Five Predictions About Your Future - #4: You Will Own A Farm

by Randy Murray on June 23, 2011

I make no commentary on whether these predictions are for good or ill. When I look into the future this is what I see.

In the future, perhaps not so long from now, the food you eat will come from somewhere you could visit by traveling less than an hour, perhaps very close to where you live, a short walk or elevator ride.

Your market, the grocery, will no longer be super. But it may be just steps away from where the food is grown. In fact, the garden, the farm, may be on the floors above your head. And you, rather than simply buying a bag of lettuce or a package of pasta, you will own the farm, or at least a part of it.

Future farms will not be vast fields far away. The will not require processing plants and fleets of trucks. They will be small, active, and largely inside. Most high-rise building will include farming floors, either high overhead or far below ground, perhaps both, depending on the crops. Part of your rent or “association fees” will pay for the farm and entitle you to a portion of the crops, which you can either claim and use for yourself, or allow to be sold to local markets (like the one downstairs) or to local restaurants. Very little of the food will travel farther than a person like yourself could physically carry it.

You may still eat oranges, pineapples, and other tropical fruits, but you’ll eat less of them, perhaps only in season. And they will also be grown in your nearby farm. The orange may reclaim its former status and glory as an appropriate and special present, something that Santa would place in your stocking.

Some of your portion could come to you as prepared and preserved, like jams, frozen seasonal vegetables, or pasta sauces, but the actual produce, the food, still comes from your farm.

And you yourself may own and operate a farm within your home. It will take up less space than a small bathroom, from appliances not much larger than a washer or dryer. Within your farm you will grow tomatoes, leafy greens, beans, some root crops, and fresh herbs. And you may raise fish, like tilapia, that you’ll serve at your own table. It will take no more effort to farm than it does to clean your own clothes. You may form mini-coops with your neighbors, each of you growing specific crops that you each take a share in.

And because of this, you will become a cook or a better cook. You’ll understand food better and you’ll enjoy eating more.

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