From my perspective, in Florida (and elsewhere), we've been aiming for peak madness for decades. Things grow in Florida, and by choice, many of the wrong things. The focus here is primarily on impressionism and more often than not, a sub-mediocre version. The cult of Saint Augustine grass and soulless sub-developments has, in fear of creative alternatives and erosion, paved the state with this alien blight. We have a perennial swarm of whining 2-stroke engines thrashing, blowing and mangling countless tons of shrubbery and alien blight, most of which is never composted with intent for reuse. The whine of the blower is our State Anthem. The average home, if not encompassed by a mote of cement, grows nothing useful. A vegetable garden is a rare sight, and a community allotment even more so. In the 1920s, Florida produced more celery than any place in the world, and certain areas, through means of agriculture, thrived during the Depression. For many years, Polk County alone, produced more citrus than the entire state of California, although politics, land repurposing and ' citrus greening' have changed this. Amaranth grows everywhere here, on farms, roadsides and in yards. It's typically weeded, sprayed or fought. I wonder how easy it would be to grow crops of it. If that's a bad plan, many other useful things grow here, despite our objections. Even if we only grew conventional produce, we could grow far more than we do, and in a relatively harmonious manner. And this could be done without additional deforestation.

Currently, a thousand people each day are relocating from New York to Florida (and many more from elsewhere), with the general intent to make things here resemble New York (or elsewhere) as much as they can afford. Our wetlands, which once comprised the majority of our territory, is replaced with retention ponds that are politically qualified as restoration of... wetlands. It took vicious battles to spare our keystone Everglades of airports, damming and concrete jungles, but we sort of did it. Sort of. The prevailing psyche, however, is generally hostile to anything indigenous here but the winter weather and surface image of the coastline.

And then there's Sludge, the PFAS saturated, miraculously marketed product of repurposed sewage, which is sometimes forced on ranchers and others. I once spoke to a rancher who told me he's seen his cows chewing on condoms. When I asked him why he used the stuff, he said there's enough coercion to do so that he has little choice.

My point is that rather than thinking exclusively in terms of carbon, stolid convention and zero self reflection, we might contemplate the many opportunities right in front of us, to do things differently, or do different things. It may seem extreme now, but without a paradigm shift (in an actually realistic and very potentially amenable direction), things will become extreme in a less amenable and less manageable way. Yes, if we continue being myopic maniacs, food production will be a problem. We may have other options though. I frequently read comments on HN hostile to small-scale and organic farming. Citations abound, illustrating the impracticality and futility of small, especially organic operations. Yet, in my direct experience, I've seen a 5 acre farm not only remain the sole (and successful) business of a small family for decades and produce enough to sell, consume and compost, but no worker there has ever made minimum wage.

I'm convinced we can do things differently and better.