Four Easy Ways to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint at Home
Traditional agriculture is an unfathomably large and complex global industry that comes with a significant carbon footprint, and it’s not the healthiest system for anyone. Learn how to grow food sustainably in your own backyard!
In this article:
The world’s largest industry!
Where your food comes from
Bringing food back home to our gardens
Benefits of growing your own food
Resources to help get you started
Pop quiz: What’s the world’s largest industry?
Hint: This sector employs more than one billion people worldwide.
Healthcare? Education? Big Tech?
No, no, no.
It’s agriculture! And when done right, farmers can actually improve the health of soil, water quality, and sequester carbon.
The problem is that when not done right, agricultural practices – especially those of many modern commercial or industrial farms – cause devastating and long-lasting impacts on our economy, health, and the environment.
Where our food comes from
The ag industry is a big one. As in, unfathomably large. The EPA reports that agriculture contributed over a trillion—yes, TRILLION with a T—to the US GDP (gross domestic product) in 2019. Farming and related food-service companies also employed 22 million people, which is more than 10% of the US workforce!
To keep up with demand for a wide variety of food and beverages, we trade with countries like China, Mexico, Canada, Japan, and European countries. Surprisingly, even though the US is the world’s largest beef producer, we’re also the second-largest importer of beef. About 10% of beef that we consume in the US comes from other countries, mostly Canada and Mexico.
All of this trading comes with an environmental cost. In fact, “Food is responsible for approximately 26% of global greenhouse gas emissions” (graph below). And of that, nearly one-fifth (18%) of food-related emissions come from the supply chain side of processing food, meaning it requires a boat-load of resources to process and transport our food from farm to store to table.
So what can we do?
What if we were to grow at least some of our own food?
There are countless benefits to growing your own food. Perhaps one of the greatest benefits is the reduction of your own carbon footprint. This will occur in numerous ways, so let’s get a better understanding of the opportunities and benefits of growing food at home.
Say “no” to plastic packaging
Food from your garden doesn’t come in a plastic bag or clamshell container. It doesn’t need to be padded, wrapped, or protected from your garden to your kitchen counter.
In fact, eliminating the need for packaging is huge because according to the EPA, “containers and packaging alone contribute over 23% of the material reaching landfills in the U.S.” Packaging also makes up most of the litter on beaches. It’s ugly for one thing, but more importantly, plastic litter is unsafe for birds, fish, and other wildlife who might think it’s food.
Imagine how many plastic clamshell containers you would keep out of landfills by planting a few blueberry or raspberry bushes to meet your family’s needs?
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Food from your garden isn’t driven hundreds of miles from the source. It isn’t shipped overseas. No fuel is needed! But if YOU need to refuel between your garden and your kitchen, simply pop a few berries or delicious veggies in your mouth and get on with the rest of your day.
We often think of carbon dioxide emissions from transportation as a major cause of climate change, and it is. Carbon dioxide is the most prevalent greenhouse gas in our atmosphere. What might be surprising is that the second most prevalent gas, methane, is 80x stronger at heating the earth than carbon dioxide. So even though there isn’t as much in the air by volume, the effects of methane are much more damaging.
Methane is heavily associated with cattle raising in particular. Since cattle (and other ruminants like goats and sheep) ferment their food, their burps release methane gas into the air at a surprisingly high rate, an average of .6 pounds of methane per day, or 220 pounds per cow per year.
The good news is that even though methane is super powerful, it doesn’t stay in the atmosphere as long as carbon dioxide. This means that reducing methane gas emissions would have a significant and immediate positive impact on the environment. What this might look like is reducing our meat consumption and increasing veggie intake. It’s not only good for your body, but good for the earth!
Eat more nutrient-dense food
Growing your own food is great from a health perspective because nutrients degrade over time. To maximize the health and flavor of your food, it’s best to eat food that’s as fresh as possible, and minimize the time between harvesting and consuming food.
Not to mention, controlling the quality of soil your plants are grown in means you’ll know exactly what is or isn’t getting into your produce. No more harmful pesticides or herbicides on your produce.
Break free from global supply chain uncertainty
Economically speaking, growing your own food at home means relying less on the fluctuations of the global economy and supply chain. And with the well-documented rising food prices, growing your own produce means you’ll keep more of your money in your bank account.
Beautify your neighborhood
Imagine how vibrant your neighborhood could be with not just one or two kitchen gardens, but a whole patchwork quilt of edible gardens! Planting raised-bed kitchen gardens attracts pollinators that benefit your neighbors’ backyard gardens as well.
Can we really grow our own food in NW Oregon and SW Washington?
Yes, we’re fortunate to be in a position where we really can grow food for ourselves, almost all year, and start to relieve the pressure humans have placed on the environment. This is true even if you live in the city, have a small yard, or don’t have a yard at all – perhaps just a patio or deck space.
With a little creativity and pre-planning, we can plant raised-bed kitchen gardens that…
Give us food almost year-round in the greater Portland, OR, metro area
Reduce the need for transporting produce from field to grocery store, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions
Reduce plastic and cardboard packaging that ends up in the landfill
Improve our health with more nutritious and vitamin-rich produce harvested from our backyard
Eliminate the need for using pesticides and herbicides
Provide our pollinators safe and healthy habitat
Save money on groceries
Increase our physical and mental health and well-being
And while it might be easy to think that one person, one garden, or one backyard “can’t make a difference” in the grand scheme of things, what if doing so simply improved your life?
What if by growing your own food, you were able to increase your and your family’s enjoyment and happiness? Reduce some of your stress? Add to your bank account?
Would improving your family’s life alone be worth it?
What you can do
Analyze your diet. Reducing or eliminating your red meat consumption is probably the biggest single thing you can do to reduce your carbon footprint today. Even committing to one “meatless” day a week and getting creative with plant-based foods would make a difference over the course of a year!
Replace all or a portion of your lawn with a raised bed garden. With some thoughtful planning, you can harvest fresh food from your garden 9-10 months out of the year in Oregon and southwest Washington, and longer if you bring some plants inside. Learn more about the many advantages of doing so here.
Start small and build upon your wins. For example, grow an herb garden and mixed greens – they love the cool climate in the Pacific Northwest. If you have shade, you can even grow these throughout the summer. This is especially great for people with smaller areas to work with because you can grow a variety of herbs and greens in a few square feet.
Get support! Just like plants need trellises for support, we all perform better with a coach guiding us along the way. Cultivating a skill like gardening is no different. Consider hiring a certified garden coach to walk you through what’s in your garden, teach you how to care for your plants, and help set you up for success in the privacy of your own garden.
Whether you’re concerned with climate change, worried about the use of pesticides in your food, want to improve your health, or simply want to grow food and eat it because it’s beautiful and tastes good, there are countless benefits to growing your own food. Just pick one and start small! Build your confidence with easy wins, and your newfound hobby will become a positive habit that grows alongside your garden!
Resources:
Article: How much of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food? Our World in Data
Blog: 10 Sustainable Agriculture Methods and Farming Practices, Green Tumble
Book: Nature’s Best Hope by Douglas W. Tallamy (highly recommended reading!)
Documentary Film: Eating Our Way to Extinction
Graph: You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Our World in Data
Graph: Food production is responsible for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, Our World in Data
Program: Backyard Habitat Certification Program, Portland Audubon and Columbia Land Trust
About:
Nicole Spencer is the founder and Principal Garden Consultant for Noble Root. She is a Gardenary-certified Garden Consultant, Kitchen Garden Coach, and Licensed Landscape Contractor specializing in raised bed edible gardens and backyard habitats. Her passion is helping clients transform their backyards into healthy, thriving, and productive oases that benefit people and pollinators in Portland-metro and Vancouver, Washington areas.
Try growing at least some of your own food at home. Just like plants need trellises for support, we all perform better with a coach guiding us along the way. Noble Root will help you grow your green thumb and edible harvests right in your backyard.
