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Climate resilience: Food [1]

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Date: 2023-10-21  

Food is becoming an increasingly important aspect of adjusting to Climate Change/Global Warming. What we eat, how it is produced, and where it comes from are all things we need to ponder in addition to the monetary cost of food, which is likely to increase dramatically in the years ahead as the climate crisis causes multiple crop failures around the globe.

What we eat may affect the global climate. Imported foods and meat (especially beef) typically have a large carbon footprint. Highly processed food, even domestically produced, may have a relatively large carbon footprint compared to locally or regionally produced unprocessed foods. My personal goal is to transition to a largely homegrown or regionally produced diet, and cut out most processed foods and beef.

I’m not very good at growing food, though I’m getting incrementally better. Our climate here is particularly challenging, with a couple of months with periods of below freezing temperatures in the winter, and a couple of months with highs in the upper 90s or even low 100s in the summer, causing two dormant seasons during which little will grow. It’s possible we will eventually lose most of our freezing nights, becoming similar to the dry subtropics, but I expect with “weather weirding” we’ll still get just enough hard freezes to keep cool-season growing a challenge.

Because I don’t know what the climate will be like, except challenging, I’m trying to grow as many different food plants as possible. A few have done exceptionally well this year in spite of our horrid weather:

Moringa

Tatume Summer Squash Cucurbita pepo

Brazilian Spinach Alternantha sissoo

Sweet Potato

Yellow Potato

Joseph Lofthouse Small-fruited Moschata Winter Squash Cucurbita moschata

I recommend folks in similar climates give these a try.

Sources:

Moringa

Tatume Squash

Brazilian Spinach

Potatoes — grocery store

Joseph Lofthouse doesn’t appear to be selling seeds right now, but here’s a video

(I have some seeds from plants I grew from his seeds but I can’t guarantee they are pure Lofthouse)

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/21/2183177/-Climate-resilience-Food?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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