Friday 25 January 2013

Yum - Pesticides, Carbon And Foot-prints

We sure are demanding as North American consumers! We want our summer fruits in the winter. Not only does this not employ local farmers, but the transportation causes immense pollution - especially for those things flown here. Such is the case with strawberries. While things grown here may also be contaminated with toxins nicely called [but not labelled! - keeping us in a place of illusion and bliss] pesticides, insecticides, herbicides and the like - imported crops may have been grown in/with chemicals banned here [though they could have actually been produced here!]. 

So where are Health Canada, Department of Agriculture, FDA, etc, hiding when it comes to growing with toxins here, importing food grown in them or exporting the chemicals? We'll discuss that later....and perhaps also how Stephen Harper can allow the exportation of asbestos from Canada when it is, without argument, deadly. Oh yea....business as usual....

Back to crops, like strawberries. Picking them fresh in season not only supports local growers, is a fun experience, connects us to the land, each other and farmers....they taste so much better! So how do we have them in the winter then? Freeze them during the summer!

Now let's get serious! The carbon footprint for locally grown ones: 150g C02e [or 600g per kg/270g per pound]. Compare that with those grown out of season and flown in or grown locally in a hothouse: 1.8kg CO2e [or 7.2kg per kg/3.3kg per pound].  With a footprint of over 10 times that of locally grown in season berries, let's hold off or head to our freezer! Figures from How Bad Are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything by Mike Berners-Lee.
 

No comments:

Post a Comment