Organic Farming

Reducing your carbon footprint with less meat consumption.

Increasing the proportion of vegetables in your diet reduces your carbon footprint, as meat production requires more energy than vegetables. According to the FAO, the arm of the UN that works on worldwide hunger-defeating initiatives, animal farming presents a "major threat to the environment" with such "deep and wide-ranging" impacts that it should rank as a leading focus for environmental policy.

The report calls the livestock sector a "major player" in affecting climate change through greenhouse-gas production. The FAO found that the ranching and slaughter of cows and other animals generates an estimated 18 percent of total human-induced greenhouse-gas emissions globally.

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS. LIVESTOCK’S LONG SHADOW REPORT. 2006

Home grown produce uses less fuel, fertilisers, herbicides, pesticides than 'commercial growing and processing of food’. Homegrown food does not need the packaging required for store-bought food. Approximately twenty-three percent of the energy used in our food production system is allocated to processing and packaging food.

http://www.earth-policy.org/Updates/2005/Update48....

Home grown food - the way to go!

Less food is wasted when it is picked fresh. When food is homegrown, you’re also less likely to want to waste it, because food is generally more valued by those who have grown it themselves. To add to this, growing your own food helps the Planet by saving on the huge amounts of energy required with production, processing, transport and storage whisch is often required when produced commercially. Establishing your own vegie garden is fun and introduces you to the wonders of nature and growth.

Did You Know?

Growing some of your own food

in your backyard can help reduce your family’s carbon

emissions and therefore reducing your carbon footprint.

HOW?

Because your capturing CO2. All plants are efficient carbon capture "machines". As part of their growth cycle, they use carbon dioxide, energy from the sun to grow, and if they’re in our vegie patch, they’ll convert this

CO2 and energy into food for us.

Livestock emit methane and other greenhouse gasses through excrement and belching. The FAO estimates that cow manure and flatulence generate 30 to 40 % of total methane emissions from human-influenced activities.

FOOD WASTAGE

Food waste is a huge problem. In Australia $5.3 billion worth of food is wasted each year, including fresh and frozen, leftovers, takeaways etc.

C Hamilton, R Deniss & D Baker, Wasteful consumption in Australia, Australia Institute Discussion Paper No77, AI 2005.

Organic Food

The ability to either grow or source your own food is an essential survival practice. As climate change puts more pressure on our agriculture, you can help by growing some of your own food. Let’s look at some different kinds of food, glorious food!

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Bush Tucker

Bush tucker is Australian terminology for the huge variety of herbs, spices, mushrooms, fruits, flowers, vegetables, animals, birds, reptiles and insects that are native to the country. The Aboriginal people have one of the oldest cultures on Earth and are masters of survival. Modern science is still attempting to understand the full extent of nutritional and medicinal knowledge held within this enduring culture.

Cultural knowledge reflected the bush as both a supermarket and pharmacy which provided everything necessary for survival. Aboriginal people have been living sustainably for tens of thousands of years by using a system of bush accounting and by having great respect for the food they eat and with little or no wastage.

Local knowledge was passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. This knowledge described which plants were edible, palatable and medicinal, the best time for harvesting, including preparation methods. Messages or maps of good hunting or gathering areas, including where water or food could be found is still painted in art work today.

The Facts

Local knowledge was passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. This knowledge described which plants were edible, palatable and medicinal, the best time for harvesting, including preparation methods. Messages or maps of good hunting or gathering areas, including where water or food could be found is still painted in art work today.

The Witchetty grub

Do you feel like eating a Witchetty Grub? This beautiful grub can grow the size of an adults human hand. It is usually found deep in the roots of certain trees and requires a lot of energy and digging to get to.

The grub is a high source of nutrients and can be eaten raw or cooked. The taste is like cashew flavoured chicken. Yum! Yum!

Organic Foods & Farming

OK folks it’s quiz time again! Have you ever been to a farm and seen how things work? All the tasty fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains which we all need to live! Don’t forget our many animal friends which are used for milk and meat. Let’s find out what we know. Remember, most of the answers can be found in the previous section but some questions may require you to dig deeper. So, consider the internet, go to the library or ask a friend. Happy munching!

QUIZ 3: Organic Foods & Farming

1. In what ways can meat production contribute to climate change?

2. How does growing your own vegetables and fruit or by buying it from local producers help reduce CO2

emissions?

3. How does climate change effect our farms?

4. How has technology changed farming?

5. List 10 foods that you can grow yourself.

6. INVESTIGATION: How does eating less meat reduce CO2 and Methane emissions?

Funny Fruit Jokes!

Q: What is square and green?

A: A lemon in disguise.

Q: How do you make an artichoke?

A: Strangle it.

Q: What’s the fastest vegetable?

A: A runner bean.

Q: What do you call two rows of vegetables?

A: A dual cabbage way.

Q: Why did the banana go to the doctor?

A: Because it wasn’t peeling well.

Q: What is small, round and giggles a lot?

A: A tickled onion.

Q: What’s the strongest vegetable?

A: A muscle sprout.

Did you know?

Apples, pears,

cherries & strawberries

are all members of the rose family?