Your logic isn't sound. Diesel isn't the only source of carbon in a carbon foot print. It's possible that organic farmers make up the extra diesel based carbon elsewhere. I admit, I don't know if the other offsets put organic ahead of conventional farming or not.
Should I switch to organic to reduce my carbon footprint?
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Your logic isn't sound. Diesel isn't the only source of carbon in a carbon foot print. It's possible that organic farmers make up the extra diesel based carbon elsewhere. I admit, I don't know if the other offsets put organic ahead of conventional farming or not.
Pezedorado
Well-Known Member
Sinks of carbon are increased soil carbon in long term "storage" from organic ferts and plant residue. That's it. Take it from a soil scientist that used to work in a global climate change research institute.
Assuming yields are the same, and its safe to assume organic yields on average are lower, and manure is same, . All conventional farmers use the cheapest form of nutrient available and in most places, that's manure. So assuming organics use more carbon based fert, increasing soil stores, is wrong. Organic farmers are just as likely to sell their plant residue for bedding as any other farmer interested in maintaining soil health. The Dept of Energy has been trying to prove the corn belt can absorb the USA's footprint and unless it all went back to Bison grazed grasslands, it aint happening.
Some pubs on this are listed here: http://www.globalchange.umd.edu/staff/rizaurralde/
^^ This.
Organics is better for the local environment where the barley/hops are produced but the actual impact on emissions is negligible.
If you 'really' wanted to reduce your carbon footprint, you'd have to GYO so you can cut out all of the emissions related to transportation -- not related to the actual growth of the hops/malt.
fbaillargeon
Well-Known Member
My porch is a tad small for growing 55 lbs sacks of grain though.
You are all debating and you're not following the fundamental rule of debate.
That rule is that there is no debating on political matters in a technical forum.
If you can't answer the OPs question without injecting your political opinion then shut it.
That rule is that there is no debating on political matters in a technical forum.
If you can't answer the OPs question without injecting your political opinion then shut it.
Fermenting is carbon neutral. the Co2 you are releasing comes from grain which the plants take from the atmosphere. It is a renewable cycle
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So I guess what you are saying is that had this grain stayed in the field it would have converted to CO2 anyway...
I see where you are going with this but it would be trapped in the dead plant matter, and soil... It would release every slowly.
When we brew we speed this process up quite a bit, converting the starch to sugar and then the sugar to alcohol and C02....
Since way more grain is trucked into the brewery than could naturally grow there and because og the brewing process... I wonder if it is possible to measure the difference in C02 concentrations around a microbrewery....
Then again since CO2 is only 0.039% of all air... I don't worry about it to much...
Xpertskir
Well-Known Member
To the OP...No, you should not. Next question.
But that's not really the cycle in question here. It's not "buy barley or let it rot in the field", it's "buy barley or have it not be planted in the first place". Basic food agriculture is on such a short cycle that it isn't really a consideration for this kind of stuff. The ins and the outs balance each other in a very short scale of time. That isn't the case for, say, fossil fuels that we dig out of the earth.
Xpertskir said:
Gee, thanks. I'm so glad we have an Xpert here.
But that's not really the cycle in question here. It's not "buy barley or let it rot in the field", it's "buy barley or have it not be planted in the first place". Basic food agriculture is on such a short cycle that it isn't really a consideration for this kind of stuff. The ins and the outs balance each other in a very short scale of time. That isn't the case for, say, fossil fuels that we dig out of the earth.
Gee, thanks. I'm so glad we have an Xpert here.
I say we:
Buy Barley... Make beer! It is the one thing we can all agree on!.
Like the lady says "Beer... it's not just for breakfast anymore!"
