How can EcoCity get its food?

Paul E. Waggoner

Technology in Society, 2006, vol. 28, issue 1, 183-193

Abstract: Designing an ecologically responsible EcoCity of 550,000 people begins by confining it to 8500ha, which spares surrounding land for farming and for Nature. Because an American diet requires 126,000ha and even a survival diet needs more cropland than can be found inside its boundaries, EcoCity will cast shadows of farming outside its limits. EcoCitizens will cast wider shadows if farmers grow food with the less intensive methods of simpler times, and they will cast narrower shadows if farmers use the more intensive methods of today. Cheap transportation scatters the shadows that, in the days of oxcarts, Von Thunen imagined would fall in concentric zones of farming and forestry. Industrial ecology, pleasing landscapes, coworkers along its sidewalks, and finally warm fellowships at its tables justify the bother of planning EcoCity.

Keywords: Ecologically responsible city; Land spared; Food; Cropland; Von Thunen (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X06000133
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:28:y:2006:i:1:p:183-193

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2006.01.001

Access Statistics for this article

Technology in Society is currently edited by Charla Griffy-Brown

More articles in Technology in Society from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().