My friend that spent a year studying aerospace over there saw this with his own eyes during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. He observed people coming into the Moscow on a train carrying the food for an extended family in boxes and gunny sacks. There were people in the city who lived in the flats and those in the country who maintained the summer garden.
In the winter, the people congregated in the city. It is really a pretty smart way to go. Most everyone did it. Those who did not, were consigned to bread lines that could last days to get small rations. Russians are used to suffering - we are NOT.
In 2011 the dacha (summer cottage) gardens of Russia produced 40% of the nation's food
Perhaps they are in a better position to weather hard times than we are
[In 2003, the Russian government signed the Private Garden Plot Act into law, entitling citizens to private plots of land for free. These plots range from 0.89 hectares to 2.75 hectares. A hectare is about 2.5 acres. A city block is about 1.5 acres]
How much land do you need to grow all your food? This is a dacha garden in Russia where there is a strong tradition of growing your own food.
While many in the world are completely dependent on large scale agriculture, the Russian people feed themselves. Their agricultural economy is small scale, predominantly organic and in the capable hands of the nation's people. Russians have something built into their DNA that creates the desire to grow their own food. It's a habit that has fed the Russian nation for centuries. It's not just a hobby but a massive contribution to Russia's agriculture.
In 2011, 51% of Russia's food was grown either by dacha communities (40%), like those pictured left in Sisto-Palkino, or peasant farmers (11%) leaving the rest (49%) of production to the large agricultural enterprises. But when you dig down into the earthy data from the Russian Statistics Service you discover some impressive details.
Again in 2011, dacha gardens produced over 80% of the countries fruit and berries, over 66% of the vegetables, almost 80% of the potatoes and nearly 50% of the nations milk, much of it consumed raw.
While many European governments make living on a small-holding very difficult, in Russia the opposite is the case. In the UK one councillor's opinion regarding living on the land was, "Nobody would subject themselves to that way of life. You might as well be in prison"; tell that to a nation of gardeners living off the land.
During the communist period school children were obliged to visit their local farms to get hands-on experience harvesting food (below left) at a time when about 90% of the nation's food came from dacha gardens. During the same period every child would be expected to play their part in growing the family's food from their small patch of Russia.
[link to naturalhomes.org]
Russians have gardening in their DNA? I wish someone would tell my two adopted Russian children.
ReplyDeleteThe Дачьа is very important to Russia, dating back to the time of the Tsars. It was even a getaway area for those who did not want to be caught by the government as dachas have no official addresses. Though the growing season is short, it is long enough to produce rather plentiful crops...and many crops are even harvested inside the houses a lot like greenhouses.
ReplyDeleteMost dachas do not count with running water and are rather rustic. But what Russia has is lots of land.
Israel has something similar to that, the Kibbutz system. Mexico has quite a few collective farms as well as individual farms outside of the city. My wife's relatives have one and there is also land to develop and the land comes VERY cheaply (prices as low as 100 dollars an acre if you know where to look)...
America used to be an agriculturally and then manufacturing heavy country (i.e. a PRODUCING economy). It is now services and consulting heavy (i.e. a CONSUMING economy). It prides itself on its wealth but yet if we measure wealth by production, especially with this new trade treaty that Obummer wants to ram through, he is literally turning America into a third world country.
Mexico's government tries to emulate the United States. They should be looking elsewhere, and in some cases they already are (as they look to Germany and to Europe in general but especially Germany as that country is still manufacturing heavy).