What could possibly go wrong?
In 5-6 years, the city is going to wonder why there are so many homeless people around in early fall.
Vermin.
Birds, raccoons, squirrels and insects will approve.
Yep.
Can’t get a farm tag in the middle of the city.
Some “community organizer” will say, “see, I told you the republicans were trying to return you to your agraian roots. Pick fruit, next it will be cotton.”
I can just see people waiting and watching fruit ripen and then someone else coming in the night and getting it.
I don’t see any problem with it. In fact, I have thought of thing like this myself, along with having unemployed people on unemployment doing the harvesting as a condition of getting benefits. It would be unattractive work, but it would do something productive.
This should bring out a bio-diverse set of lawyers, once the homeless guy gets sick eating the city produce.
I think urban gardens and orchards are a good idea because one of the problems with inner city types is that they are completely clueless as to where and how food is really grown.
Anything that connects them back to the dirt is a good idea.
If they aren’t properly managed and present unexpected problems, well they just aren’t that hard to cut down and replace with more usual urban trees. They do have a higher upkeep cost, since they require regular pruning to keep them productive.
Closer and closer to eliminating private property, a cornerstone to our freedom:
“The organization, which also considers itself an artistic operation to the extent that it encourages the public to press the boundaries of urban shared space,....”
Urban shared space, a phrase I am sure we will be hearing a lot more often. It is the new “Global Warming”. They never, ever let up. Not ever.
What could possibly go wrong?
>>>Anybody see any potential problems with this??<<<
When I lived in the Emerald People’s Republic (otherwise known as Eugene, Oregon), many of the plum trees, English walnuts, and blackberry bushes had gone wild, poking through fences and appearing here and there in alleys and empty lots. When these trees fruited, you could literally walk down the road, pick ripe fruit, and eat it. Cool. I never collected the walnuts, but my friends did.
On the other hand, that same fruit ripened, then rotted. The plums were a slimy mess, attracting mass yellow jackets. The blackberries, once established, needed a bulldozer to remove. And the stain from the outer cover of the walnuts was nearly impossible to remove. At the end of the season, what was once Nature’s bounty had become Nature’s landfill problem.
I’m a very avid gardener, and gardening requires lots of care and effort to prevent it from being a mess. Which I’m sure the good people of Vancouver will discover once their wonderful fruits trees drop endless tons of unpicked fruit on the ground, once the vegetation becomes an unruly mess, once some of the plants become The Day of the Triffids while others die in obscurity, and once various animals and pests, especially wasps, rats, and mice, decide that they like the urban landscape as much as Canadians, then they’ll either have to hire an army of city-paid gardeners or cut down the damn things and just plant Douglas firs.
RATS!!!
Because the city is not going to spray the trees with fungicides and pesticides, a lot of fruit will fill with worms, drop to the ground and rot while simultaneously creating an eyesore and slip hazard. The city streets and parks will reek of rotting fruit.
Luring people into a forest? I read a lot of tales about that when I was a child and I don’t recall it EVER turning out good.
The character who was foraging, Andre, tried to have a dinner party consisting of only wild food. Well, the rest of the folks complained that the stuff smelled and tasted like sh*t and ended up eating takeout food instead.
There are tours of urban foragers that go through Central Park, NY picking stuff...hope they're up to date on their tetanus, hepatitis, etc. shots.
I can foresee big problems with this, especially out in the unprotected public.. Tampering with the produce, hording the outcome for profit, a mess with the unused, flies, bird droppings, rotting on the vine,..etc..
However, I have done something similar on a much smaller scale.. In my last home, I planted a herb garden in my front yard, with a sign, “SPICE UP YOUR LIFE, on the house”..
Our neighbors and the general public walkers, and bicyclers, would stop and pick a few sprigs, along with the note cards that I furnished with recipes, that I placed in jars under each spice and herb.. It was a hoot, and caused a lot of fun between all of us..
I had a neat man cave in my garage, (complete with all of the know indemnities that any man would need), in the driveway, so I would be there in sight when they wanted to talk, and ask questions..
However, there was one downside, I lost any privacy, including constant interruptions during sports, and shows, and movies, etc, that I was engaged.. Met a lot of great folks and had a blast trading stories, and super recipes.. :)
So will there be hotdog-trees?
I’m going to be the lone (or almost so) voice of approval. Why? Well I do agree about the idea of fruit trees making a mess, but I’m looking at this a different way: from the standpoint of a SHTF incident. Right now, stores only have food for a few days without restocking via truck, and people usually don’t have more than a week worth of food at home. What if that system is interrupted by an EMP, severe geomagnetic storm, a trucking strike, a cyber attack or an economic catastrophe? What happens is mass rioting when people realize that they and their kids might starve. Having a bunch of fruit trees will provide ample Vitamin C and other nutrients, and nut trees will provide lots of calories, protein and essential fats. It is not a substitute for individual preparedness, but it buys time to restore the system before the mass population starts rioting and going after those who have prepared.
To me, government’s primary job is to defend society - and this isn’t limited to deterring or fighting an invasion. Other things, mentioned above, can be as devastating or worse.
I don’t see the homeless having any interest in fresh fruit unless they can figure out how to ferment it.