Better access to fresh, local food helps your community fight climate change

A wonderful, essential concept to build your community around is food. There are three main areas in which we can do so. First, by working with our neighbors to improve our community’s access to local, fresh food, we can spend more time in healthy environments while building greater community cohesiveness and fighting climate change at the same time. And according to the Center for Excellence in Fruit and Vegetable Quality at the University of California, fruits and vegetables begin to lose nutrients as soon as they’re harvested, so locally produced food can be more nutritious! 

We can also cut down on food waste by growing food closer to home and composting. One-third of the food we grow never makes it to a plate due to spoilage, willful rejection of ugly produce, and just plain waste. Much of that wasted food creates methane, a greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, making up about 8% of global emissions (see https://drawdown.org/solutions/reduced-food-waste). 

Photo by Kelly via Pexels.com.

Third, we can make a huge impact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions by eating lower on the food chain, the network who consumes what in terms of plants and animals. Plants are at the bottom of the food chain, and apex predators, like us, are at or near the top, with animals raised for their meat somewhere in the middle. Impressive climate benefits result from eating the fruits and vegetables that are lower on the food chain:

• Raising and preparing meat, especially cattle, for consumption requires extensive grasslands, now often created by cutting down trees that would otherwise absorbing carbon. According to the website Our World in Data, we lose 6 million hectares of forests, an area the size of Portugal, annually, and 40 per cent of that is for livestock grazing.
• Cows and sheep emit methane when they digest plants. As if that wasn’t bad enough, cattle feces and chemical fertilizers used to raise cattle feed emit nitrous oxide, another potent greenhouse gas (learn more about this at the United Nations website.
• Also, according to a 2013 study, a plant-based diet is better for your health, reducing obesity, diabetes, blood pressure and cholesterol, on average. And, contrary to popular belief, it’s easy to get all the protein we need from nuts, seeds, beans, and some veggies like asparagus.  And, if you have better health, you are less susceptible to heat stress, and have more energy to take action.

The importance of Community

But why the community focus on access to locally produced food, especially fruits and vegetables? Community-based agricultural production and waste reduction practices, which can reduce greenhouse gasses released in the production, transportation, and decomposition of food,¹ are more likely to be successful if we collaborate with our neighbors. If we can build a community culture of raising our own food, we can carry each other through those days when we feel too tired or overwhelmed to work on food production and make it more likely that there’s enough food for everyone. Besides, building trust among community members creates social capital, community resilience, and resilience to climate shocks.²

Photo courtesy by Annette Olson

Part of building community is the fact that neighbors are influenced by seeing or hearing about each other’s behavior. Sometimes, especially with regard to our lifestyle choices, that happens as a sort of “keeping up with the Joneses” imitation. Just as important is what we say about those choices to our friends and neighbors. If we can influence our social circle and the influence is widespread enough, it can create a ripple effect, spreading beyond your neighborhood to other nearby areas. As the idea of working together to produce local food spreads, it could theoretically reach a tipping point: a point when many people rapidly and dramatically change their behavior by widely adopting a previously rare practice, like eating a plant-based diet. That tipping point can be closer than we think: a study published in Nature and reviewed in Psychology Today claims that with only 25 per cent of a population, a minority perspective was able to overturn the majority.

Here’s an example of how such a change could begin: a Max Planck Institute study claims that when meat-eaters are accompanied by vegetarians and have a choice of eating dishes with or without meat, they’re more likely to choose a vegetarian dish. What’s more, this probability increases as the number of vegetarians accompanying the meat eaters increases. If we begin with that idea of of passive influence and add some more direct approaches to spread the idea, you can just imagine the effect that could have on climate change! 

Photo by Matheus Bertelli via Pexels.com

Another example of passive influence is gardening: a 2012 University of Michigan study found that it was “2.4 times as likely that a property holds an easement garden (a privately installed garden within a street-side space owned and regulated by local government) if a property within 30 m[eters] holds one….” The gardens in the study weren’t necessarily food gardens, but they could have been.

We can begin building community and influencing each other’s lifestyles in a number of food-related ways, ranging from simple events like potlucks and cooking clubs to larger-scale efforts like garden tool libraries, and we list many other ideas below. And if you’d like some advice on how to start a community co-op, it’s right here!

Once we’ve created and strengthened our local communities, we can get involved in community organizing, e.g., creating a durable organization(s) that represents our food interests, allowing us to influence key decision-makers on a range of issues over time, including global warming.

Sound good? Here are some ideas for steps you and your neighbors can take to get things rolling and improve your access to fresh local produce:

Photo courtesy of Alicia Serratos

• Seed Saving: According to Bioversity International, conventional farming grows a lot fewer species of fruits and vegetables than we used to, and this decrease in diversity makes crops more vulnerable to pests, disease and climate shocks.³  The Yale School of the Environment says it’s in our best interest to save and share a wide diversity of food seeds to increase the likelihood that food crops will survive climate shocks. Also, we don’t have to buy seeds if we save them, so we can save our money for more urgent needs. In many places, people start seed libraries for this purpose. Libraries can operate in a variety of ways, and some require gardeners to return some of the seeds of the plants grown from the “loaned” seeds to the library so that there are always enough for people to “borrow.” Here‘s a guide, and here‘s an organization that’s making seeds more accessible.
• Composting involves gathering vegetable (non-grain) food waste and letting it decompose in order to create soil to grow plants in. Food waste that isn’t composted but instead buried in landfills  produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.¹ Because composted soil is rich in nutrients, it increases soil fertility, which can result in better harvests (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency). By developing a community-composting program, we can increase the number of our neighbors participating and
• 

  Cooperative composting, by Conscious Design, via Unsplash.com

  Cooperative composting, by Conscious Design, via Unsplash.comdevelop plans and procedures for returning composted soil to local food gardens (Forbes). Similarly, Vermicompost involves combining the same kitchen food waste with worms. Not only do the worms help to decompose the food scraps into soil, but they also leave behind worm castings with even more soil nutrients (Yale Climate Connections). Want to get started? Look here.

• Increase Food Near You: Communities can decrease the greenhouse gas emissions related to food transportation and food spoilage by having members collaborate to increase the availability of food nearby. This is great for a few reasons. For one, produce begins to lose nutrients right after it’s harvested, so the closer it’s grown to where we live, the more nutritious it is (University of Reading). Second, as mentioned above, working together on these projects builds familiarity, trust, and a willingness to work together among community members.
  

  Photo by David Clode via Unsplash.com

  • Community Gardening is related to climate change mitigation in a few ways. Gardens draw down carbon and tie more of it to the soil than lawns can (Washington State University) Community gardens can also affect urban heat islands, areas in cities where all the building and street materials absorb and transmit heat.⁴ Vegetation in urban settings cools the air through evapotranspiration: when plants “exhale,” they release cooling moisture along with oxygen (Brittanica). Also, gardens do a great job of retaining storm water so that it’s absorbed by the ground (Iowa Department of Natural Resources), which can reduce the impact of flooding.
  • Yard Sharing is related to community gardening; it involves neighbors growing food for each other. Plants that require more sunlight are grown in sunnier lawns, while plants that can do well in shade are grown in shady lawns. Then neighbors share their harvests!
  • Garden Sharing is similar to yard sharing in that neighbors make use of each other’s lawns for growing food and can share harvests. The difference is that with garden sharing, one person who’s not interested in creating a lawn garden can allow someone else to use their lawn for that purpose.
  • Community Roof Vegetable Gardens, also known as rooftop farming, are community-created or shared food gardens on the roofs of buildings. But it takes a little more work than a neighborhood garden: unless you’re growing everything in pots, roof
    

    Chicago Botanic Garden.” McCormick Place Rooftop Farm, part of Windy City Harvest, courtesy of Chicago Botanic Garden.

    garden systems generally require a waterproof membrane and other barriers to protect roofs from plant roots and water, as well as systems for drainage and irrigation.⁵ The roofs also need to be strong enough to handle the additional weight. But it’s worth it! Instead of letting the top of your buildings absorb heat, creating a greater need for air conditioning and the associated greenhouse gas associated with using more fossil fuel energy, we can keep our rooftops cool. Keeping rooftops cool can, in turn, make urban heat islands less likely (United States Environmental Protection Agency. There’s lots of how-to information out there. You can start exploring here (MasterClass).

    

    Photo by Zen Chung via pexels.com

  • Agrihoods are neighborhoods organized or planned to include space for growing enough food to feed the community.  Instead of having a food garden on the outskirts of our towns, it’s part of the community; there’s food growing everywhere! Learn more here (World Economic Forum).
  • Community Orchards are orchards that are managed by communities for the purpose of having more fresh fruit available locally. Although we could probably have a few fruit trees as part of an agrihood, this is a greater endeavor involving more trees. If we have too many trees in an agrihood, however, we would block the full sun that many vegetables need to grow and ripen. The garden/orchard should be well planned around sunlight. (For a bigger step that involves growing our food plants with the fruit trees on a bigger scale, see forest gardening below.) 
  • Forest Gardening involves creating a multi-level garden that includes all the mutually supporting layers of plants that would
    

    Forest Garden Diagram by Diagram by Graham Burnet. Image via Wikimedia Commons licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

    be found in any wild forest. The top layer is food-producing trees. Beneath that are small trees and shrubs that either produce food or support the other plants in some way, and the floor of the forest includes herbs and root crops. The forest becomes self-supporting because either seeds from fruit and vegetables are allowed to fall and take root or perennial plants regrow annually. It’s a great example of permaculture, which can be defined as “a sustainable and largely self-sufficient agricultural system. ”Here’s a resource for learning more. 

  • Food Rescue refers to the practice of rescuing food that would otherwise be disposed of from farms, restaurants, and grocery stores (see the related action dumpster diving) and then making it available to the community in a variety of ways, including food pantries or shelves and community fridges (see below). Although individuals can certainly rescue food on their own, communities can make food rescue part of a local culture of respecting food, and coordinated efforts make it less likely that food will be wasted, thus reducing food transportation miles, and resulting in lower local methane emissions associated with rotting produce. 
    

    Photo by Nicholas Githiri via Pexels.com

  • Small Livestock: Communities can also raise small livestock like chickens and rabbits. Chickens produce eggs for consumption, and old chickens can be dinner.  Similarly, raising rabbits, also referred to as cuniculture , can be harvested for their meat and fur (or pelts), and the fur can be used to make clothing. In some municipal areas, raising small livestock is illegal, so the community may have to work with local municipalities to change the law or zoning (learn more from the Connecticut Resource Conservation & Development Area here).But how would raising small livestock reduce greenhouse gas emissions? In a few ways: if you’re raising the food you’re going to eat, it won’t need to be transported to you, cutting down on emissions tied to burning fuel. Also, if you’re making your own clothes with rabbit fur, then you’re buying fewer items of clothing, decreasing emissions tied to the extraction of raw materials, processing, assembly and transportation.
    

    Image by Lance Beecher, Clemson University

  • Aquaponics involves a closed, mutually supportive system with plants floating on water and fish swimming in that water. The fish eat the plants, and the fish waste is a nutrient source for the plants. Both fish and plants can be used as a local food source. There’s usually enough fish waste to extract from the system to use as fertilizer for gardens. Also, because there’s no need for land or soil, aquaponics are an option in urban areas with little room for gardens. This approach is also a possibility for individuals, but it can be somewhat expensive, and a community could divide the cost. Here‘s a guide (Planet Natural).
  • In Community-supported Agriculture (CSA), farms grow food for nearby communities. The community buys shares of food at the beginning of the season so that the CSA farmers know they have a market for what they grow, creating a closer relationship between the community and local farmers, and that cohesion can improve all participants’ resilience to future climate shocks. You can read more about CSAs here.
  • Fruit-tree Propagation, or grafting, allows fruit-bearing branches of one tree to be joined to another tree, resulting in a greater density of local food sources. Although individuals can do this, greater density of fruit-bearing branches grafted to trees in one locality can be achieved by organizing as much of the community as possible, including municipal government and local businesses. These kind of grafted fruit trees could be a great inclusion in agrihoods, for which the extra shade from multiple trees with various kinds of fruit might result in too much shade for the plants that require full sun. Learn more here.
    

    Photo by Middleground1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

  • A Community Fridge is a free community refrigerator, stocked by the community for the purpose of feeding, for free, local community members who are food insecure. By increasing access to food, the community increases its resilience to future climate shocks and builds trust among neighbors. Here‘s a guide to setting one up.
  • Foraging is the practice of finding natural, non-agriculture food sources. In developed countries, foraging may require education, since many people are not aware of which wild foods are safe to consume. We can forage in forests near municipalities, but it can also be done in urban areas.  Want to know more?  Look here.
  • Dumpster Diving or gleaning is the practice of rescuing food (and, in the case of dumpster diving, other useful items) from grocery store and restaurant garbage dumpsters. In some areas like the U.S., approximately 21.5% of grocery trash is composed of edible food products.⁶ By retrieving this food before it spoils, communities not only make more food available, but reduce the emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. While individuals can dumpster dive, dumpsters are not designed for people to climb inside them, so it may be safer for groups to participate. Also, dumpster divers can work with the community to widely distribute the food they find.
  • A Permablitz is a community event in which neighbors turn a yard or an empty lot into a food garden within one or a few days, depending on the size of the lot and the number of participants. This can include guerrilla gardening, where the permission has not been given to garden in that location. Obviously, if we don’t have permission to create a garden in an empty lot, we need to think about the consequences. You can find more information here.
    

    Photo by Ray Shrewsberry via Unsplash.com

• Food Preservation is the act of inhibiting food spoilage in order to feed more people longer. Methods include food drying, freezing,canning, and storage in root Photo by Ray Shrewsberry via Unsplash.com cellars. Although individuals can participate in any of these and most full-size refrigerators have freezer sections, many people are unaware of these methodologies, and communities could educate each other to spread knowledge of preservation options.
• Helping our neighbors eat greener stuff: Many of our neighbors are used to eating meat and might not be ready or willing to give it up. What are options for either helping them to change their dietary habits or at least making those habits less harmful?
  • Host Vegan-ingredient Tasting Parties: In many cases, your meat-eating neighbors may not know what the alternatives taste like. Give them a chance to try meatless dishes at a vegan tasting party. You could also offer some vegan dishes at your dinner parties and barbecues, and let people know that what they’re enjoying is meatless!
  • Donate Vegan and Vegetarian Recipe Books to Your Local Library: It’s all about access! If we can give people greater access to more options, they may be willing to experiment with new meatless meals.
  • Buy Meat from Local, Mindful Butchers: People not yet willing to give up eating meat can at least acquire it from a local butcher willing to talk about how the animals were raised. One will get a fresher product, have a sense whether the animals were grass-fed and not given growth hormones), and the meat should have traveled less, reducing the greenhouse gasses tied to transportation emissions. When friends ask where one has gotten the steaks at dinner, tell them about a wonderful local butcher who considers the environment in their products.

As you can see, there are lots of ways for every community to get started. What’s right for you? Consider talking to some neighbors, finding a starting point, and get more fresh, local food!

References

1. Jean Buzby. “Food Waste and its Links to Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2022, retrieved 6/11/23
2. Carmen, E., Fazey, I., Ross, H. et al. ‘Building community resilience in a context of climate change: The role of social capital,” Springer Nature, 2022, 51, 1371–1387. Retrieved 11 June, 2023
3. Charly Frist, ‘How seed diversity can help protect our food as the world warms’ Yale Climate Connections, 3/30/2023. Retrieved 12/2/2023.
4. ’What You Can Do to Reduce Heat Islands.’ United States Environmental Protection Agency, July 10, 2023. Retrieved 12/2/2023.
5. Rokon Uz Zaman, ‘Design and development of smart irrigation system for watering rooftop garden.’ Review of Plant Studies, 2022 Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 12-18. Retrieved 12/2/2023.
6. Yaqub M., ‘How Much Food do Grocery Stores Throw Away,’ BusinessDIT, 2022, retrieved 6/15/23.

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Contributors: Mark Stewart, Annette Olson, Shoshana Risman

Funded by Wikimedia Foundation via the project WikiCred in January 2023, grant ###