31–40 of 43 posts
It's probably much more carbon intensive for me to build a bookshelf rather than buying an IKEA one.
I'm not really that interested in becoming a "perfectly optimal cog". If you follow that as a main goal, you end up plugged into VR on an IV drip or something because it's "carbon efficient".
Soon coming to you, "EU Agenda 2030: illegal to grow your own lettuce, gotta buy the new glyphosate lettuce".
To talk about whether these gardens are good or bad for the environment, we would need to consider all kinds of additional factors. What alternative use would the land be put to? Does it make sense to amortize the carbon cost over units of food when the community derives value from it in many ways other than caloric?
It should be unremarkable to all but the most confused flower child that industrial agriculture’s economies of scale are capable of producing food at a lower per unit cost (carbon, money, etc). That doesn’t strike me as a good argument for ditching urban gardens.
Soon coming to you, "EU Agenda 2030: illegal to grow your own lettuce, gotta buy the new glyphosate lettuce".
This was my thought exactly. Make it immoral to grow your own food and you have political cover for a lot of crazy shit.
https://ij.org/press-release/illinois-becomes-second-state-t...
Why don’t we focus on how awful return to office is for the environment? If we were serious about saving the plant this would be everywhere.
Great! Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. And now we can feel bad for growing our own tomatoes. I think it’s time we start considering the radical solutions. Not carbon capture, because there is always a way to smear those[^1] too. I say it’s high time to install the orbital hooks and start the exodus. [^1]: I just found this example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_deep-sea_carbon_dioxide...
You are being manipulated. Resist this manipulation.
Not at all surprising, having participated in both. There are massive economies of scale at play between a 1000 acre farm and a backyard garden plot. As a general rule of thumb, if it costs more to grow it at home, it probably has a bigger footprint. The embodied energy and carbon footprint for a few garden tools is more than enough to counteract the entire savings. Not to say it is always the case. Home crops that g…
More expensive and fragile fruits and vegetables seem efficient though. I think my efficiency on heirloom tomatoes and strawberries beats the grocery store, again going by unit cost.
Not at all surprising, having participated in both. There are massive economies of scale at play between a 1000 acre farm and a backyard garden plot. As a general rule of thumb, if it costs more to grow it at home, it probably has a bigger footprint. The embodied energy and carbon footprint for a few garden tools is more than enough to counteract the entire savings. Not to say it is always the case. Home crops that g…
Yeah I really enjoy gardening but I don't actually grow anything calorie-dense in my garden. Potatoes are somewhat difficult and there's no way I could beat the store's efficiency on those. More expensive and fragile fruits and vegetables seem efficient though. I think my efficiency on heirloom tomatoes and strawberries beats the grocery store, again going by unit cost.
Hopefully we discover additional methods of efficient home cultivation.
Soil depletion in industrial farming is probably more work to remedy because there's not enough residue mulch (~compost) for a field but there is enough for a garden.
How does mandatory composting of food waste change the - indeed probably contrived to affect real estate markets - relative efficiency of no till farming and no dig gardening?
This is an interesting finding. I don’t know what conclusions the article draws, since the Telegraph doesn’t seem to have linked to it. The conclusions the Telegraph draws are pretty dumb. To talk about whether these gardens are good or bad for the environment, we would need to consider all kinds of additional factors. What alternative use would the land be put to? Does it make sense to amortize the carbon cost over…