CARBON FARMING IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD

An introduction to choosing carbon sequestering plants and foods

‘It’s unbeatable to grow food in your own backyard. It’s unbeatable to grow food all through and around your city. It’s unbeatable to grow food on your roof. Those are the absolute gold standards of emissions.’

E R I C T O E N S M E I E R

GARLIC CHIVES – drought-tolerant; harvest all year round.

QUEENSLAND ARROWROOT –→ grows to 2 metres; root tastes like spuds.

MINT – grow in a shady part of the plot; needs lots of water.

SCARLET RUNNER BEANS – → best in cooler areas; spray blossoms with water in hot weather.

RASPBERRIES or BLUEBERRIES – → cooler climate.

GREEK BASIL – tiny leaves, fertilise well, harvest year round.

One of the best things you can do for the planet is to grow your own food. You can even turn your backyard into a carbon-sequestering food hub where every kilogram of vegetables you grow reduces emissions by roughly 2 kilograms (if you also compost organic waste). No pressure, but Eric Toensmeier’s home garden is a tenth of an acre and it offsets the equivalent amount of emissions that an American adult uses in a year.

Carbon-sequestering veggie patch

GROW YOUR OWN FOOD These plants can all be grown in a temperate climate. For those

in tropical climates, studies show that some home gardens can

sequester more carbon than nearby forests. (You can plant bananas,

mangoes, avocados and many other fruiting trees . . . )

WARRIGAL GREENS – cook and use like spinach or silverbeet; drought-tolerant (cook well to remove oxalic acid).

WILD ROCKET – slower growing than regular rocket and drought-tolerant; listed as a weed in some areas so grow on edge of garden bed.

BANANA TREE – varieties include Lady Finger, Dwarf Ducasse and Pisang Ceylon.

HERBS + SPICES VEGETABLES FRUIT OTHER

Chives

Fennel

Garlic

Ginger

Greek basil

Horseradish

Lavender

Lemon balm

Mint

Oregano

Parsley

Rosemary

Sage

Thyme

Asparagus

Broccoli (Nine Star or Purple Cape)

Jerusalem artichoke

Radicchio

Rhubarb

Scarlet runner beans

Silverbeet

Spring onions

Tree collards

Watercress

Yams

Apple

Apricot

Avocado

Blackberries

Cherries

Currants

Dates

Figs

Goji berries

Grapes

Kiwi fruit

Lemon

Lime

Mango

Nectarine

Olives

Orange

Peach

Pear

Persimmon

Plum

Raspberries

Strawberries

Almonds

Chestnuts

Coconut

Hazelnuts

Macadamias

Pecans

Pistachios

Walnuts

Cacao

Carob

Carbon-sequestering foods that are also good for the soil

The reality here is that all plants sequester carbon, so the more plants we eat the better. But, as we have learnt, some plants can still damage our environment when they are grown in soil that is regularly tilled, when forests are cleared to plant them, and when they are treated with lots of chemicals. Easing off the annual crops and switching more to perennial staples would be a huge help. Perennial crops don’t need to be pulled from the ground once or twice a year like most grains, sugar and soybeans do. This means they’re terrific for our environment because they store carbon in soil, they require no tilling, often need fewer chemicals and use carbon to grow their yields. The bonus is they can also provide many of the proteins, fats and carbohydrates that we require.

Here is a list of plant foods that are natural carbon-sequesters. However, any gains are reduced or lost if the food is not sourced locally (since you’re adding carbon from transport miles) and if you waste any of the food and it goes to landfill and produces methane.

CHOOSE CARBON-SEQUESTERING FOODS

Plant more bambooThere are apparently 1500 uses for bamboo (some are pretty random like ‘making beer’ and ‘improving fertility in cows’). But bamboo also happens to take carbon out of the atmosphere faster than almost any other organism (‘seaqueen’ still reigns). It can grow an inch every hour in spring. It thrives on degraded land and after being cut it sprouts and grows again, thus it’s a terrific turbo sequesterer. Bamboo can be an invasive species in some locations, but let’s hope we see more bamboo buildings, furniture, cutlery, bikes, tennis racquets, skateboards, beers and pregnant cows in the future.

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Practise afforestationThis is the practice of planting carbon-sequestering forests in areas that have been treeless for at least 50 years. Degraded agricultural land is ideal, as are median strips – or how about in some of the empty car parks we’ll create by driving fewer cars? This would be supercharged if we used more timber for building – cut the tree, carbon stays stored in the wood in a structure, new tree is planted that sequesters more carbon, and the cycle continues. (Plus, building with concrete is one of the largest single-source contributors to global greenhouse gases: 7 per cent of total emissions.)

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Protect peatlandsAlso known as bogs or mires, peatlands are basically areas of decomposing plant matter that have developed over hundreds or thousands of years. They make up just 3 per cent of the earth’s landmass but are the second biggest storer of carbon after oceans (twice as much as the world’s forests!), so preserving them or restoring damaged ones is vital. Eric Toensmeier also told me that peatlands (and wetlands) don’t have a saturation point with carbon. They can keep absorbing and absorbing, unlike soils or plants that reach a limit.

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Compost your scrapsComposting food scraps can really improve the carbon-sequestering ability of soil while also preventing more greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. As I mentioned earlier, sending our food waste to landfill is a problem due to the methane it emits. Composting can help curb this. Rather than generating methane in a landfill, the composting process converts organic material (your food) into stable soil carbon and makes it available to plants (including the ones in your vegetable garden). Paul Hawken calls it a ‘refuse to riches story’. See page 144 to learn how to set up an easy compost system in your yard and contribute to the regeneration.

Restore tropical forestsTropical forests once covered 12 per cent of the earth’s landmass, but now cover just 5 per cent. Even as deforestation persists, the regrowth of tropical forests can sequester up to a phenomenal 6 billion tonnes of CO2 a year! That’s roughly the same amount of CO2 as the total annual emissions from the US. According to the World Resources Institute, ‘More than 4.8 billion acres worldwide offer opportunities for forest restoration – an area larger than South America.’

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Plant more tropical staple treesBananas, breadfruit, avocados, brazil nuts, chestnuts, coconuts and carob are all harvested from trees that require no tilling of the soil, need fewer pesticides and fertiliser, and use carbon to grow their tasty goods. They are great for hilly or undulated landscapes that may be difficult for regular crops to grow on. Please note that some forests are being cleared to plant avocado trees. We don’t want this: let’s leave the forests and plant the avocado trees on degraded lands that need help (Project Drawdown found there are 400 million hectares of abandoned or degraded farmland around the world).

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Practise multistrata agroforestry I witnessed this in Tanzania: coffee, cacao, bananas and macadamias all grown together at different heights on small parcels of land. The soil quality was incredible, as was the taste of the various foods. Why spend all the money on invasive, high-tech fixes to sequester carbon when we can heal the planet while having more chocolate, coffee, bananas and avocados? Viva la revolucion!

OTHER WAYS TO SEQUESTER CARBON FROM THE ATMOSPHERE

In a time when large high-tech solutions to global warming are being discussed, such as carbon-sucking machines on the edges of our cities or aerosols that reflect sunlight being dispersed into the atmosphere, here are some simpler biological solutions that have cascading benefits for all life on Earth.

Store bread, nuts and seeds in the freezer.

Keep spuds and onions in a cool, dark cupboard (plus other root veggies if your house is cool enough).

Store tomatoes, avocados and other fruit on the bench.

Loosely wrap leafy veggies in clean tea-towels and store in the crisper.

Store fresh food to maximise its lifespan

Reduce food waste

Just give them a good wash.

Use the whole vegetable: roots, stems and leaves

Make ‘rice’ from broccoli or cauli stalks (or just cook them with the rest of the meal)

Roast pumpkin skins

Toss radish tops, beet greens and celery tops in salads.

Or if you have to buy them fresh, chop and freeze leftovers in olive oil or wine.

Store them in the fridge or freezer.

Take a list and never shop when you’re hungry!

Cook ready-to-go meals in bulk Don’t peel

root veggies

Grow your own herbs

Buy only what you need

ike many of us, Damon Gameau has spent most of his adult years overwhelmed into inaction by the problem of climate change and its devastating

effects on the planet. But when Damon became a father, he knew he couldn’t

continue to look away. So he decided to do what he does best, and tell a story. And the story became an imagining of what the world could look like in 2040, if we all decided to start doing things differently, right now.

The result is the era-defining documentary 2040 – a meticulously researched plea for the adoption of community-building, energy-generating, connection-forging, forest-renewing, ocean-replenishing measures that science tells us will reset our planet’s health, drive our economies and improve lives across the globe.

2040: A Household Handbook for the Regeneration shows us how we can stitch this magnificent vision into everyday life by engaging in activities such as cooking, shopping, gardening, sharing, working and teaching our kids. It shows us that climate change is a practical problem that can be tackled by each of us and that we can make a genuine difference – if we know what to do.

Brimming with practical wisdom and including 50 recipes, this book will empower you to become the change you want to see in the world.

‘ The future can’t be predicted but it can be envisioned and brought lovingly into being.’

DONELLA MEADOWS

This getting started guide contains sample pages from  2040: A Handbook for the Regeneration  by Damon Gameau

Click here to buy the entire book

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