Green Girl Abroad: Crops, livestock and Spruce Springsteen (Jalasjärvi going green)

Thinking about one family and a few workers raising over 200 cows, 1000 pigs, 440 hectares of crops and 400 hectares of forest sounds like a lot of work. It is. However, in practice it's a smart system that feeds itself in many ways. The fields produce all the feed needed to raise the animals (except for some food that requires an additional level of processing) while the pig and cow manure fertilize the fields and help grow the crops.

The Marttilas and most farms in the area have bioenergy burners that provide heat for the home and animal houses. The burners run off the grain byproduct and thinned timber from the forestland. This puts to use what is grown but can’t be sold, eliminating much waste in the grand scheme of the farm. The bioenergy system also significantly cuts back the use of expensive and environmentally inefficient petroleum. On a visit to a forest plot, Kyösti was explaining the importance of keeping the forest thinned for proper site health and timber growth, comparing his well-managed stand with an obviously overgrown neighboring plot. He forgot the English common name for Norwegian spruce (Picea Abies) and he asked me the name of the tree he was talking about. I told him, “Spruce,” and he said, “Spruce… Pruse… like Bruce Springsteen!” We all had a good laugh.

Responsible grocery shopping and waste management are also a big deal in Finland. Buying Finnish made or grown products is something that people value. Meat and produce packaging must tell where the food came from, often times down to the specific farm. There are a few different advantages to buying domestic products; it is a way of keeping Finnish farmers in business, takes into consideration the carbon footprint of imported goods and addresses the fact that cheap products are often made possible by low-wage laborers under harsh, dangerous conditions. On the topic of local produce, many people have small gardens, apple trees, and berry bushes that help feed their families and friends when there are extra. Instead of giving apples to our teachers, they often times give bags of their own home-grown apples to us!

Saara told me about waste management in Jalasjärvi, knowing it would help give me insight to how much Finns value the environment. The county has separate disposal centers for newspaper, glass, metal, electronics and garbage. Trucks pick up regular garbage and bring them to local incineration centers where the trash is burned, even plastic. This process is environmentally sound because the burning centers are enclosed and have filters that take out toxic particles releasing air that adheres to compliance standards. Burning trash responsibly is a new concept to me and makes sense when you think about how much trash is put into landfills in America. I have yet to see a garbage disposal in any Finnish sink because composting is the norm here. The payback for turning in empty bottles and cans is between 10 and 40 cents depending on the size and material used. Most main grocery stores have machines that accept these recycled goods and give a receipt with store credit, making it easy to help the environment while earning back a little money. The Cal Poly girls have made over 7 euros returning recyclables at the Ilmajoki grocery store.

Finns take a very holistic approach to resource use. Agriculture and forestry are such instrumental parts of people’s lives, the country’s roots and the economy. Sustainability and having healthy land are highly valued by citizens as something they depend on for the future of the country. Though people are spread out over the countryside, it is remarkable to see firsthand how production and disposal are localized and cyclic in Jalasjärvi.