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Agraria versus the United Urbs of America

The city grows roots
jabailo

 

Agraria was developing nicely...low cost land had drawn the settlers.  And for some reason 2 acres seems to work just right.  Close enough to see your neighbors and let the kids play together...far enough apart to work in your garage or shed and let the power tools whine (powered for free, of course, by the Hydro-Gen generator from Home Depot.

 But the 30 Urbs of America had grown jealous of Agraria.  They began to see the simple and prosperous life of Sadhar and Jane Patel and their children Barry, 15 and Bristol, 7.   The Urbs are horribly jealous...they have watched an exodus of people from the crowded coasts...into the farmland and their tax bases eroded.   Their infrastructure of wires and pipes and conduits and tracks...built for populations larger than they could grow, were crumbling.   Sadly, those left in the urbs could not afford to rebuild them and they were so excessive only ten percent was actually needed.

 But most of all it was the politicians.   The petty local chieftains saw they no longer had as large a populace to tax and boss around.   Before they were the source of all things: of transporation, of energy through wires, of entertainment through wires, of water through pipes.   Agrarians are their own infrastructure.  The sun is their giver and hydrogen their motive force.  

 The Urb Politicians were plotting to extend their taxes tentacles....they proposed 100 mile long rail systems into the heart of exurbia to lure the People away from their lathes and computers and back into the malls.   They blanketed teen Agrarians with emails displaying stylish clothing and new embeddable pop tunes that could only be licensed at Inner Urb malls.   But, for now, there were no takers.   Kids, teens and adults had more than enough to do in Agraria and somehow people like Kataria Homm was making more individualistic clothing than the Central Designers could produce and she sews faster than their overseas factories can convert CAD diagrams into clothing and ship it back to the malls.

 You see, Agraria is no mere hicksville of rubes waiting for the mailman to deliver the Sears catalog.   These are the best and the brightest and they will compete in any market that tries to sell to them.   That's why the Urb Marketeers also fear Agraria because they make money outguessing the public.   Agraria, is outguessing them and right now someone really big and still powerful...just doesn't like it...

 

Nov 07


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  • Ruud Dirven
    Nov 08
    *shrugs* * At the present growth rate of 1.1% per year, the U.S. population will double to more than half a billion people within the next 60 years. It is estimated that approximately one acre of land is lost due to urbanization and highway construction alone for EVERY person added to the U.S. population, [and not just these "real americans"]. (quoted) * This means that only 0.6 acres of farmland would be available to grow food for each American in 2050, as opposed to the 1.8 acres per capita available today. At least 1.2 acres per person is required in order to maintain current American dietary standards. Food prices are projected to increase 3 to 5-fold within this period. * If present population growth, domestic food consumption and topsoil loss trends continue, the U.S. will most likely cease to be a food exporter by approximately 2025 because food grown in the U.S. will be needed for domestic purposes. * Since food exports earn $40 billion for the U.S. annually, the loss of this income source would result in an even greater increase in America's trade deficit. * Considering that America is the world's largest food exporter, the future survival of millions of people around the world may also come into question if food exports from the U.S. were to cease. http://www.dieoff.org/page40.htm As fantasies go this is a pretty flimsy one. I'd call this the usual escapist/excludist american power trip. There will no doubt be agrarian communes but if that system of food production can NOT deliver food to ALL, it will cause them to be overrun by the starving, OR it will be displaced by a system that works. If we as a society waste resources on excludists branching away, occupying land for themselves that can efficiently feed food required to feed urbanites, then we will eventually hold these agrarians accountable for something like agricultural piracy. If agrarians want their land, I am all for offering them a piece of Sahara real estate. If they can create their sustaible paradise of smugness there, without wasting their fair share of resources, by all means.
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