Re: Government consultation on phasing out peat use
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 1:59 pm
Hello everyone.
Am new to this forum, though have been reading kitchen garden magazine for a couple of years and growing fruit and veg for around 12 years.
I understand there is a lot of misinformation out there, especially that which is pedalled by those who will financially profit by getting people on side, so I would like to share my views...these come from education and experience, and not because I will benefit in any way from getting people on my side.
My education is studying for a degree in Biology, were I have studyed much on the area in question. Knowing what I have learned, I would not dream of wishing to contribute to the destruction of a valuable ecosystem that has taken tens to hundreds of thousands of years to form, that do indeed sink massive amounts of CO2, AND are a valuable wildlife habitat. Yes The Norfolk broads may now be home to much wildlife, but it is man-made, and we must never forget we lost many species in its making! To say peat is a renewable resource is a joke...growing at 1mm a year...taking up to hundreds of thousands of years to form...do I really need to do the maths here?
I understand that peat was indeed an important rural industry. I would not wish to be rude by saying that times change and more modern forms of technology/farming will or should take over. But I will say, in times gone by (and indeed when the population was far smaller), peat bogs may indeed have been able to support local economies and their small scale businesses, eg flavouring whisky or warming the local houses without threatning their existance. But please, let us not pretend this is anywhere near the same thing as what peat extraction is used for nowadays...huge scale extraction and money making for multinational companies who are in the business of supplying the horticulture business without a care for the environment. We all would love to see everybody take up kitchen gardening in this country...can you imagine 60 million people buying a bag of peat every month. Not to mention that which is exported. Renewable? It wouldn't stand a chance. (And to hold on to the strange notion that any CO2 emitted whilst digging up peat is made up for when you grow something in your garden, well try looking at any number of scientific reports on the net, written by people independant of the peat industry profit, and you will soon find out how accurate this is or should I say isn't.)
That is my education...As for my experience, I have never used peat and certainly have no intention of ever using it. I have always used organic multi-purpose peat free compost, and these days am more frequently mixing it with my own home grown compost and small amounts of very well rotted manure. In 12 years I have successfuly grown all my own veg from seedlings, (even runner beans) enough these days to feed the family for seven months of the year. I have filled raised beds with it and potted citrus trees, dwarf peach and cherry trees with it, and in all those years i have only had one duff bag.
My plain and simple reason for not touching peat is I would not be so selfish as to want to contribute to the destruction of an important ecosystem for the sake of growing a few plants in my back garden, especially when there ARE satisfactory alternatives if one can be a little more flexiable with there ideas.
And lastly I must say the poorest arguement I have ever heard is that there are plenty of other more environmentally destructive things going on than a bit of peat extraction so why should we worry...we all know that the large scale problems are made up of all the small contributing factors. Maybe the peat users just don't care about wildlife preservation, habitat protection, global warming etc, but I do, and as a citizen of the world, I feel I need to do my bit, no matter how small.
Crazy about gardening Sarah.
Am new to this forum, though have been reading kitchen garden magazine for a couple of years and growing fruit and veg for around 12 years.
I understand there is a lot of misinformation out there, especially that which is pedalled by those who will financially profit by getting people on side, so I would like to share my views...these come from education and experience, and not because I will benefit in any way from getting people on my side.
My education is studying for a degree in Biology, were I have studyed much on the area in question. Knowing what I have learned, I would not dream of wishing to contribute to the destruction of a valuable ecosystem that has taken tens to hundreds of thousands of years to form, that do indeed sink massive amounts of CO2, AND are a valuable wildlife habitat. Yes The Norfolk broads may now be home to much wildlife, but it is man-made, and we must never forget we lost many species in its making! To say peat is a renewable resource is a joke...growing at 1mm a year...taking up to hundreds of thousands of years to form...do I really need to do the maths here?
I understand that peat was indeed an important rural industry. I would not wish to be rude by saying that times change and more modern forms of technology/farming will or should take over. But I will say, in times gone by (and indeed when the population was far smaller), peat bogs may indeed have been able to support local economies and their small scale businesses, eg flavouring whisky or warming the local houses without threatning their existance. But please, let us not pretend this is anywhere near the same thing as what peat extraction is used for nowadays...huge scale extraction and money making for multinational companies who are in the business of supplying the horticulture business without a care for the environment. We all would love to see everybody take up kitchen gardening in this country...can you imagine 60 million people buying a bag of peat every month. Not to mention that which is exported. Renewable? It wouldn't stand a chance. (And to hold on to the strange notion that any CO2 emitted whilst digging up peat is made up for when you grow something in your garden, well try looking at any number of scientific reports on the net, written by people independant of the peat industry profit, and you will soon find out how accurate this is or should I say isn't.)
That is my education...As for my experience, I have never used peat and certainly have no intention of ever using it. I have always used organic multi-purpose peat free compost, and these days am more frequently mixing it with my own home grown compost and small amounts of very well rotted manure. In 12 years I have successfuly grown all my own veg from seedlings, (even runner beans) enough these days to feed the family for seven months of the year. I have filled raised beds with it and potted citrus trees, dwarf peach and cherry trees with it, and in all those years i have only had one duff bag.
My plain and simple reason for not touching peat is I would not be so selfish as to want to contribute to the destruction of an important ecosystem for the sake of growing a few plants in my back garden, especially when there ARE satisfactory alternatives if one can be a little more flexiable with there ideas.
And lastly I must say the poorest arguement I have ever heard is that there are plenty of other more environmentally destructive things going on than a bit of peat extraction so why should we worry...we all know that the large scale problems are made up of all the small contributing factors. Maybe the peat users just don't care about wildlife preservation, habitat protection, global warming etc, but I do, and as a citizen of the world, I feel I need to do my bit, no matter how small.
Crazy about gardening Sarah.
