Why so much compost?

Last post I showed some photos of one of three ongoing compost piles at our place. Why so much compost? We're working really hard to build fertility in our garden so we can grow more of our calories. Think about how much food you and your family actually consume in a year. Then consider how you're going to produce that volume of food. Your initial reaction might be that you just don't have enough space, or enough time, or enough labor to actually grow that food. And that might be the case, especially if the soil fertility is very low. But you can do something about that part. Sit down and read "How to Grow More Vegetables..." by John Jeavons. Then go through the master charts and plan your annual food production. Take the time to do it right. My first inclination was to calculate how much food the entire family would consume annually, then using the minimum fertility numbers determine how much land I'd need to garden. Ouch. Somewhere around 25,000 square feet. Spreading 1/2 inch of compost over that area would require more than 34 cubic yards of compost. And let's see, how am I going to double dig all of that area?

Rather than spread myself and my resources so thin that I'll accomplish nothing worthwhile, I'm going to focus on a much smaller area to make some genuine progress. Over time the productivity of the smaller garden will increase and I'll have the time and energy and resources (compost) to slowly enlarge that area. Oddly enough, that's the strategy promoted by Mr. Jeavons.

Also we need to think about where we're going to store all of that food. Where would you store 1000 pounds of potatoes? Or a similar amount of corn? Or squash? What's the optimum temperature and humidity level for storing each crop? Truth is we've lost so much food production and storage knowledge over the last couple of generations that I don't think many modern humans would survive if the food didn't mysteriously appear in the grocery store regularly. We're working hard to relearn these skills and teach them to our children. Let's hope that others are doing the same.

Why? We can talk about Peak Oil, Peak Soil, Peak Water, Peak Debt, Peak Minerals, etc. and all of these are big deals, but something people don't consider very often is Peak Labor. As the number of people in the workforce declines, so does GDP. And the number of people in the workforce is set to decline substantially as the post-war baby boom retires. With the decline in production in all of these areas it will simply be more difficult to procure food. Being in the position to fill most of your own calorie needs before the decline affects your ability to procure food is a good idea.