Sustainable Food

248 Pages·2013·49.164 MB·English

by  Michael Mobbs

sustainable
f ood
Michael Mobbs has held an interest in sustainable
design for over 20 years, advising on technology, design,
environmental law and policy to government, the private
sector and community groups. his book, Sustainable
House, is a classic, which after many reprints was updated
and reissued in 2010.
For more detailed information, visit Michael’s website
<www.sustainablehouse.com.au>.
SusFoodText2print.indd 1 16/08/12 9:32 AM
SusFoodText2print.indd 2 16/08/12 9:32 AM
sustainable
f od
michael m bbs
SusFoodText2print.indd 3 16/08/12 9:32 AM
A CHOICE Book
Published by
Newsouth Publishing
University of New south Wales Press ltd
University of New south Wales
sydney NsW 2052
aUsTRalia
newsouthpublishing.com
© Michael Mobbs 2012
First published 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is copyright. apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study,
research, criticism or review, as permitted under the copyright act, no part may
be reproduced by any process without written permission. inquiries should be
addressed to the publisher.
National library of australia cataloguing-in-Publication entry
author: Mobbs, Michael.
Title: sustainable food /Michael Mobbs.
isbN: 978 192070 554 1
978 174224 618 5 (ePDF)
Notes: includes index.
subjects: Food.
Gardening.
self-reliant living.
Dewey Number: 635.0484
Design Di Quick
Printer everbest, china
all reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use copyright material This book is printed on Fsc paper
reproduced in this book, but in some cases copyright could not be traced. The using fibre supplied from plantation or
author welcomes information in this regard. sustainably managed forests.
SusFoodText2print.indd 4 16/08/12 9:32 AM
contents acknowledgments 6
Foreword 7
introduction 9
1: Thinking about food 22
2: Six garden essentials 46
3: Urban farms 58
4: Soil and compost 118
5: Plants 140
6: Water 165
7: Chooks 182
8: Bees 190
9: How to deal with governments 199
10: Why citizens must act now 222
11: Where are we going? 232
Further reading 238
image credits 243
index 244
SusFoodText2print.indd 5 16/08/12 9:32 AM
acknowledgments
Thank you, Judy Rapley, for reading, editing, Thanks to the many experts, public servants and others
commenting, supporting and criticising the text; but who said ‘you can’t do that’ about the things described in
mostly, for being there. I dedicate this book to you. the book. Each time I heard you I knew I was on the right
Thank you, Elspeth Menzies of NewSouth Publishing track.
for the patience and encouragement you gave me over the Thank you, Jessica Perini, for editing and enriching this
four years it took after you asked me to write the book. book with your knowledge, and warm yet professionally
Thank you, Di Quick of NewSouth Publishing for what cold eye.
is at least half the book – the layout and graphics. I reckon Thank you, Mum and Dad for the farm upbringing you
it will be the drawings, photos and readability of the pages gifted me; your observations and sayings have stuck and
which are mostly responsible for inviting people who don’t support what’s been written. A good example would be,
know or care about food, our cities and our soils and waters ‘The weather always has the last say.’
to open this book, to pause here and to read about subjects Thanks to the chefs, cooks, fishers, citizens who choose
not previously of interest to them. And thank you to the to buy and grow local, and the citizens, gardeners, farmers,
following who contributed photographs and images for the cafe owners, neighbours, bloggers, public servants and
book: Saima Ali, Judy Rapley, Helena Bridi, Beth Kalin, experts who choose to act to sustain Earth.
Design Delta Architects, Jason Loucas, Jessica Perini, Di And thank you, lovely, torn Earth for all you give us –
Quick, Tina Perinotto, Michele Margolis, Places Victoria. our cities and our water, air, soil and so much more.
6
SusFoodText2print.indd 6 16/08/12 9:32 AM
foreword
Michael Mobbs has shown us how to live more So is it possible to make local food a significant part
sustainably in his inner-city home in Sydney, remarkably of a city’s sustainable production system? Can Michael
more sustainable than anyone ever thought possible – but possibly do it again and shake up our perceptions on
he did it. what is possible?
Now he is taking on issues beyond his front I leave it to you to decide. Read on …
door by looking at sustainability in the systems that
support our cities, and in particular food. Of course Peter Newman
food needs to have large land areas and lots of clever Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University
science and technology to produce for the world’s
burgeoning cities. You could never produce enough
food in a city to make much difference, but it can be
an important symbolic effort to support. That is what
I tend to think and what most people I know think.
But then again I never thought you could make a self-
sufficient house in terms of energy and water in the
centre of a city.
7
SusFoodText2print.indd 7 16/08/12 9:32 AM
SusFoodText2print.indd 8 16/08/12 9:32 AM
introduction
Call me a gardener. Stories like this are what this book’s about. How I
had the good luck to have that accidental eye-opening
I live in Chippendale, Australia. It’s a small, closely built conversation in the street – how I came to see these
suburb with about 4000 residents and 4000 workers, a are the real fruits of a self-renewing society, that
40-minute walk from the Sydney Opera House and the gardening brings with it opportunities to reconnect
Harbour Bridge. with ourselves and our neighbours, not just plants and
In 2010 I saw a young fellow crouching on the road our bellies.
verge gathering ‘weeds’ and placing them with surprising I took the long way round before I understood:
care into a plastic container. ‘I’m making a salad,’ he such conversations with strangers may truly sustain us.
said. ‘And I’d like to come gardening with you.’ When My childhood on a farm gave me a sense of
he emailed me later I saw he was a head chef in a famous the seasons and of traditional farming practices,
restaurant (Luke Powell, Tetsuya’s) and he lived around based on European knowledge. My teen years at an
the corner. If there were no road gardens in Chippendale agricultural school, which was run as a farm, gave me
I guess Luke and I may never have met. And I may never more first-hand contact with food.
have learnt to harvest ‘weeds’ to make salads. Later, in my 19 years as a specialist environmental
9
SusFoodText2print.indd 9 16/08/12 9:32 AM
sydney’s sustainable house
Four people may live in my ‘Sustainable House’
with energy and water bills costing less than $300
a year. Rainwater – free from the sky – is
used for drinking, cooking and showers.
Recycled water is used for toilet flushing,
clothes washing and gardening. If four
people live there, each year it saves:
• 4 tonnes of coal from being burnt;
• 8 tonnes of greenhouse gases from
polluting the Earth;
• 100,000 litres of sewage
polluting the ocean;
• 100,000 litres of stormwater
A model of the Sustainable
polluting Sydney Harbour. House – showing its energy,
water and sewerage systems
The house leaves 100,000 litres of water in the – on display in the Powerhouse
Museum, Ultimo.
rivers where it can nourish trees and wildlife.
It uses the same electrical appliances in the same
way as any other house. Anyone may buy and use
the same plumbing, electrical equipment at any
hardware or trade outlet anywhere in Australia.
Energy is free from the sun and there are no
batteries; electricity is mains quality as back up is
from the mains power lines.
There were no laws requiring me to make my
house sustainable. Many laws made it difficult to
achieve and they’re still in place. My knowledge
of how to break through legal barriers and red tape
enabled me to deliver a sustainable house. The
then premier of New South Wales launched the
house. Bob Carr came back 15 years later to launch
the second edition of my book; some recognition by
the state that the house has public benefits.
Information about the house – how I did it,
what’s worked and what hasn’t over the last decade
and a half – is in my book, Sustainable House.
See also my website
<www.sustainablehouse.com.au>.
10 SuStainable food
SusFoodText2print.indd 10 16/08/12 9:32 AM