With respect to import / export of food, one of the biggest impacts we can have is eating locally and seasonally. For example, fresh strawberries used to be a treat as they have a relatively short production season. At some point, it went commercial / industrial and now we can get fresh strawberries year round, when buying locally we can usually only get them for about a month. However, the ones we get in the winter are pale inside (rather than the bright red of a freshly-picked ripe strawberry) and there isn't much in the way of flavour. What if we only purchased the local ones in season, treated them as a treat, and perhaps processed some for the off-season? One comment I've heard noted is that it takes an average of 9 or 10 (I forget which) kCal to get every 1 kCal of food in the supermarket. That can be through transport, processing, etc. It's certainly something to think on. Whenever I hear someone talk about the energy of food or how cattle are killing the planet, I think about this number, roll my eyes, and consider whether I want to engage or just walk away.
At a summit I attended last year (I think it was the Ecosystem Restoration Camps...this year's summit is coming up soon), a government official from an African nation (I'm afraid I don't recall which one) mentioned that they export all their production of maize (corn) after harvest, then import at a different time of year. How does that make sense? On top of that, on a continent with food security issues, why are they growing a crop that originated in North America rather than whatever was more of a staple for them in earlier times? It was noted that they're battling some sort of pest that the only natural predators occur in North America. Sigh.
I don't mean to be preaching here...I just think people need to think more about their food, where it comes from, and the choices we make.
On another note, I was out to the country briefly today and took a couple photos. We've had a bit of warmer weather in the past week, and had a couple days up around the freezing mark.
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That's a stark contrast between the field around our property with no vegetation / significant stubble and the snow piled up on our property. There is some exposed ground at our place, but that will go away as I plant more materials. The dark in the foreground is from the wind erosion on fields like that around us. To the right side, we see currants that are probably 75-100 cm tall.
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I didn't have my pruning saw with me today. I think I'm going to take this apple down to just above the graft and make a point of protecting it better. One thing I learned this winter is that the critters doing this are not snowshoe hares, but white-tailed jackrabbits. I hadn't realized there was more than one variety that changes to white in the winter. The jackrabbit is quite a bit bigger than a snowshoe hare.
Back in February, I did place an order for plant material from one of our regular sources. There are some perennials in the mix (sunchoke and asparagus), but it's mostly trees and shrubs. I'd counted at one point and it totals over 200 plants that I'll get to deal with in spring. Of course, that isn't counting seeds nor the additional plant material we plan to obtain.
On another note, yesterday was a Seedy Saturday event. Happily, it was walking distance from the house. I spent far more than hoped, but far less than feared. There was a bit of a seed exchange, and some information booths as well as some commercial booths. There were also a number of speakers - I managed to take in one talk about pollinator support and another about pruning fruit trees. It was really good and it supported a local community group.
