"In the 1,000's of Feet"

As we're all about to witness the explosion of the urban food movement, I see the syntax and language morphing over time. Specifically, where I see change is in the concepts of acres. In general, most of us in urban foods have 1,000's of square feet, which is not quite the plural "acres" we always read about in even the most liberal of farm/ag/organic literature. My farm has 17,000 square feet, and it seems huge! My personal property is 0.09 acres, and I am considered to have a decent yard. Because of this, I think most city folk have no real concept of what an acre is or even looks like. I believe that my 17,000 could easily pass as an acre to most city folk though it's only a little more than a third.

As the explosion keeps blowing up, the urban ag info highway will evolve with it. Books. Youtubes. Webisodes. And what-nots. We will be speaking in the language of 1,000's of square feet like, "how many thousand square feet ya got," or,"I yielded so many pounds of tomatoes in two thousand feet." Don't get me wrong, I understand that there are acres available in our Rust Belt environs; however, an acre will not be the norm for the urban gardener. So let's keep good notes and even better Excel spreadsheets, and see what we can do with our thousands.