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You may have noticed that we’re pretty positive, upbeat people. How could we not be? We get to spend our time helping people feed their families delicious, organic fruit.
But like anyone who reads climate change news, we sometimes find ourselves in need of a little hope-booster.
And when we find something that helps to reframe the world in a more positive way, we like to share it with you.
Growing fruit trees can help fight climate change
That might sound like a bold statement, but stay with us here.
We know from working with thousands of fruit growers that they often feel that what they’re doing (having a couple of fruit trees in their backyard) is not very significant.
There’s a growing body of evidence that simple actions like growing your own fruit can make a difference on so many levels.
It’s not just that you’re planting more trees (though that’s helpful). There are many aspects of fruit growing which help to shift things in the right direction for a more positive future.
Things that give us hope about climate change
There are lots of things going on in the world that can make you feel pretty worried about the future. It’s not great for your mental health!
Some of the best ways we’ve found to feel more hopeful are:
- To take action on something that matters to us – like advocating for a better food system for all, working with Djaara to make sure our farm supports Indigenous connection to culture and country, or finding new ways for young farmers to access land;
- Connecting with our community;
- Reflecting on the positive impact we—and all of you—are already having on some of the big challenges like climate change.
It’s the last one we want to focus on. We read the Project Drawdown solutions and realised how many of them relate to growing fruit trees!
For those unfamiliar with Project Drawdown, a team of scientists has pulled together all the practices that can reduce greenhouse gas concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere and are already available and viable.
As they say, “More solutions are needed and emerging, but there is no reason—or time—to wait. Now is better than new, and society is well equipped for transformation today.”
Photo credit: Oliver Holmgren
Climate change solutions for home gardeners
Here are just a few of our favourite solutions from the Project Drawdown list. And guess what? Growing your own fruit can help make them happen.
- Switching to perennial crops such as fruit and nut trees, rather than annual crops, for staple foods can provide more food while sequestering more carbon.
- Reducing food waste can have a huge impact on climate change. Growing your own fruit means you’re not part of a food chain rejecting fruit for cosmetic purposes. If you go the extra mile to preserve your gluts you can make an even bigger difference.
- Growing your own food can also help you eat a plant-rich diet.
How you grow fruit trees makes a difference to climate change
There are also lots of choices to be made about how you grow fruit trees that can be major contributors to reducing climate change.
Overuse of synthetic nitrogen fertilisers is a major contributor to climate change. That’s why we teach organic fruit tree growing that builds soil health and fertility in regenerative ways. Some of those methods, such as composting, are a climate change solution all on their own!
We also teach how to use cover crops, green manures, and other techniques that are part of conservation agriculture and regenerative cropping.
Switching to drip irrigation and an irrigation schedule that suits your climate saves not only water, but also all of the energy needed to pump and store that water.
If you’re on a larger property, integrating trees and grazing can create pastures that sequester 5 to 10 times as much carbon as treeless pastures! Choosing fruit trees is a great example of what permaculture calls stacking functions. That’s where a tree is doing more than one job at the same time.
Whether you have a large or small space you can practise tree intercropping – growing perennial fruit trees and annual crops together.
This increases biodiversity, soil mass (and therefore water retention), and carbon sequestration. (This picture is from The Meat Room in Kilmore – isn’t their combined orchard/market garden great?)
Growing fruit has other indirect effects on reducing climate change
Some climate change solutions aren’t directly related to growing fruit trees. But growing your own food can still help.
Increasing how much food you grow in efficient backyard settings frees up land elsewhere. And this can drive other solutions, like decreasing the need to clear new land for farming, and making it possible to protect and restore grasslands, wetlands, or rainforest.
We’re not trying to suggest that individual action can fix big problems like climate change. It’s a systemic global issue that needs serious action from governments and corporations, which is where a lot of climate activists focus their energy.
But even if you can’t take on the world, you can still make a positive impact in your garden by planting another fruit tree (there’s always room for one more, right?)
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