User:Theodore Fox/sandbox

Microfarming
Microfarming is a new term for an old concept that means growing food for oneself and and one's family and possibly profit too within a small area that produces a high yield in a limited amount of space.

Microfarming is an approach to food production that can be rural or urban and utilises an area from the size of a door to several hectares, and may include small animals, such as rabbits, chickens, and goats. Microfarming is an integrated agricultural system that typically practices companion planting, vermiculture, composting and recycling, and maximises crop production producing a greater abundance of food.

According to the Benson Institute, a single hectare of land (about 2.5 acres) can provide all of the food for a family, including the fodder for their animals, and a cash crop as well.

The Southside Chamber of Commerce in the city of Brisbane, in sub-tropical Australia calculated that a "rooftop microfarm" based on waste management could yield around 20% return on invested capital, and employ three to four people making the urban rooftop microfarm profitable.

The Powerline Project, otherwise known as SCAGA (Siyazama Community Allotment Garden Association) is the leading micro-urban agriculture model in Cape Town (South Africa) and almost certainly in Southern Africa. Here the very poor learn how to grow organic crops for themselves and for sale, while conserving indigenous fauna and flora.

Microfarmers grow organic food (nearly always uncertified) from their back gardens, rooftops, balconies, vacant lots, parks and even on roadsides. Some estimates state that 15% of the world’s food comes from the microfarmer. The 20th century saw self-sufficiency largely subside. Today with rising costs, agricultural pollution and unemployment, there is a movement away from large acreage, industrial farming with its high capital costs and heavy energy use. Microfarms are gaining popularity as they offer food security, sustainability, self-reliance and a way of living more harmoniously with nature.