Food writer Manny Howard wanted to be a true locavore, so he started farming in his backyard in Brooklyn, New York. For 30 days, on assignment for New York magazine, he ate nothing but what he could produce himself, according to Reuters News Service:
    “Howard figured his farm could provide him enough food for a month late in the summer and began preparing in March. He built a chicken coop, dug a drainage system to water his crops, spent thousands of dollars on topsoil to cover his yard’s lead-rich, nutrient-poor clay and bought rabbits, ducks and 25 chicks. He soon learned it was hard work — seven days a week, six to 16 hours a day, tending his farm nearly every day until the experiment of eating his food began in mid-August.”
    In the process, he lost 29 pounds from a combination of hard work farming and his sparse meals that consisted mostly of eggs, tomatoes, greens, and chicken stew.  The first tornado to hit Brooklyn in 120 years destroyed his squash, eggplant and corn crops. He spent $11,000 setting up his farm, which figures out to $120 per meal for the month.