I see an economic diasater coming...

[triffid]

I recall reading an article about some guy down under in au who used bicycle parts to run his  house.They called him"Peter Petals".He could grind his grain with foot power.He even had a wind powered generator built from bike wheels to generate some power.He had taken one idea and had really run amuck with it.Then about 2 years ago I saw a tv show on a family in calif that $4.00 gas was not hurting.They had paid off their house and raised all  or most of their food on a typical city house lot.They planted nearly every square inch of that property with something they could eat(even the flowers could be eaten).I remember they had 2 or 3 chickens too.Triffid

[triffid]

One thing I did was plant some food plants that look like weeds to the untrained eye on property that didn't belong to me.That was about 17 years ago.They produce a small tuber that I can eat.They grow on their own and to my knowlege they are still there growing for me. White French Articokes is what they are and they look like sunflowers.Triffid

[triffid]

I do believe that our money will worsten to a point where the government will cancel our money.Like post war germany did in June sunday 1948.Millions of germans knew their money was inflated,but few realized that they were to be canceled so suddenly altogether.Marks that would buy a house on saturday would not be sufficient in value to buy a winter coat on Sunday.Yes there were a staggering number of german suicides that JuneSunday in 1948.This is what I believe will happen here in about 20 years.All the cash you can save will be canceled and deemed worthless by the USA.Triffid

[ATT]

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Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on it, Triffid.

The urban-guerrilla gardening methods you describe are still popular, sometimes whole communities engage in planting edibles all over the city on public and private land, rarely do they run into opposition since, in most cases, they are improving the landscape at no cost to the owner.

The main problem with maintaining sustainability for that family you mentioned that planted 'every square foot' of their yard is that they have no room to 'rotate' their crops, so inevitably they will be plagued with blight and/or other pestilence which will diminish their yield in short order...you really need some land for practical growing of any duration.

Keep in mind that, depending on the severity of the downturn, water may become an issue in the city. Here in Southern California, we import most of our water from Northern California and the Colorado river. As the demand increases from  greater L.A. and suburbs (read: most of southern California) and as snow-pack decreases, the ability to recharge aquifers and maintain reservoirs diminishes.

Drought increases the amount of water that has to be provided to urban areas in the south from northern California and the Colorado which, in turn, lessens the water available for irrigation to agriculture that dominates northern and central California and the Coachella valley and Imperial counties to the south.

This results in less farmed land, decreased produce avilability and higher prices.

Now imagine the scenario in the city if the pumps, gates and aquaducts started shutting down or there wasn't enough tax-base to maintain the infrastructure and the cities/state couldn't afford the manpower to keep things going and layed everybody off.

Think: rationing, national guard, military control, martial law, FEMA, ETC..

I'm actually not an 'alarmist', by any means, but I've experienced this sort of thing before and all it took was a 7.5 'quake to shut down water, electricity and phones (including cells), station armed guards at every grocery store to enforce rationing and bring out the marines from 29 Palms MCB to help maintain order ('92 Landers Quake).

Granted, that was a short-lived 'emergency' situation in a low-population area but think of what a more protracted (perhaps 'permanent') emergency in a high-density urban environment would entail.

In a severe downturn, urban areas are not where you want to be, there's too much dependence on infrastructure, too high a population density, competition for resources is elevated and centralized populations are among the first 'targets' for any 'stabilization' agendas.
.

[the_big_m_in_ok]

ATT said:

A lot of vegetables become 'localized' to their environment over time (they actually adapt to suit conditions, which may include making it easier for pests) so trading seeds helps to promote diversity and maintain healthier harvests.

I see a potential problem:
Bees have been disappearing from their hives.  If they continue doing that, those crops that depend on them will eventually die out.

Corn doesn't need that, to my knowledge, but it's something to be aware of.

--Lee