that if we didn’t waste food we would need half the agricultural land. And if we had it as gardens we would need a 15th. Or if we did both we would only need a 30th of the area. Then imagine if we did it in layers food trees above food plants below.

And we could then remove all the energy that goes to agriculture, tillage, soil loss, fertilizer salts. We could direct flows of human waste streams to compost to tree crops. We could take all of the energy and water and nutrients that goes to Lawns.

We could switch to plants that self seed or are perennial. We could put them in polyculture so that a lot of their needs are taken care of collectively. We could share resources with our neighbors for food storage and processing. We could redevelop a local cuisine.