carbon food print

[saint-spoon]

According to a magazine article I was reading, intensively reared chicken has a lower carbon foot print that of free range (including eggs). On the same lines wild caught salmon cost much more fuel that farmed and organic salmon is worse for the environment than non-organic. Red meat and dairy are the two biggest offenders although the happy cow grazing in a lush green pasture f*rts more than one in a barn feeding on pellets. It will also probably surprise you that a 25g bag of crisps is four times less damaging than 500g of cherry tomatoes (grown inside). On the whole the majority of us have a much higher food print than we do car print; and that includes the vegetarians who although about a third lower than us corpse crunchers are far from innocent.
It’s all to do with what it takes to produce a set amount of food and how much carbon or similar gasses such as nitreous oxide are emmited into the atmosphere.
Obviously this doesn’t take into account the ethics or even the non-greenhouse damage that is being done but it still got me thinking… and no I won’t be turning into a vegat.. veg… ve… someone who doesn’t eat meat.

[taff]

what happens when you look at it a different way though?
Keeping your own chickens. livestock, growing your own veg lessens your carbon footprint because you're not introducing food miles, nor contributing to industrial sized operations that manufacture your food.
In effect, you can create your own eco-system in your own house and garden, where it's possible to recycle almost everything you use, and keep it going in a continuous cycle.
And that pre-supposes you have enough land to do all of it.
It's possible to have your own electric, from solar panels or wind-power, unfortunately not gas, and probably not wood unless you happen to have one in your garden [I wish]
Course, if you only eat what you grow or catch or shoot or make, there'd be no chocolate

[Mo]

Yes, if you have the land it makes ecological sense to grow your own. But in global terms it probably isn't fair that we have an acre garden, just for 2 of us, even if we eat our own fruit, spuds and runner beans.

But I'm not about to put on sackcloth and ashes, or go veggie, either.

[wendy]

Another interesting post Dave, not busy at work today ?
It is all swings and roundabout I am sure. Lose something and gain something else.
I know which I would rather put in my body and it certainly isn't crisps.
Wendy

[saint-spoon]

Another interesting post Dave, not busy at work today ?

Wendy

a bit of a slack week last week, back to full time teaching for the rest of the month xx