Urban agriculture beats conventional agriculture on climate — if it’s done right
Several commonly air-freighted crops can grow well in home plots, like green beans and berries.
By Saul Elbein
The Hill
01/22/24
Excerpt:
That means that those materials must “pay back” the planet-warming energy used to create them within just a few years before being thrown away, whether or not they have use left in them.
“A raised bed used for five years will have approximately four times the environmental impact, per serving of food, as a raised bed used for 20 years,” they wrote.
By contrast, infrastructure for commercial agriculture may be in use for decades, reducing the total carbon cost of the food that is grown there.
To increase the benefits of locally growing these high-value plants, the authors urged urban farmers and city planners to try to squeeze as much life out of their materials — and “residual waste streams” — as possible.
They also suggested reusing urban waste streams — from construction materials to build raised beds, city compost to infuse garden soils with nutrients and recaptured greywater for irrigation — to further cut the climate costs of growing locally.
The more climate-friendly sites that they studied cut emissions by nearly half by “upcycling” waste wood and stone for building gardens.
