Growing Fruit and Veg in Urban Farms Isn't the Green Choice We Imagine

https://www.sciencealert.com/growing-fruit-and-veg-in-urban-farms-isnt-the-green-choice-we-imagine

by JSeymourATL • 2 years ago

7 3 2 years ago

I'm not surprised, modern agriculture is ruthlessly efficient. I suspect the same goes for the packaging free stores we see popping up around us.

abeppu• 2 years ago

I am a member of an urban community garden. Its goal is not just to produce food, but to be a recreational amenity for city-dwellers. Because it wants to be accessible for future potential gardeners, it has concrete pathways and ramps, and raised beds, and is wheelchair accessible. All of these have intrinsic carbon, and mean that a significant area of the total lot is not actually used for growing food. Add to that that many of us gardeners are very inexpert, so yields are quite variable.

But I don't think kg of CO2e per kg of produce is the right way to evaluate this. The choice is not where we grow the same fixed amount of produce. Important questions include:

- what would have been done with the land if it weren't a community garden?

- what would those gardeners be doing with their time if not gardening?

- do those participating in the gardens / their friends/family eat more fruits or vegetables on net?

frankus• 2 years ago

I like to say that the best thing you can grow in your backyard from an environmental and financial perspective is an ADU ("granny flat"). At least assuming you live closer than average to a job center.

The second best thing would be herbs (since they cost a fortune at the store and are only available in quantities that will spoil before they're used up).

The third best thing, as the article says, are things that are costly to produce on a farm but grow like well with little maintenance in small spaces (my favorite here in the Salish Seaboard is raspberries).

The fact is that "people miles" are astronomically more costly than "food miles" or almost any other kind of miles. People are impatient, fragile, don't like to be stacked, prefer a relatively limited range of temperatures, and their loved ones usually consider them irreplaceable. Just about any other type of cargo is easier to deal with.

I do see a niche for growing stuff in places where the light, water/humidity, and heating/cooling needed to grow plants is already being produced for humans sharing the space. Basically an amenity that happens to produce food, which in a lot of cases would include the gardens discussed in the article.

Growing Fruit and Veg in Urban Farms Isn't the Green Choice We Imagine

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