HOW TO BE AN ENVIRONMENTALIST: GOTTA GIT A GREEN THUMBIf you don't have one already, there's no better time than the present to start your own vegetable garden, whether it's on your own land or in a local community plot.
According to the latest data from the US Department of Agriculture, the level of home food production is at its lowest point in US history. With the average food traveling more than 1500 miles from farm to fork, the environmental impact of big agribusiness foods is at an all time high.
- To back this up, John Jeavons suggests that in the US only one person in 500 is a farmer producing food. What are the consequences of this? When so few people know how to grow food, and then only doing so supported by the phenomenal usage of fossil fuels?
Concerned about global warming and peak oil? Consider the fact that it takes 400 calories of fossil fuels to transport a single 5 calorie strawberry from California to East Coast supermarkets. What's more, that flavorless non-organic strawberry was grown with methyl bromide, a carcinogenic and ozone depleting pesticide.
In contrast, a perennial patch of strawberries in your yard grows back on its own every year, requires no fossil fuels and no pesticides, and tastes a whole lot better. The environmental benefits of growing some of your own food are staggering. The Organic Consumers Association is developing a new campaign to help turn every thumb into a Green thumb.
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