Dear Friends & Neighbors,

fresh vegetable basket (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

beautiful green zucchinis (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

beautiful greens (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

beautiful tomatoes (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

beautiful tomatoes (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

fresh radishes (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

beautiful purple cabbage (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

beautiful greens kale vegetables (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

greens & red peppers (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

beautiful green lettuce leaves (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

beautiful greens (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

 

(Please click on red links & note magenta)

Since our previous post on What Should We Do About This “New Normal”, I’ve received multiple comments and emails asking about the significance of reducing food waste or increasing local food production on climate change.

About a third of all food produced, by weight, for human consumption is lost or wasted. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food loss and waste accounts for about 4.4 gigatonenes of greenhouse gas emissions (4.4 Gt CO2e) per year. As a matter of fact, food loss and waste generate more than four times as much as annual aviation greenhouse gas emissions, and is comparable to road transport emissions.

The food loss and waste emissions come from:

• Agriculture emissions on farm: coming from cows’ digestive systems, manure from livestock, on farm energy use and fertilizer emissions for food production that is ultimately lost or wasted.
• Electricity and heat used to manufacture and process the food that is ultimately lost or wasted.
• Energy used to transport, store, and cook food that is ultimately lost or wasted.
• Landfill emissions from decaying food.
• Emissions from land use change and deforestation associated with producing food that is ultimately lost or wasted.

Food loss and waste impact climate as well as personal and national economy. In United States food waste in households and restaurants costs on average $1,600 for a family of four annually. Globally, the FAO estimates that food worth $940 billion is lost or wasted annually throughout the entire food supply chain.

About one-third of the food wastage occurs at the consumer level and two-thirds takes place at the production and distribution level. For example, lots of food rot in fields or is lost resulting from poor transportation networks or spoils in markets that lack proper preservation methods.

Furthermore, our modern American 21st century has evolved into a rather inefficient food system such that a typical American meal travels on an average of 1,500 miles from farm to table. This translates into: we have put in 10 calories of fossil fuel energy  for each calorie of food that we take out. A terribly inefficient and wasteful system!

Once these issues are brought to surface, one of our local innovative businesses has come up with a wonderful solution. Given that lawns are one of the largest sources of pollution in United States ( lawns  absorb three million tons of chemical fertilizers, 800 million gallons of gasoline for mowing, and 30,000 tons of pesticides each year), Fleet Farming of Orlando transforms unproductive and wasteful lawns

lawn mower (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

into community-driven farm plots.

planting seeds (presented at WIndermereSun.com)

Be sure to view these videos on Fleet Farming below:

• Fleet Farmlette
• Fruit Gleaning
• Fleet Garden Installs
• Education
• Be sure to check out Fleet Farming web site by clicking HERE.To connect with Fleet Farming via Facebook, please click HERE.
  To see what produces are available via Fleet Farming of Orlando, click HERE.To see where Fleet Farming produces are available, besides from your potential fleet farming garden, click HERE.If you are interested in becoming involved with Fleet Farming, click HERE.

  Perhaps we will be able to find various Fleet Farming franchises springing up throughout U.S.A. in the near future. I promise more will be reported about Fleet Farming in the future. With a record of having over 300 lawns donated in the first two years and a wait-list for the Orlando area, it is easy to see that Fleet Farming will very likely to be able to have at least 8 Fleet Farming branches with a total of 200 farmlettes throughout Central Florida neighborhoods by 2020.

  Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
  More about the community at www.WindermereSun.com

  Any comments, suggestions, concerns regarding this post will be welcomed at info.WindermereSun@gmail.com

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