Food Miles and More onFermentation

his week our main focus was directed to two projects. "Cookie miles" and fermentation. 

Cookie miles is a project that portrays the implications of non-local food sources. We discovered that almost everything we eat nowadays is imported from somewhere thousands of miles away. This method of eating is completely unsustainable as the travel time causes environmental implications such as excess co2 emissions from transportation. I was calculating how much peanut butter cookies would cost the environment, comparing imported goods to local goods. By my calculations 1069.23 grams of co2 are emitted from one batch of non-locally sourced peanut butter cookies. However a local peanut butter cookie only produces 3.99 grams of co2. As you can see, this is a drastic decrease and if people can get on board with buying locally, a lot of our environment could be saved.

The other project we focused on was fermentation. We learnt how to make pickles and kimchi as well as learning about beneficial bacteria that acts as a natural preservative. I really enjoyed making pickles as we got to see how easy it is to re-create something that can be so highly processed and unhealthy in the supermarkets, to something extremely natural. 

Overall, this was a great week filled with lots of learning and new experiences!

-Mya

Fermentation

The recent rains and storms that arrived with the new year show a new and more challenging crop season coming our way. Conditions are not expected to improve any time soon, so it is our duty as members of this class to brainstorm and discover new ways to plant, harvest, and eat crops from the farm.Today in class we observed the significance of fermentation and its place in a sustainable world. We learned that fermentation is simply yet another way to use food to its maximum ability and thus to its maximum sustainability as well. By combining lactobacilli, salt, and liquid to hard vegetables and preserving them in jars, we are able to create a food product that not only holds greater economic value than its fresh vegetable form, but that also allows for the consuming of vegetables even when they are believed to be out of season. This is probably the most interesting aspect, as this ingenuity perfectly expresses the mindset we need to have beginning this winter season. Pickling crops and focusing on planting all of the possible plants that can grow successfully during the winter season should be our main objectives. It might take a greater effort to see similar yields we saw last season, but it is a challenge that we should all be prepared to handle.

Noah

The Impact of Food Choices

So far during this winter season, we have focused on weeding and planting winter crops via transplanting. This week we planted broccoli and bok choy among others. Our understanding of food of course goes beyond just the techniques of growing food. For instance, we are learning about the impact of our food choices in terms of their original location, specifically, food miles. It measures the distance between where the food was originally grown and your grocery stores where they will be bought to bring back home. We are already making a difference by growing and promoting locally-certified sustainable food and by having this knowledge of food miles puts Sustainable Agriculture into perspective. Our food choices can be decided on whether they are being grown sustainably and not just based on nutrition by itself.

The RHS Farm contributes to a decrease in food miles since it is local. It is incredible to me how a common ingredient used in desserts such as sugar is obtained from places that require traveling overseas such as Hawaii and Brazil, which are both over 2,000 miles away, from Marin County. According to my research, Brazil is about 6,000 miles away! This distance matters because as it increases, the quality of the food decreases and CO2 emissions increase due to more transportation as mentioned in the film "Food Fight."

Learning more about food miles has made me recognize how fortunate I am to be living in a place where even more local food options are offered, which includes our own harvested crops. This is considering that as we all know, not many high schools typically offer a Sustainable Agriculture class. Although I have gained more content knowledge, this week the kind of learning I engaged was in making the connections to the activities and the larger picture.

- Andrea Silvera

Preparation for winter

This week was the first week of  second semester Sust Ag. We have started out by exploring food and planning the food we intend to plant for the winter. As we did so we also calculated the calorie and compost pounds we would potentially yield from that. Throughout the week we learned about the impact food has and how grow biointensive is improving food growth dramatically. Grow biointensive states that overall this method reduces water consumption by around 70%, calorie production by 300%, and an increase in income per unit of area by over 100%. The method we are learning about is both sustainable, more efficient at growing food, and much safer for the environment. Therefore this week we learned about how this grow biointensive method helps us save time, money, and the planet's well being.

Because this was our first time back on the farm in a couple of weeks, we came back to a bit of a messy farm. So we dedicated a great deal of time and effort to weeding and preparing the beds for our winter crops. We all addressed our one beds as well as each group was in charge of a class bed. The time we put in definitely showed but we do seem to have a little more work.

Overall this week was a great start to the new year filled with a lot of preparation and background information on what we will be doing later on and throughout the semester.

-Alyssa

Reflection

The past few weeks have been a time for reflection on the semester, and preparation time for the winter ahead. As we leave the farm unoccupied we have been making sure that our beds are in the best possible position to survive on their own. Not all of the beds are producing much because of the seasonal change, but considering the year round farming that we do, we are having some success. We are happily leaving the farm with a very well formed compost pile that will produce compost for a very good amount of time. We are beginning to plant winter crops, and hopefully we will be able to see the growth and success of these crops when we return to the RHS garden in January. It has been very interesting to watch the companions of the farm change as the seasons change, and as the semester has gone on, but it has driven away some of the key companions that have been assisting the one beds such as Wasps, and Bees. Plants haven't been getting the pollination they very much need, and Wasps haven't been there to kill the negative companions that come and chew away at the crops we are producing. The farm will always have these ups, and downs, but as long as we do our work on the farm sustainably, and efficiently, we won't need to worry about the small negatives that can come with farming. It seems as though we've all had a lot of fun, and a lot of great experiences to share, with more to come in the new year!​ —Russ