Growing your own food/Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by EmeraldEmber, Mar 18, 2007.

  1. EmeraldEmber

    EmeraldEmber Junior Member

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    I have been wondering for a long time........roughly how much less, greenhouse gas, is pumped into the air, when people grow their own food??

    I live in suburbia, on about 800sqm of land. (under a 1/4 acre) and I am growing as much as I can (some trees are already fruiting others in couple of years). I grow vegies and herbs as well, in any bit of space I can find. The kids love going to the back or front yard (as does my purse) for a snack.

    I was fortunate to have grown up in the Northern suburbs of melbourne, 30yrs ago, where lots of people grew a lot of their own food and had cellars under their garage. (not council approved lol). They had mediterranian heritage. It was normal for me to go over to a friends house and have home grown/made food for lunch.

    My maternal grandfather (Opa) lived with my mother and I, and also grew a lot of the food we ate (though I think that we where the only one of two houses with out chickens or pheasants in the backyard).

    I once even helped neighbours make wine by washing my feet thoroughly and crushing grapes under foot.

    If you grow your own and make your own......preferring not to a have a lawn, how much less greenhouse emissions are there?

    ie: reduction in mass farming, reduction in transport, etc., etc..(and seed save........a lot of packet seed comes from overseas).

    Oh how I miss those times.........I'm considered odd, where I live lol.....even in this rural area, for growing food, full stop!. We did, recently buy a stupermarket (yes that's what I call it) peach and there was no taste at all........I might as well have had a glass of water.

    Me
     
  2. Jim Bob

    Jim Bob Junior Member

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    Well, in the USA, the average distance food travels before being eaten is 1,600-2,400km. I can't find figures in Australia, but I'd imagine it's about half that - our population is concentrated in a smaller area, so there'd be a bit less to-and-froing. On one hand you have horticultural regions just 50 or 100km from Melbourne, but on the other hand, fruit juice companies import unseasonal, or seasonal and cheaper, fruit from South America, California...

    All that stuff is driven, railed or flown.

    So yes, growing our own would save a lot of greenhouse gases. It also saves money, of course. I think it probably takes me longer in terms of labour to grow what I grow than it would to work the same hours elsewhere and pay my wages towards it - but still, I don't think of the hours in the garden as so much time subtracted from my life, but instead as hours added to it. Brining living things into the world, being amongst colourful plants and good soil instead of white walls, steel and concrete... that's a better life.
     
  3. Ramon

    Ramon Junior Member

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    I read that the total distance traveled by components of the average Swede's breakfast in order to reach the table is once around the globe. It's sad you're odd.
     
  4. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    I tend to think that there wouldn't be all that much difference in the figures for Australia and US. Its true that most Australians are concentrated into a handful of cities, but those cities are thousands of miles apart. Raw materials are shipped all that distance to food processing factories and then redistributed. So, the bottom line might even be worse for AUssies. How much of food consumed in Australia is imported too? An unreasonable amount in my opinion...
    So, no exact figures, but obviously, anything you can grow in your yard, even if it is only 20% of your diet, is going to make a great difference. :D
     
  5. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    It's difficult to buy australian garlic here, they are imported from China along whith much other foodstuff.
    When I was young oranges were (in Germany) something special, now they are less expensive than our apples.
    Asparagus from our local gardeners are more expensive than Greek one ( but you can't beat the taste of fresh ones)
    We live in one of the suburbs of Brisbane. Everyone here would have the possibility of growing a good share but rarely people do grow anything. The gardens are often empty. Why then living in a house and not in a unit?
     
  6. nibs

    nibs Junior Member

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    another factor to think about is all the wastage that occurs along the way. if you are gardening at home nothing goes to waste, it would always be recycled into the soil.
    where as if you were buying food there would be so many nutrients wasted. so the waste also has greenhouse gas emissions linked to it (and im not even thinking of platsics etc) it makes me so sad to see how illogical and wasteful our systems are, i had a thought the other day (while picking up some dumpstered fresh bread) that these farmers produce all this wheat (during drought) that gets sent to be ground up into flour, packaged and shipped all over the countrt/globe then somebody bakes it, all to be thrown into the bin. so a fair chunk of our economy must be supported by the fact that we are so wasteful.

    watch out for a doco on sbs - waste = food, it sounds like its based on this topic.
     
  7. Jim Bob

    Jim Bob Junior Member

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    The usual estimate is that overall about 1/4 our food is thrown away. That's bread not sold, restaurant dinners not finished, cabbages gone bad in the fridge, etc.

    Would you drive a car where 1/4 the fuel just leaked out a hole in the tank? :(
     

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