Food
Food is the stuff of life - we can't live withour it. We often forget that we all need a different number of calories (depending on our age, size, and how active our lives are). By eating a more balanced diet, we can become a healthier population, putting less demands on our overstretched health service, and enjoying our lives more fully.
There are many ways we can reduce our impact on the environment :-
- Plan your menu, and make a shopping list
- Grow as much as you can yourself - organically
- Buy as local as possible - look at the labels
- Reduce the amount of packaging you buy - loose fruit & veg - take bags with you
- Choose seasonal produce - not exotic, out-of-season, or frozen
- Eat less meat - it takes 10 times more land area to produce the same number of calories of meat than it does fruit and vegetables
- Buy free range eggs and poultry
- Eat only sustainable fish species
- Cook from raw ingredients - you know what's in your meal, and you'll waste less
- Serve smaller portions - go back for seconds if you're still hungry
- Eat only until you feel full - don't force your children to finish their meal - it encourages overindulgence which is difficult to change
- Recycle bottles, jars, cans, cardboard packaging
- Compost vegetable trimmings - use the result on your garden (free soil conditioner)
- Use a wormery for your cooked waste food (not all of it though)
- Set off the dishwasher only when full, and not between 5pm and 7pm, when there is peak electricity demand.
- If you wash up in the sink, use a bowl, and throw out the waste water onto plants.
Non-organic growing was (and still is) used to increase yields, minimise the use of manual labour, make crops of standard and unblemished size and shape, mainly at supermarket request. This is not to say that the farmers approve of many of these enforced methods, but they are guaranteed a sale at harvest time.
Currently, the cost of (often imported) artificial fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides are becoming prohibitive to farmers actually making a profit. Growing organically will, in most cases, reduce the cost to the farmer. The general public must be made aware that organic growing does NOT mean inferior produce. In my opinion, the taste is improved, there are fewer chemicals (potential toxins) in and on the produce, and less wildlife has been destroyed to get that food to your plate.
Teagasc and the government are encouraging organic growing, and improving biodiversity, by the introduction of REPS schemes that subsidise the farmer in the conversion period (1-3 years to become certified organic).
Now, let's look at the radical, yet historically proven, method of food production.
Organic growing is a method of growing chemical-free produce. Even if you're not a farmer, and don't have a large garden, there are still ways of producing your own vegetables in a manner that enhances your current garden and you will enjoy that wonderful taste of vegetables grown naturally. Collecting a basket full of home grown produce and then cooking and enjoying the flavours is a very fulfilling pastime, not much worth watching on the telly anyway these days and we could all use more exercise. You'll have added enjoyment with the variety of wildlife that will visit your newly-created habitat
Food Miles - this is the cost in carbon output that your food travels in order to reach your dinner plate. Whilst shipping of produce uses a very closely controlled and efficient transport system, it still takes days off the freshness of your food, thereby losing taste and vitamins and costs hugely in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Ireland has fallen behind Europe in terms of the amount of Organic Produce grown on these shores. Much of the organic produce in our supermarkets is imported, which adds a carbon levy to its production. You can reduce this levy by producing some crops yourself. 30 years ago, Irish food producers were by the very nature of their farming techniques, largely organic, within the lifetimes of many farmers today, if they went back to the "Old Way", then we would be a long step closer to organic farming.
Rural Environmental Protection Scheme 4 (REPS4) is now closed, but apparently will be replaced with a new scheme (watch this space). The EU Nitrates Directive is enforced in Ireland now, and hopefully once more farmers have converted to organic methods the condition of some of our waterways (including groundwater) will improve.
A mixed garden environment is another method of pest control. Having a selection of complementary flowering and other plants in your vegetable beds will attract beneficial insects that predate on the pests, such as Ladybirds, which control the Aphid (Greenfly) population. Bright flowers also attract bees and other pollenating insects and birds to visit your vegetable patch, pollenating your vegetables too, without which you will have no crop. The latest term for this type of gardening is 'permaculture'. One very good example of this is growing sweetcorn - this can be used to support nitrogen-fixing beans - under which can be grown sqashes, the large leaves of which prevent weeds growing! There are many more examples which I may go into at a later date.
Rabbits can be deterred naturally using normal garden twine covered in grease. Rabbits do not like their fur being dirty and once they have been covered in some grease, they will avoid that area in future.
Choose older local varieties that were bred to resist diseases prevalent in your area. These varieties are disappearing due to the global monopolies of the large seed giants. However, there are a number of "Seed Organisations" you can join who are working very hard to sustain these indigenous varieties which will naturally resist certain diseases.
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