Gardening Reduces Climate Change
Climate change is the top challenge of humanity today and one that has guided many of my life decisions. Perhaps the biggest opportunity that everyday people have to reduce their impact on the climate is to alter their food consumption decisions. Gardening is particularly eco-friendly.
If someone gardens their food instead of purchasing it from a supermarket or delivery service:
- Less natural land is required to be transformed into agricultural land in order to feed the global population.
- The resources used to cultivate crops is mitigated - i.e. water, carbon emissions and minerals used in agrochemical production, and carbon used in farm equipment like tractors.
- The carbon used to transport agrochemicals and crops is mitigated.
- The carbon and real estate used to refrigerate and store crops is mitigated.
- Gardeners tend to choose more organic options so less toxic agricultural chemicals end up in the environment.
- Net biomass (i.e. carbon sequestering) increases as the alternative to a garden plot is often a grass lawn or thin foilage.
- People typically improve their relationship to nature through gardening and may make more ecologically conscious decisions in other areas of their lives.