What does Sustainable Food Mean to You? (video)
Not coming from the sustainable food movement directly, I can easily see how many people (maybe even most people) do not have a clear idea what is meant by sustainable food, or sustainable agriculture. Organic, I think many people understand as the absence of “bad” things like pesticides, chemical fertilizers, animal hormones, etc.. But that is far from the whole picture. The beauty of sustainability is its a larger umbrella that covers care for the environment, social justice for workers, fair equity return for the farmer, respect for the people who eat the food (eaters), and the strengthening of local food economies.
Here’s a brief sampling of definitions for sustainable food from around the web:
Sustainable Table:
Sustainable agriculture involves food production methods that are healthy, do not harm the environment, respect workers, are humane to animals, provide fair wages to farmers, and support farming communities.
BBC News:
Rather than steaming ahead at the current rate, with little thought for future generations, sustainability is about seeking ways of providing food, water and energy that are long-lasting and have less of an impact on the environment.
Yale Sustainable Food Project:
We say that “a practice can be called sustainable if and only if it can be continued indefinitely without degrading the systems and resources upon which it relies.”
National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA):
Sustainable agriculture is one that produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources or polluting its environment. It is agriculture that follows the principles of nature to develop systems for raising crops and livestock that are, like nature, self-sustaining. Sustainable agriculture is also the agriculture of social values, one whose success is indistinguishable from vibrant rural communities, rich lives for families on the farms, and wholesome food for everyone.
Slow Food
We believe that the food we eat should taste good; that it should be produced in a clean way that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health; and that food producers should receive fair compensation for their work.
The fiery Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food International, and the poet-philosopher of the sustainable food movement gets to the soul of the matter in these brief snippets pulled from a talk last year in Portland, Oregon. For those who like to consume their information whole, the entire talk is available here: From Fast Food Nation to Slow Food Nation
What does sustainable food or sustainable agriculture mean to you?
Tags: carlo petrini, local food, organic, slow food, sustainability, sustainable agriculture, sustainable community
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Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using nutrients, in water, without soil. Plants may be grown with their roots in the nutrient solution only, or in a medium such as hydroton clay pellets, perlite, rockwool, or coco (coconut husks). Soiless mixes usually carry 0% nutrients so the gardener can utilize the perfect combination of nutrients for the crop. Researchers discovered when nutrients are dissolved in water, plant roots are able to absorb them. Plants that are not traditionally grown in a climate, could be grown using a controlled environment system like hydroponics. Hydroponics, or soil-less cultivation, is a standard technique of research and teaching -and is widely used today. Hydroponics has many benefits and is being adapted around the world for food production. The water used to grow stays in the system, and can be reused, lowering water costs. Pest & disease control is easier due to the container’s mobility. Nutrition levels can be controlled, and no pollution is released into the environment because of the controlled system. Hydroponics has been proven to be very practical, and have definite advantages over conventional methods of growing. Hydroponics also produces much higher crop yields, and can be used in places where in-ground gardening is not possible.
Numerous nutrients for hydroponics are available. Many use different combinations of chemicals or organic materials to reach similar total final compositions. Commonly used materials for the macronutrients include potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and magnesium sulfate. Various micronutrients are typically added to hydroponics nutrients to supply essential elements. The most popular manufacturers of nutrients on the market today include: Advanced Nutrients, Foxfarm, General Hydroponics, Botanicare, Humboldt Nutrients, Technaflora, and many more.
In addition to nutrients, indoor gardening requires a grow light. Grow lights provide a light spectrum plants need for photosynthesis, similar to that from the sun. Different stages of plant growth require different spectra. The initial vegetative stage requires blue spectrum, which a metal halide (MH) grow light would provide. The later flowering stage requires a red-orange spectrum, a high pressure sodium (HPS) grow light would provide. Grow lights are also manufactured full spectrum. Grow lights are normally used in conjunction with a reflector to control and intensify the light emissions, and will include a digital or magnetic ballast. Metal halide (MH) and high pressure sodium (HPS) are considered high intensity discharge (HID) grow lamps. HID grow lights are the most widely used for indoor gardening, but are not the only option. There is a range of bulb types that can be used as grow lights, such as incandescent, fluorescent lamps, and LEDs. The three most common varieties of lighting for indoor growing are High-intensity discharge lamps (the most prevalent for this application being: high pressure sodium (HPS) for flowering and metal halide (MH) for growing), Compact fluorescent lamps, and traditional Fluorescent lamps. LED lights are becoming more popular for grow rooms due to their low energy requirements and low heat output. Light is essentially “plant food”; everything else that we provide to a plant serves the purpose of helping it digest and use the light. As the plant grows larger, it requires an increasing amount of light. There is no substitute for light: if the amount of light received by the plant is insufficient, the plant will stretch, and / or growth will slow to a halt.
Due to the heat generated by high power grow lights, grow rooms will often become hot relative to the temperature range ideal for plant growth, often necessitating the use of a supplemental ventilation fan. As a controlled environment, grow rooms offer many advantages over outdoor alternatives. However, without adequate ventilation, the plants may consume resources, like oxygen and carbon dioxide (Co2), faster than they can be replenished. Adequate gas exchange is necessary for optimal plant growth. Ventilation is also an important method for maintaining an optimal temperature for plant growth. Advanced grow rooms even include air conditioning to keep running temperatures down, as well as Co2 to boost the plant’s growth rate. With pest & diseases reduced, and nutrients constantly fed to the roots, productivity in hydroponics is high, although plant growth can be limited by the low levels of carbon dioxide (Co2) in the atmosphere, or limited light exposure. To increase yield further, some sealed greenhouses inject carbon dioxide (Co2) into their grow room to help vegetative growth (CO2 enrichment).
Wow, I’m impressed with all the fascinating and diverse answers. Sustainability certainly has it’s confusing array of answers. This has also got me thinking about what it means, in accordance with food as well as with lifestyle.
I like Colleen’s answer. If we grew our own food and/or were dependent upon local growers to supply us with what we can’t grow, there’s a sense of balance there.
But then how do these issues fit into our needs to have fresh pineapple and grapes when they don’t grow nearby?
This is my definition of sustainable:
A product can be considered sustainable if its production enables the resources from which it was made to continue to be available for future generations. A sustainable product can thus be created repeatedly without generating negative environmental effects, without causing waste products to accumulate as pollution, and without compromising the well being of workers or communities.
@amy I agree with you, sustainability is the ability to survive over time. And, definitely not short time frames measured in wallstreet quarterly earnings marks.
@Kathleen Definitely, good, wholesome food has to be affordable for everyone, not just people of means. In my opinion, if the food movement is to transform our industrial food system into sustainable local and regional food economies, somehow, even those without means still need access to good food. The world is getting smaller, and we are all in this together.
You have to be able to imagine your great grandchildren eating this same food you are when there’s no more fossil fuels, so that means learn to like the stuff that grows near you and grow some yourself.
I would add that sustainable food means that everyone has enough to eat, and that what they get to eat is healthy. And that people cooperate to make this happen, so that an overly-heavy burden doesn’t fall on any one person, family, or organization.
To me, sustainability in in food is no different that sustainability anywhere else; it has to be “sustainable” economically as well as socially and environmentally.