There ’s more toorganic gardeningthan just swapping one variety of input signal for another . It requires you to modify the direction you think about the soil , airwave , and water , how your selection impact your local ecosystem , and how this direction ofgrowing foodaffects the person who eats the plant : which is normally you and your family . It regard a completely different way of intellection , call “ honorable living ” . When we practiceethical living , we make decisions topically which make as little impingement as possible on our environment . These local decisions can have a very long tail .
Industrial agriculture creates an enormous carbon footprint
Many reading this varlet develop up garden with chemicals , myself include . In those days the idea was to shell every garden insect with insecticide and add huge sum of crude oil - derived , atomic number 7 - based fertilizers to your plants so they grow ginormous fruits and veg . We live now that this was a formula for disaster and totally unsustainable . We were warned in 1962 in Rachel Carson’sSilent Springand again in 1971 in Francis Moore Lappe’sDiet For A Small Planet , but thanks to massive marketing and public relations political campaign from the Big Ag companies , those warnings were largely drown out .
Now we ’re faced with the hard truth that insects have become resistant to the pesticide invented to kill them and so much synthetic fertilizer runs off farm field that light-green algal blooms waste thousands of square geographical mile of the human beings ’s waterways ( see these moving picture inNational Geographic ) . This is the unfortunate side effect of trying to increase crop fruit as arable land decreases , the human beings ’s population increases , and the standard of livelihood rises in what used to be third world land .
These consequences of applied science now make it imperative that we endorse local farms and run through in - time of year food as often as possible . Forwe gardeners , that include growing as much of your own fruits and veggies as you could in an organic garden , the very definition of ethical aliveness .
Where do January tomatoes come from?
The grandness of corrode in - time of year green groceries ca n’t be understated . Here in the Northeast in January , I can corrupt a love apple in my local market . Any gardener have it away thattomatoesare a warm time of year crop – they require 75 - 85 degree line temperature , warm soil , rafts of light , and just the proper amount of water supply to in good order mature . In Pennsylvania , depending on the cultivar , this happens in July - August - September . plainly those “ new off the vine ” tomatoes in January are n’t grown anywhere close to where I survive . In fact , that love apple was belike grown in Florida ( perhaps even Brazil ) , picked when it was gullible and careen severely , pack on a hand truck ( or unsound , an airplane ) , dosed with ethylene gas pedal to encourage it to ripen en itinerary , then swash with more ethylene in the “ ripening rooms ” of the wholesaler before it was trucked to my local market . Yummy . ( ethene is a of course occurring internal secretion in plants which regulates the maturation of the yield – ethene gas encourages fruit to mature early ) .
That C footmark created just so I can eat that tomato in winter is astounding :
Indeed , a compelling argument for buying local . But there ’s another side of the equation , which is why I also stress in - season food . That same January love apple might have been grow locally in a hothouse , reduce the food naut mi , but postulate vast amounts of heat . If the heat was produce by fossil fuels the local tomato might actually have alargercarbon footprint than the tomato which journey from Florida . Quite a dilemma , is n’t it ?
What is the carbon footprint when a tomato is grown in my garden?
Now suppose I maturate that love apple in my organic garden in summertime , using nothing but homemadecompostfrom kitchen scraps and yard permissive waste . In September , when full and of course ripe , I blanche it and put it in the freezer . When I defrost it and eat it in January , it would be far superior in flavor and nutriment to the market tomato plant , even with the slight loss of tone that come with freezing . Additionally , the nutritional content of my tomato which matured fully on the vine would be superscript to the love apple harvest when green . My homegrown frozen love apple may not be primed for slicing in a salad , but it would be great in sauces or soup .
The carbon step for my homegrown tomato is quite small :
honorable living – feed local , eat in - time of year food for thought . The choices you make locally have far - turn over consequences which you sometimes ca n’t begin to fathom .
