Not at all surprising, having participated in both.
There are massive economies of scale at play between a 1000 acre farm and a backyard garden plot.
As a general rule of thumb, if it costs more to grow it at home, it probably has a bigger footprint. The embodied energy and carbon footprint for a few garden tools is more than enough to counteract the entire savings.
Not to say it is always the case. Home crops that grow in native soil with minimal support are great. I recommend tree kale like a madman to just about everyone with a garden.
Yeah I really enjoy gardening but I don't actually grow anything calorie-dense in my garden. Potatoes are somewhat difficult and there's no way I could beat the store's efficiency on those.
More expensive and fragile fruits and vegetables seem efficient though. I think my efficiency on heirloom tomatoes and strawberries beats the grocery store, again going by unit cost.
FWICS on YouTube, potatoes can be grown in a jute bag or a 5gallon bucket with a hole cut in the side for harvesting and tomatoes on top.
Hopefully we discover additional methods of efficient home cultivation.
Soil depletion in industrial farming is probably more work to remedy because there's not enough residue mulch (~compost) for a field but there is enough for a garden.
How does mandatory composting of food waste change the - indeed probably contrived to affect real estate markets - relative efficiency of no till farming and no dig gardening?
There are massive economies of scale at play between a 1000 acre farm and a backyard garden plot.
As a general rule of thumb, if it costs more to grow it at home, it probably has a bigger footprint. The embodied energy and carbon footprint for a few garden tools is more than enough to counteract the entire savings.
Not to say it is always the case. Home crops that grow in native soil with minimal support are great. I recommend tree kale like a madman to just about everyone with a garden.
https://gaertnerbuch.luberaedibles.com/en/tree-kale-8211-the....