Sixth week part three: Comment on “all sustainability is local”

The phrase “all sustainability is local” was used during the lecture.

There are different ways to view this phrase, but looked at it from an agricultural view, it means that food does not need to travel far from the point it is grown to the point it is sold.

Nowadays, food is grown at one point and then driven miles to another point where it is sold.

For Sydney, food is brought from far away places. The majority of the vegetables sold at Sydney is from places outside the Sydney region so at least 100 km from Sydney’s CBD.

 

Figure 1: Map of the Sydney region in Australia (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=sydney+region&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=NEJiU9vANoPGkAWV1YDwCA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg&biw=1184&bih=590#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=aTZseIheyMRE1M%253A%3BYE-pB8Db3_PXYM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.clickforaustralia.com%252FGraphics%252FMapSydneyArea.gif%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.clickforaustralia.com%252FMapofNSWSydneyArea.htm%3B448%3B336)

This actually means that the vegetables may require chemical treatment to stay fresh and also CO2 emission to be transported. And also the vegetables may be exposed to dangerous materials while being grown to have high yields. So by the time it reaches Sydney it may contain pesticides, hormones and antibiotics. This is ofcourse bad for the environment and bad for humans as well. Do we want this situation to endure? No, but how can we change it?

By growing food locally and sustainably. It is good for our health, good for the farmers and good for the economy. This means that farmers have to use sustainable methods to grow food.

In Ontario, a man named Chris Wong, because of his interest in maintaining health and environment, founded Young Urban Farmers two years ago. This company plants sustainable raised bed urban gardens in backyards allowing people to reconnect with where the food is coming from. They have also begun to set up vegetable gardens of at least 500 square feet in people’s backyard, using these gardens in a sustainable manner. The company sells shares of the garden to local restaurants. This is remarkable because you can eat fresh, have it produced local and also kno how your food is grown and eat food according to the seasons. Young Urban Farmers is the first and only community shared agriculture project in Toronto.

But as the success becomes apparent and people are started to become more interested in sustainable ways of producing food, undoubtly similar projects will spring up as time goes on.

http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/News/NewsAndFeatures/Pages/Local-sustainable-food.aspx