This attitude betrays someone who has never actually tried to raise tomatoes. It's not difficult, and rich people have no special insight into the process. Of all the things that are hard for poor people to get, dirt is not one of those. Have you lived in Kowloon Walled City your entire life? [edit: not impugning the humanity of KWC folks; just grasping at straws to imagine those without access to sunlight] No? Then you owe it to your humanity to raise some tomatoes. If you can get online you can find some seeds or seedlings. No one is born in Antarctica; everyone has a summer of some sort. Maybe you're working three sixty-hour jobs, but that means someone in your family is not. Grandma can certainly spend twenty minutes every three days weeding. Do your weeds grow faster than that? Congratulations, then your tomatoes will also grow faster.

It doesn't take a lot of land to actually live off of it. Factor about 1/10 an acre per family member. It's even less if you can trade grain and only grow the rest.

That's six times the size of my apartment. 3 to 9 square feet would be the most I could manage; maybe I could grow herbs but that's about it.

You could easily grow tomatoes, peppers or maybe even cucumbers in that space, either in pots or a relatively shallow (12cm of soil?) rectangular container. Although only if you have a sunny window.

Example: http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/t...