How Would Your Plate Look Without Greenhouses?
Discover how greenhouses have revolutionised seasonal eating, and why growing in greenhouses is not always the answer.
Greenhouses have fundamentally changed what’s possible in farming. By controlling lighting, temperature, humidity and irrigation, growers can harvest crops once limited to brief seasonal windows all year round.
Walk into any South African supermarket, and you'll find tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and fresh basil regardless of the season. It’s an abundance we've grown accustomed to, largely thanks to innovative greenhouse farming. But have you ever considered that our plates today no longer reflect the natural rhythm of the seasons? Imagine for a moment what your meals might look like if you only ate foods naturally in season.
Picture a chilly July night in Cape Town. Without greenhouses, your salad bowl would look sparse - no tomatoes, cucumbers, or fresh basil. Forget about that out-of-season strawberry for dessert. Instead, you'd have a diet shaped strictly by the cold: hardy greens, root vegetables, and perhaps some preserved or expensive imported produce.
Without greenhouses, our diets would be less colourful, less varied and potentially less nutritious.
The Seasonal Old Days
Before modern greenhouses changed everything, we ate according to nature’s calendar. Each season offered unique produce, shaping traditional recipes and cultural dishes across South Africa.
In Spring (September to November), we’d enjoy tender lettuce, spinach and rocket alongside early beans and peas. Root vegetables like radishes, beetroot, and young carrots also arrived, complemented by spring onions, leeks, asparagus, and the first fragrant herbs like parsley and mint.
Summer (December to February) burst with ripe tomatoes, sweet and hot peppers, crunchy sweetcorn, and delicious varieties of squash, cucumbers, and eggplants. Fresh berries like strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries brightened dishes, while fragrant basil and coriander added flavour. Sweet melons like watermelon and spanspek, along with early stone fruits like peaches and nectarines, round out the season’s bounty.
Autumn (March to May) meant hearty, comforting dishes. Rich pumpkins and butternut, and mature root vegetables like carrots and sweet potatoes filled the markets. Autumn also gave us nutritious broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower, with crisp apples and juicy pears for dessert, and fennel to add some spice.
Winter (June to August) offered a more modest, but hearty and nourishing selection. Kale, beetroot and spinach kept us healthy, while carrots, parsnips and turnips filled delicious stews spiced with parsley, rosemary, thyme and sage. And, of course, citrus fruits like oranges, naartjies, lemons, and grapefruits kept our immune systems in check during the cold months.
The Cost of Your Never-ending Summer Plate
These days, the availability of many fruits, vegetables and herbs is determined more by consumer demand than by weather conditions. Many of us simply can’t live without tomatoes in winter and must have our oranges in summer.
The demand for year-round crops, flourishing global trade and modern smart-tech greenhouses mean that if consumers want it, it generally finds its way to the shelves. Of course, prices of our out-of-season produce go up. After all, greenhouses come with both CAPEX and OPEX costs, even with smart systems like ours that help farmers produce more with less water, energy, and nutrient use. And importing fresh produce demands a costly and carefully planned logistics cold chain.
Other trade-offs come in the form of environmental impact. Take tomatoes, for example. Growing them through winter requires fuel and energy to power the extra heating and lighting. Or if you’re importing fruit like oranges out of season, they need to be shipped from the other side of the world, adding a high carbon footprint along the way.
You can see then that greenhouse farming is not a one-size-fits-all solution. In fact, sustainable greenhouse farming is all about smart choices about what to grow, when, and how.
Not everything makes economic and environmental sense to grow in greenhouses. But, with thoughtful planning at the outset of a greenhouse project and close monitoring as it grows, farmers can meet market demand while keeping their environmental impact in check. When done right, greenhouse farming can be a genuinely sustainable practice for providing year-round nutrients and dealing with food insecurity.
Sustainable Choices Will Always Be in Season
Greenhouses allow us to enjoy favourite vegetables and herbs throughout the year, but this convenience requires thoughtful consideration. As conscious consumers, it's worth appreciating not just what’s on our plates, but the environmental cost of how it got there.
At Vegtech Netafim, our mission is clear: we partner with farmers and growers to tackle these challenges head-on, crafting innovative solutions that ensure abundant harvests with minimal environmental impact.
So the next time you enjoy a fresh tomato and basil salad in July, take a moment to consider the remarkable innovation on your plate and the committed, thoughtful people who grew it.
Comments
We'd love to hear your thoughts! To enter a comment, type your name and email address.