Since transporting our foodstuffs thousands of miles is both a waste
of energy and a source of pollution, as much as possible should be grown
locally in the countryside surrounding eco-towns.
More importantly, local farming makes eco-towns resilient. When
climate change starts devastating crops, countries will feed themselves
first and only export food if they have any left over. And as fuel
prices rise, so too will the costs of transporting food over long
distances. In the future we won't be able to rely on imported food
like we do now.
And we should be moving away from large scale agribusiness. By
planting crop mixtures, rotating and combining crops and livestock,
smaller, more diverse farms produce more output per acre than enormous
fields dedicated to a single crop.
Rooftop gardens can also be used for food production, from simple
container gardening, through green roofs, to hydroponics where plant
roots are suspended in a liquid growing medium instead of soil.
Biodiversity
But not all of the countryside surrounding the eco-towns should be
used for farming.
By building eco-towns at higher densities, and by making more
efficient use of farmland, we can leave more of the surrounding
countryside as wilderness.
And we should be encouraging wildlife into the towns themselves.
Plants and trees should be everywhere, in courtyards, streets and on
rooftops. Eco-towns should be green towns.
Biomass
Producing energy from farm waste, rubbish and sewage makes a good
deal of sense.
Using precious farmland or devastating natural eco-systems to grow
crops for biofuel makes no sense at all.
