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  • From: Nan Hildreth <NanHildreth AT riseup.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc: RobertARandall AT comcast.net, "TimCMock-gmail.com" <TimCMock AT gmail.com>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Greens are the beef of vegetarianism
  • Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 22:48:53 -0500

Everyone is right, I'd say. I read last week that they fly baby greens from Africa to Europe. But local, organic greens are MUCH, MUCH better than beef according to the EPA 2010 Greenhouse Gas Inventory.http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads10/US-GHG-Inventory-2010_Chapter6-Agriculture.pdf

I got a wild hair to dig into this. I got my arms around the nitrogen cycle, not that we're best friends yet. Here's my report.

Agricultural methane has more impact on the climate than cars. http://www.grist.org/article/2009-05-21-on-cow-burps-meat-and-methane/ Ag nitrous oxide emissions are an even bigger deal. http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads10/US-GHG-Inventory-2010_Chapter6-Agriculture.pdf But the EPA dodged the question of the climate impact of transporting food, on the average, 1,000 miles to market. Guy Dauncey claims that meat production, including transport, is 18% of global greenhouse gases (GHGs), more than global transport. http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/climate-solutions/the-solution-on-our-dinner-plates

Cow burps and farts account for 3/4 of ag methane. (Chicken and horse digestion is different.) Anaerobic rotting of manure is the second main source. http://epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/downloads10/US-GHG-Inventory-2010_Chapter6-Agriculture.pdf

The biggie, nitrous oxide comes mainly from wasted chemical fertilzer and anaerobic rot. http://www.ghgonline.org/nitroustempsoil.htm And vast amounts of GHGs are emitted in making synthetic fertilizer. http://www.grist.org/article/2009-11-11-the-dark-side-of-nitrogen If you add nitrogen when some other nutrient deficiency is limiting plant growth, then nitrous oxide emissions from the soil zoom. In tropical or subtropical soils, like mine, typically nitrogen is not the limiting factor. http://www.ghgonline.org/nitroustropsoil.htm Emissions are twice as high when anhydrous ammonia instead of urea supplies the N in N-P-K. http://soil.scijournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/74/2/407

If your soil is soggy or short on air due to compaction, organic matter rots anaerobically. So your good organic nitrogen is lost to the air as N2 emitting nasty nitrous oxide in the process. http://www.ghgonline.org/nitroustropsoil.htm

The good news for the climate is that the price of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer has gone up about 75% since 2006. http://www.mongabay.com/images/commodities/charts/chart-index_fertilizers.html It should climb slowly and then in 2018, climb quickly as global natural gas production starts to fall. http://www.hubbertpeak.com/gas/

US natural gas production is already in decline and US N fertilizer production dropped 40% between 1998 and 2008. In ten years, maybe 12 years, we will be asking Russia for an ammonia fix. http://www.grist.org/article/2010-02-11-tracking-u.s.-farmers-supply-nitrogen-fertilizer

National energy independence? How about fertilizer independence? Appreciate our manure.

Nan still searching for a great hot weather green for zone 8b.

At 02:35 PM 6/16/2010, John Paul Endicott wrote:
Interesting article. I can't say I'm surprised:

<http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/16/arugula-the-beef-of.html>http://www.boingboing.net/2010/06/16/arugula-the-beef-of.html

Depending on where you live, eating baby spinach or arugula is almost like eating a burger, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. It's that intense. Sure, if you live in the Central Valley of California, or in Florida, not so. But most people live very far from those places. If you live east of longitude 100 [Draw a line through the middle of the Dakotas—MKB] and north of, say, Jesse Helms country, you have no business eating greens at all between October and June. Again, you know, you're free to do whatever you want, but if you want to be really careful about your greenhouse gas footprint, this is what you should do.

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Nan Hildreth 713-842-6643

Action is the antidote to despair....
Joan Baez




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