@Mb76
Thank you for your post. I feel reassured by you corroboration. it’s just what I gauged from old knowledge and a bit of technology.
It is incredible how they must collaborate locally - every village. We are talking about two completely different systems of growing in Ukraine. I suspect (probably know) some of the larger farms are owned by foreign companies. I would wager Germany, Scandinavian countries including Denmark. Could be wrong.
@ScrollingLeaves
I sometimes wonder if I am regarded as a load of bull here because I post about different matters and blend my own thoughts with experiences. I won’t say too much as I want to remain anonymous, but at 60 I have 45 years of doing several things by design rather than choice including missing out on stuff like university. My family have many generations of military history and a farming background, having come here from Ireland a long while ago. I will always have a deep loyalty to Ireland and its people. In this mix I have served in the army and worked in ‘the City’ (and oddly enough with Russians - can’t say whether they were nice or not, but always an air of impatience and projection of intimidation).
The thing that matters most for me is to question everything. Keep and open mind and ask inside “Why?” This is something we did as a four year old, but along the way we forgot this important tool. It’s important on these threads.
Here on just a few acres and a bit of reusable plastic (a positive use for it) we have been growing food all year, including over December and January when the light is grim. From what I understand about Ukraine, the rural folks will be able to exploit a longer growing season as it’s in a better location than here. Almost feast and famine from an intense Winter blast through to quick heat.
Might be worth googling Southern Spain and Sicily when you get a moment. You don’t even need to zoom in to see it.
That white ‘ice cap’ to the west of Almeria in Spain is glasshouses or polytunnels. If you go to the supermarket you will see Vittoria tomatoes - these are also grown under the ‘ice sheets’ on the land down to the coast (east of Vittoria, of course) in Sicily.
I have not seen similar systems in Ukraine, but they may exist. But I do see chickens. Many intensive chickens farms, but again if the locals are growing smaller intensive cash crops, have orchards and fruit bushes they will have roaming chickens. Great little machines for eating all the pests and fertilising the soil too. We wouldn’t be 8 billion people were it not for chickens, worms and bees. We depend on them.
I worry about food for poorer nations, less so for Ukraine. They need other things. Now is the time for intensive food producers in Western Europe and North America to waste less and export more staples.