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After the Nuke War - growning uncontaminated food
(Skip ahead to "The Question Is:" if you want to skip the survival
commentary and get to the gardening question.) I was doing a little project about finding a way to grow uncontaminated food after an all out nuclear war. Turns out areas hit by radioactive fallout, although "safe" to spend a few hours a day outside your fallout shelters after two or three weeks, the soil may remain too contaminated to grow food on for decades. This is because it takes far lower levels of radiation to make you sick if radioactive particles are ingested VS simply walking around on it. Rain will carry some fallout away, but the soil will absorb at least some of the fallout. btw, radiation is measured at distance to vital organs, so what may be "safe" for adults may remain deadly for children and pets to walk around on or by traveling in low riding cars. And I suspect the maps showing fallout patterns would show much longer and wider patterns if it were showing areas of soil that became contaminated. I suspect the entire east coast of the US will be blanketed and the only uncontaminated areas of the US will be a few places on the west coast. There are basically two accepted standard plans to deal with minimizing radioactive contamination in food grown after a nuclear war. One is to scrape off the top layer of soil and grow food in the exposed, less contaminated soil. The other is to wait for the government to identify uncontaminated areas and then evacuate to those, but I again suspect those will be only less contaminated. Fallout pretty much follows weather patterns which are pretty much horizontal around the world with far less movement vertical. If Canada and Mexico don't get hit they may be the best bet for large sections of uncontaminated land. Then the idea struck me, where to find completely uncontaminated soil even in areas hit by heavy radioactive fallout, and even possibly next to ground zero. Soil under concrete pads of buildings, concrete driveways, concrete highways and sidewalks would also be uncontaminated. It is generally accepted that food can recieve high levels of radiation and still be edible (although will have lost some nutrition); It is only when radioactive particles originating from the nuclear fireball itself get into the food that the food becomes poisonous. The same would be true of soil. It was just a few months ago (about May 2008) the press was talking about radiating all our food to prevent food poisoning including e Coli and to extend the shelf life of food. This was radiation at extreme levels far beyond anything in a nuclear war except at ground zero. After such a treatment, even raw meat could sit openly on a shelf and not spoil. The food was still "edible", but had lost nutrition including all the "food enzymes" found only in raw food, something the mainstream doesn't want us knowing about or they'd lose money. Back on topic: According to Cression Kerney, the author of "Nuclear War Survival Skills", although I think he said it in the video set that goes with the book, the finest radioactive fallout particles take the longest to reach the ground and even take a year to finally reach the ground. Therefore rainwater may still be contaminated for months after a nuclear war. So to grow completely uncontaminated food would require a water well or other means to remove contamination, such as permanent solar stills. When catching rain, the first that falls and washes off the roof will have the most contamination, but a down spout "first flush" diverter can discard this. For edible plants you'd want a first flush diverter anyway because of the chemicals in roof shingles and a screen to keep out bigger things, but you're better off not even using rain off asphault or treated wood shingles for edible plants unless you had to, but rain off a greenhouse should be ok. http://www.aquabarrel.com/product_do...irst_flush.php http://www.braewater.com/index.php?/...rst_flush_dive rters/ http://www.reuk.co.uk/First-Flush-Sy...Harvesting.htm http://www.harvesth2o.com/first_flush.shtml http://www.rainwell.com.au/rfd/aboveground Roof-collected rainwater fails health test http://www.physorg.com/news88268999.html To grow food in completely uncontaminated soil means building greenhouses over concrete that was then removed or building a greenhouse over the crawlspace of a woodframe house that was removed. Of course reconnecting the house to utilities would not be practical since repair parts would be in short supply, but instead the house would become a storage area or used for parts; I'd also be used for fuel for cooking since burning contaminated wood would put ultra fine contamination into the air. Uncontaminated food could also be grown in uncontaminated soil in buckets or other containers inside greenhouses which is probably the quickest and easiest set up. So then.... The Question Is...... The Question Is...... The Question Is...... How much soil or buckets of soil would it take to sustain one person, multipled by 2 in order to preserve enough to get through the winter, but grown in a greenhouse to extend the season? Thanks. btw, can anybody recommend a good quality greenhouse fabric, the stuff that covers a greenhouse to let light in, but not water and lasts years? |
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