Here is a new idea. Instead of buying carbon offsets to order to shrink your environmental footprint, why not create a garden in your yard, roof, window sill, fire escape, dorm room, truck bed, driveway? Food is something we humans have a hard time going without, and in a previous blog I discussed how far our food flies to arrive on our plate. This food transportation creates tons of pollution and greenhouse gases, more than you really think about. For example, ponder the last gallon of gas you pumped into your car, how far did that gas travel to get to the station, how much energy did it take to refine that gallon... and so on.
Reduce your footprint by producing some of your own food just feet from where it will be consumed. Or buy local, or you can trade some of your extra zucchinis with a neighbor who has a peach tree in their yard, hit two greenhouse gases with one stone. Join a CSA!! Create a community garden, imagine meeting members of your community while getting dirty picking radishes. Reinstate the block party and provide dinner from gardens on the block.
Fill your plate with a salad from your garden, think back to the energy that is behind those leafy greens. There maybe some compost in there saved from the trash. Possibly humanure depending on your hippie level. Grass clipping mulch or raked leaves scavenged off of curves on yard waste pick up days, the seeds probably traveled the furthest depending on where you purchased them . Or if you are sporting a container garden, you could have made self watering containers out of trash, and bought yourself some potting soil. Maybe you became inspired to create your own organic fertilizer on a small scale and invested in a worm composting system that is small enough to keep on your kitchen table. Most of the energy that went into your plate of salad came from the sun, allowing your plants to photosynthesize and grow.
