How Russia Produces 40% Of It’s Food From Home Gardens… – Eco Snippets

How Russia Produces 40% Of It’s Food From Home Gardens…

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How Russian Produces 40% Of It’s Food From Home Gardens...

While many in the world are completely dependent on large scale agriculture, the Russian people feed themselves. Their agricultural economy is small scale, predominantly organic and in the capable hands of the nation’s people. Russians have something built into their DNA that creates the desire to grow their own food. It’s a habit that has fed the Russian nation for centuries. It’s not just a hobby but a massive contribution to Russia’s agriculture.

40% of Russia’s Food is from Dacha Gardens…

In 2011, 51% of Russia’s food was grown either by dacha communities (40%), or peasant farmers (11%) leaving the rest (49%) of production to the large agricultural enterprises. But when you dig down into the earthy data from the Russian Statistics Service you discover some impressive details. Again in 2011, dacha gardens produced over 80% of the countries fruit and berries, over 66% of the vegetables, almost 80% of the potatoes and nearly 50% of the nations milk, much of it consumed raw…

How Russian Produces 40% Of It’s Food From Home Gardens...

While many European governments make living on a small-holding very difficult, in Russia the opposite is the case. In the UK one councillor‘s opinion regarding living on the land was, “Nobody would subject themselves to that way of life. You might as well be in prison“; tell that to a nation of gardeners living off the land.

During the communist period school children were obliged to visit their local farms to get hands-on experience harvesting food at a time when about 90% of the nation’s food came from dacha gardens. During the same period every child would be expected to play their part in growing the family’s food from their small patch of Russia.

While the percentage of food grown by Russia’s dacha has fallen since then it is still a massive contribution to the nation’s food and forms an important part of their rural heritage. Take a walk through the street’s of Russia’s cities, like St. Petersburg, and you will find people selling herbs, fruit, berries and vegetables from their dacha gardens. Unlike many cities in Europe and the USA, Russian cities are peppered with small corner shops selling locally grown food in all shapes, colours and sizes still carrying their native Russian soil.

If you were to visit a typical Russian dacha you’re likely to be greeted with a welcoming dish called okroshka, a refreshing cold soup made from home grown cucumber, radish, spring onion, fresh dill and parsley all swimming in kvas (a home made rye bread drink) with sour cream or kefir.

More insight: Food Gardening in the Vladimir Region of Russia by Sharashkin, University of Missouri–Columbia, MO, USA.

Food Sovereignty…

Food sovereignty puts the people who produce, distribute and eat food at the centre of decisions about food production and policy rather than corporations and market institutions that have come to dominate the global food system. In Havana, Cuba 90% of the city’s fresh produce comes from local urban farms and gardens.

In 2003, the Russian government signed the Private Garden Plot Act into law, entitling citizens to private plots of land for free. These plots range from 0.89 hectares to 2.75 hectares. Industrial agricultural practices tend to be extremely resource intensive and can damage the environment. 70% of global water use goes to farming, and soil is eroded 10 to 40 times faster (Via: Natural Homes). What are your thoughts?

If you like this idea, be sure to share it with your friends and inspire someone you know. Anything becomes possible with just a little inspiration…

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(52) comments

that’s awesome

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The dascha gardens are fantastic, and most everyone has one. But it’s something that came out of other times. You grew your own food, or you went hungry. There is no place to garden in the cities, so people went to their daschas on the long weekends to garden, and bring what they could back to town.

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and now in the US we are trying to turn our backyards into dachas Sasha Lemay 😉

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I you don’t see them fracking the Taiga forest…

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In mother Russia, field plows you.

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They do things the smart way

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Nick Hendriks als ik jou was zou ik die pagina liken ze hebben veel nieuwe dingen

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    Gedaan danke!????

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Necessity is the mother of invention.

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    Isn’t that a novel idea….growing food so you can eat……?

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You gotta read this one. While some communities in the U.S. are making it illegal to grow your own food.

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I met a college student from Russia who had worked with her family on their plot- she was really proud of it, and knew a few gardening tricks:) My family had a big plot we shared when I was a kid too, I miss the food.

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That is because there is little choice.

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    You must understand that they do have a choice. Their unemployment rate is at 5.2%, which is very close to our own. The culture there is to grow your own food as much as possible. This is a carry over from the old days of the Soviet Union. The economy is very vibrant and active.

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And there unemployment rate is..? And by that I mean when you don’t work for a living you have a lot more tim on your hands.

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    The unemployment rate there is around 5.2%.

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    It seems that some posting here have a totally skewed idea of Russia. This is not the Soviet Union of old but a completely new and vibrant new Russia. They have a standard of living resembling ours.

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    Interesting, I just returned from St. Petersburg and Moscow and I heard a different version of what you have stated.

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    You are completely mistaken. This is not the Soviet Union but a new Russia. Look at the post above.

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With its notoriously poor infrastructure, Mother Russia is know for having crops rot in the fields while its people starve in the cities. Having your own plot garden is a matter of survival

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The Russian people did this because they had to and then they got pretty good at it. One of those if life hands you lemons things.

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its only possible in Russia.. westernized countries are democratically capitalist and capitalists control the democracy
.. so.its always profits over every thing else
. I lovw rhe idea of a law which protects the fundamental right to grow food and be self reliant. I am surw that is freedom too.

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Many still have small gardens varying in size. But for years a large number of people in cities frown on backyard gardening then more are starting to dig in. Better to have a garden than depend all on commercial growers. Growing using your own produce knowing how it grown and putting by saving a lot to families. To much commercialization also bottle necks our crops losing diversity. One major calamity it seems and the shelves are empty and the fighting begins. Better to keep our gardens through good times and bad.

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Michael Smith Brilliant!

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Maybe we can learn a few things from Russia.

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I started a small garden about 15 years ago and it took some time but at one point I was placing up to 3 vegetables a meal on the table. It really made me feel awesome.

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    and the real taste is remarkable.

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    Elynor Cassinelli I have began to think the reason for all the sugars in processed food is to cover the lack of taste of the product.

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sorry guys, I’m Russian. This is the fairy tale. Over 65% of people live in cities with population over 100K, 10% in Moscow only. Dacha is 0,14 acres only and it host a house and a tiny garden. Most of the people are so poor that they HAVE TO grow something there in order to survive. But the piece of land is so small that you can not have any cows there, not even chickens. The quality of soils is very low so it is deadly hard to grow anything green there. moreover the climate allows only a very short period of vegetation so we have only one harvest for everything and it is a short period from June to October. In reality people of Moscow have powder milk, tasteless vegs and fruits from the supermarkets, industrial chickens full of hormones and so on. If you want to learn from a good experience better choose Greece for example.

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    Thank you for the true representation

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    sounds more realistic

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    New World Order at work – ruining everything for everybody.

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Do you have a source for this “40%” number?

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Nous commençons à voir plus souvent cela en France, des petits producteurs souvent en très petite exploitation et bio. C’est peut-être le début d’un retour aux sources contre les grandes surfaces commerciales. Marchés locaux et bio.

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The Baby Boomers are the last generation to have had parents who had truly rough lives living through not only the Great Depression but also WWII with its rationing.

A small hutch of rabbits, a couple of chickens and a garden in any space available in the yards was common place. It was a healthier “greener” world.

It also gave children responsibilities/chores to help with, experience with both the miracles of life and also showed the realities of death.

Today’s younger generations have not had these experiences…..no wonder our society is as screwed up as it is.

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Bulgaria still has many villages where most people have big gardens for growing their own food. Unfortunately these villages are dying as young people flood to cities and other countries looking for work as agri business has taken over from field workers. Houses with huge gardens, fruit trees etc can be bought very cheaply. Leave the cities: https://m.facebook.com/groups/1910030769215955?tsid=0.03147249415986675&source=result

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This has been what the people have had to do for decades to survive. A friend who directed tour groups used to take seeds to give to his Russian guides.

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Born out of need, not out of luxury.

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Ecosnippets why the f*** you lying, you always lying..

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Deregulation in Ag is important

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But i wouldn’t eat anything close to Chernobyl!!

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    Jo Lund seid wann ist Tschernobyl in Russland?

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    Chernobyl was and is still in Ukraine, Jo!

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    Eva Mile Oops, my geographically challenged brain exposed.

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    Eva Mile a lot of the contamination from chernobyl affected the area north of Klinsi, as far as bryansk. I remember working in bryansk and using a radiation monitor at that time.

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Glen Caughley Kate Hargis-Roycroft

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The inefficiency of state farms in Russia skews the figures somewhat.

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