Land: Food & Fiber

LAND: FOOD & FIBER

LAND: FOOD AND FIBER (one can only live 2-3 weeks without food). The food, fiber and other material resource requirements of a site are very complex and the authors are searching for ways to model these variables. The three R’s (reduce, reuse, recycle) seem to be an approximate model for sustainability. Total sustainable strategies would provide no need for disposal—today’s wastes become resources to be reused/recycled. Within the authors’ community, families create 0-3 cans of garbage per week.
Within this community, garbage service trucks travel 25,000 miles per year and then discarded resources are compacted and trucked another 250 miles (500 miles round trip) to a landfill site in a neighboring state. This service infrastructure is not sustainable. Society needs to first reduce and then reuse/recycle all of the wastes to be truly sustainable. "Precycling" (selecting goods with high recycled content and/or can be recycled) is also very important in reducing consumption of virgin fibers. Although some families in our community reuse and recycle close to 100% of their wastes, currently our community only recycles 8%, our university 33%, Seattle 43% and the newly acclaimed Audubon building recycles some 80% of its waste. Also food and fiber cycles can be local or global. Studies have suggested that a food travels thousands of miles before it reaches our dinner table. Food and fiber needs to be grown locally—even in one’s own garden. Sustainability is increased with local or regional self sufficiency.

This web site was developed with the authors and
Michael Mahaffy, Computer Systems Professional, School of Architecture, Washington State University

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updated 11/24/99