Is Vegan Food Sustainable in UAE?
But vegan food grown by using hydroponics is sustainable in UAE, as hydroponics is more water efficient than traditional farming, so carbon emissions are much lesser.
Proposed Solutions to make Locally grown food, sustainable
1. Reusing specific organic waste to create compost and soil as the end product and using that soil for farming instead of buying and shipping it from other places.
2. Providing treated greywater for farms for irrigation, so that they won’t use desalinated water. This system will need investment but in long run will save more energy and reduce pressure on the sewage disposal system too.
3. These above two systems can be implemented in every community instead of citywide and community food gardens can be formed. Just a few of my thoughts about how can we make the food growing in UAE more sustainable.
Buying Sustainable food in UAE
For now, while buying sustainable food in UAE, we need to keep a few things in mind. Like buying apples in UAE coming all the way from France or US would be less sustainable than buying Iranian apples. So I would say buying food from countries closer to UAE, gives us fresher food with fewer carbon emissions involved in transportation. Another factor is buying seasonal fruits and vegetables. Though we get almost all kind of food in the UAE throughout the year, it makes more sense to buy seasonal food, which is preserved lesser and will be fresher and will definitely have more nutrition! For organic food, we need to ask questions, read labels, do our research to find authentic organic food.
Also read post sustainable food, to learn more about what is sustainable food, what exactly is organic food, what are ways to of sustainable food consumption & waste disposal.
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| Jebel Ali Golf Resort’s Bio-Garden |
Sustainable Food Growing in UAE
So what could be the most sustainable method of growing food in UAE? I am so glad, I found the answer.
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| Growing capsicum in aquaponics |
Recently I was invited to celebrate Earth Day at Jebel Ali Golf Resort at their on-site bio-garden, as part of their environmental and sustainability efforts. I was delighted to see sustainable food growing, which I have been looking for a long time in UAE. It ticked so many boxes of my idea of ‘Sustainable food in UAE’.
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| Growing lettuce in Aquaponics |
Recently many hotels worldwide are growing their own food to make hotels more sustainable and self-sufficient. It was amazing to see, the same started happening in UAE. JA Golf Resort, already a Green Globe Certified property to raise money to fund this Bio-garden by selling cooking oil from the kitchen to convert into diesel. Their HSE manager told me that their recycled grey water is used to irrigate the golf course. So they need to use desalinated water for irrigation of bio garden. But the best part is, this bio-garden is not just a traditional garden, They have installed aquaponics systems throughout the garden, which they are going to develop more in future. That makes this garden very sustainable. This is a great solution to growing food in UAE sustainably.
What is Aquaponics
Aquaponics is growing plants by fertilizing them with waste water from fish in a sustainable closed system. The water travel to plants with fish waste in it, which acts as a fertilizer. The water gets filtered when it travels through the plant and clean water travels back to the fish tank. On a larger scale, it is a key solution to mitigating food insecurity, climate change, groundwater pollution, and mining.
Aquaponics systems are completely organic and they 4 to 6 times more productive than traditional gardening. Aquaponics systems use 90% less water than conventional gardens. This system has other advantages like less maintenance as no weed, fewer pests and no watering and fertilization needed. So that makes Aquaponics, one the most sustainable farming option in UAE
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| Aquaponics System at JA Golf Resort |
Jebel Ali Golf Resort uses Tilapia Fish in aquaponics system to grow thyme, spring onion, cherry
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| Fresh Herbs from Bio-Garden |
tomatoes, pear tomatoes, rosemary, mint, lettuce, basil, and capsicum. The resort’s kitchen is generally self-sufficient for herbs requirements and uses the bio-garden produce in preparing meals for the guests. They also have a traditional garden where they grow herbs like basil, lemon trees but the gardener of Bio-garden told us, most of the herbs grown traditionally do not survive summer. Which they need to plant again in winter. Being a family-friendly resort, they also arrange Bio-Garden kids day, It’s a great way to educate our kids about how food grows and maybe even about sustainable food. On the occasion of Earth Day, the guests planted 50 lemon trees. Lemon trees grew & thrive even in heat of UAE, that’s why they selected to plant lemon trees. The produce grown in that garden was freshly picked for snacks and drinks prepared for us that day. The smells and taste of fresh herbs and lemons was one thing stayed with me from that evening!
Sustainable food has that power of bringing us not only nutrition but the authentic experience of savoring food, empowering workforce in the food industry, conserving our resources and well being of everyone; we, our future generations and our planet!
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| Earth Day celebration by planting a lemon tree! Getting dirty is part of gardening! |
4 Comments
Hello Amruta,
I really wonder how I missed your blog for so long! I am so glad to get connected with like minded people like you! It is wonderful reading about sustainable eating and thanks a tonne for the post!
Hi Faiza,
I am glad you liked the post and found it helpful! Please keep in touch!
Hello Amruta,
I just found out about your blog and I’m so happy about it, I’m gonna read it all.
Thank you for this post. So where do you usually buy your fruits and vegetables?
Hi Anouche, glad to have you on Sustainability Tribe! For now, In good weather I prefer Farmer’s market etc and otherwise I prefer Union Co-op for their great selection of local produce (including local hydroponics produce). As UAE’s market keeps changing, I prefer to explore new shopping places to find most sustainable produce.
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