In the 1940's Northern Ireland created a "Grow More Food" program, which included ploughing, planting, and
harvesting the land in front of the
Parliament building. This leads me to wonder how many community garden plots, tomato plants, stalks of corn,
zucchinis, summer salads, loaves of bread, might we cull from the White House lawn or the Washington Mall?
The Washington Mall is 146 acres in size.
ReplyDeleteIf America were to institute the “Grow More Food” program at the Washington Mall and decide to grow potatoes we would yield the following return.
Size: 146 acres
Lbs of potatoes per acre: 26,000
Total: 3,790,000 lbs of potatoes
Average yearly consumption of potatoes in America is 140 lbs.
The Washington Mall would produce enough food to feed nearly 27,115 Americans.
Feeding Washington DC
Washington DC has a population of 581,530.
Growing potatoes at the Washington Mall would feed nearly 5% of the population.
If corn were planted and used for ethanol fuel?
Bushels per acre: 151
Total bushels: 22,046
A bushel of corn can produce up to 2.5 gallons of ethanol fuel.
Total gallons of fuel: 55,115
Car: 2009 Honda Prius at 94mpg
Miles on 55,115 gallons at 94mpg: 5,180,810
This would provide enough fuel for nearly 345 Americans for 1 year, who travel the national average of 15,000 miles.
Or one could drive around the world nearly 209 times. ;-)