Kitchen Garden Forum

With all the discussion about the depletion of fish stocks, the growth in demand for meat, carbon emissions, world hunger etc, I have set to wondering how we should be thinking of the food we eat daily.

Just as an example here is what the two of us have on the menu today. Comments on responsible guilt

Tea and coffee - from India and Guatemala respectively but both are free trade

Bacon - dry-cured locally but we don't know where the pigs came from, how they were kept or what they ate

Eggs - Free-range from our own hens but not fed organic feed - source unknown, some imported

Bread - Home baked from flour milled in London from UK wheat

Wine - Australian

Tomatoes - Imported

Olive oil - imported

Sausages - Imported by Waitrose from Catalonia

Chicken - free-range, locally reared

Cauliflower - Locally grown

See what I mean? It gets complicated!

It can be improved Alan, where there is a will, there is a way. Agreed coffee and tea can present problems but fairtrade helps. A lot of our veg are home grown and extras I get from a local organic box scheme and that includes tomatoes and fruit, sourced as sustainably as possible, eg local or shipped from france and spain, not flown in. Wine my brother brings when he comes from France to visit our Mum, if I need more i could buy local. Our local independent supermarket sources from local suppliers as much as possible. I can get local fish and try not to eat it too often. Like you I have my own chickens and ducks, they forage, have suitable scraps, and I source their food carefully. Flour and dairy is sourced from the local organic scheme too. I am still using produce bottled/preserved in the summer, ratatuille etc. I am vegetarian, but my partner eats meat, which I supplement with pulses, this year I am growing some to eat and some to dry. Why go to all this effort, well I don't want my grandchildren to suffer because of me, I want them to have a good life. check out this link, and this was started by concerned scientists not joe public...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... today.html
If the recent weather events don't tell us something, perhaps we should listen to these scientific brains and start taking individual responsibility, especially if we have children and grandchildren. We should be able to look them in the eye and say we made our best efforts.
if you still need convincing...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12186245

Hi Alan,
Eggs from neighbour. But am investing in some pure bred Marans in the spring. So will have own stock. Will mill my own feed from locally grown grain.
Meat.
Lamb actually walks to the local abattoir. (1.5 miles away.)
Beef ditto.
Pork comes from Wales (Welshpool)
Bacon ditto. Pigs ditto
Poultry from local supplier three miles.
Milk from Shropshire 20 miles.
Butter from neighbour and sometimes milk when she has surplus.
Vegetable mainly home produced but occasionally from Morrisons.
I only eat vegetable in season normally but occasionally buy Vine Tomatoes probably from Europe.
Mushrooms 3 miles away.
Tea from Sri Lanka.
Sugar Brown Granulated (Country unknown.)
I generally make my own bread. Flour locally sourced.
I only drink a couple of pints of beer on a Sunday Lunchtime and that is brewed in Ludlow 10 miles away. Seldom drink at home but do occasionally partake of the amber nectar produced in Scotland! (about 2 litres per annum)
My vehicle is a diesel which does in excess of 60 miles to the gallon and I consider that food-wise my carbon footprint is fairly low.
JB.

I think all of us are guilty to a certain extent, of increasing either our carbon footprint, or overlooking animal welfare when it comes to the food we eat.

I try to grow as many of our own veg as possible, limited by the space we have available, and we do preserve it. We're not huge meat eaters and as much of this is sourced as locally as possible by our village butcher who also sells the free-range eggs we buy.

I worry about the source of our milk. Who knows if this has come from one of the bigger dairies which has been responsible for putting a small dairy farmer out of busines?

Our oranges, bananas & lemons oviously come from abroad. Tomatoes, aubergines & peppers are grown by me during the summer but rarely in sufficient number to last us all season. I suspect that if we had to live on what our garden produced, we would be starving vegetarians.

And what should be all do if the next Ice Age comes upon us? Nasa has just down-graded their 'prediction' (they look as though they are just fitting the curve to the actual data) of the current Sun-Spot down yet again. From their predicted strongest ever cycle in 2008 they are now saying it is down to Maunder-minimum level and independent forecasters are suggesting even that may be too high. Interesting times - as always.

@Nature's Babe
Great comment. Thanks for having the temerity to mention the underlying themes that underpin this whole debate: 'where there is a will, there is a way', and 'taking individual responsibility'. Much more positive than blaming the government, the EU, blah, blah. One thing though, I'm curious that as a vegetarian you eat fish (we normally, and strictly, don't!).

@Primrose
If you are concerned about animal welfare then the best choice is usually to choose organic meat and dairy products. These tend to have the highest welfare standards, avoiding wherever possible the routine use of veterinary drugs etc (likely to be commonplace in projects like the Nocton dairy and the like).

If you are worried about the source of your milk, then again organically produced milk is almost certainly going to be best for you and for the cows. Buying milk from an organic co-operative also helps to keep collaborating smaller dairies in business. I try to buy my organic milk with the Calon Wen label because I have the will and the way (which Nature's Babe mentions) to support Welsh organic dairy farmers working co-operatively. You can read about them here: http://www.calonwen-cymru.com/

I'm puzzled by why you think vegetarians might starve. There's a broad consensus that for ecological and health reasons we all should be eating mostly plants, with a little meat now and then. Maybe it's time to dig up the flower borders and grow more no-food-mile food?

@Johnboy
Your list is certainly impressive and I wouldn't want to decry that you actually know where most of your food originates from. However, to work out the carbon footprint of food it is necessary to factor in all the energy (and subsequent carbon emissions) required to get the food processed, packaged and then transported to the point at which you physically buy it, and then add that to your own footprint as a grand total. It's only then that we can get a complete picture and assess the true size of our personal footprints.

Nature's Babe

I'm at a loss to understand what relevance your link to the report on the Doomsday Clock has to do with my post. If the world is further away from self-annihilation due to a reduction in nuclear arms, all well and good. It doesn't seem to factor in food. As for the other link, very interesting, but I don't see the relevance.

Primrose wrote: Tomatoes, aubergines & peppers are grown by me during the summer but rarely in sufficient number to last us all season. I suspect that if we had to live on what our garden produced, we would be starving vegetarians.

John Walker, what is so difficult to understand in the above quote?

Primrose is making a simple observation on her own (in)ability to produce everything she needs by growing it in her own garden, due in no small part to what the climate will allow.

John Walker,
Will you please read Primrose's posting again. You will then have the answer to your question to her.
You have the habit of replying to an incomplete sentences. Or is it that do this just to be contentious.
So you can no more work out your carbon footprint than myself.
It is becoming more obvious with every one of your posting that you think that we were all born yesterday and are so thick we cannot think for ourselves but we need you to guide us!
How wrong you are.
JB.

John Walker wrote:@Nature's Babe
@Primrose
I'm puzzled by why you think vegetarians might starve. There's a broad consensus that for ecological and health reasons we all should be eating mostly plants, with a little meat now and then. Maybe it's time to dig up the flower borders and grow more no-food-mile food?

.

I commented that we would starve only because we don't have enough space to grow all our vegetables. We do already have a vegetable patch, plus one flower border that has been turned over to tomatoes & beans. Also, the shrubs in the front garden borders have been ripped up and soft fruit, a grape vine and strawberries planted, so actually, although it's a relatively small growing area overall, we do manage to provide a fair bit of our own fruit & veg.