https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/22/carbon-footprint-homegrown-food-allotment-increase/
Growing your own food in an allotment may not be as good for the environment as expected, a study suggests.
The carbon footprint of homegrown foods is five times greater than produce from conventional agricultural practices, such as rural farms, data show.
A study from the University of Michigan looked at how much CO2 was produced when growing food in different types of urban farms and found that, on average, a serving of food made from traditional farms creates 0.07kg of CO2.
The impact on the environment is almost five times higher at 0.34kg per portion for individual gardens, such as vegetable patches or allotments.
The majority of the emissions do not come from the growing of the food themselves, the scientists say, but from the infrastructure needed to allow the food to be grown.
Researchers grouped urban agriculture sites into three categories: individual or family gardens, including allotments; collective gardens, such as community gardens; and larger, commercial-orientated urban farms.
Jake Hawes, a PhD candidate at Michigan and first author of the study, said: "The most significant contributor to carbon emissions on the urban agriculture sites we studied was the infrastructure used to grow the food from raised beds to garden sheds to pathways, these constructions had a lot of carbon invested in their construction.
"Poorly managed compost and other synthetic inputs can also be important contributors, though they were not the majority on most of our sites."
Growing your own food in an allotment may not be as good for the environment as expected, a study suggests.
The carbon footprint of homegrown foods is five times greater than produce from conventional agricultural practices, such as rural farms, data show.
A study from the University of Michigan looked at how much CO2 was produced when growing food in different types of urban farms and found that, on average, a serving of food made from traditional farms creates 0.07kg of CO2.
The impact on the environment is almost five times higher at 0.34kg per portion for individual gardens, such as vegetable patches or allotments.
The majority of the emissions do not come from the growing of the food themselves, the scientists say, but from the infrastructure needed to allow the food to be grown.
Researchers grouped urban agriculture sites into three categories: individual or family gardens, including allotments; collective gardens, such as community gardens; and larger, commercial-orientated urban farms.
Jake Hawes, a PhD candidate at Michigan and first author of the study, said: "The most significant contributor to carbon emissions on the urban agriculture sites we studied was the infrastructure used to grow the food from raised beds to garden sheds to pathways, these constructions had a lot of carbon invested in their construction.
"Poorly managed compost and other synthetic inputs can also be important contributors, though they were not the majority on most of our sites."
