The Basics
The environmental impact of transporting food around the world is just one example of how our eating habits can affect the planet.
For some, issues like "food miles" and pesticide use are enough to revert back to how we used to eat – more locally, seasonally and organically.
Social factors can also be important. The fair trade movement, for example, which ensures that developing world producers get a fairer deal for their products, is more popular than ever.
Animal welfare is another emotive issue. Cruel practices, such as battery farming, lead many of us to seek out better alternatives when buying meat, or to give up eating meat altogether.
In our Food section, we'll be looking at everything from farmers' markets and food labels to growing your own veg. And there'll be a few tasty recipes in there too to whet your appetite.
Buy just the right amount of food
In the UK we throw away one third of our food. Most of this reaches landfill sites, where it emits methane, a greenhouse gas around 25 times more powerful than CO2.
Eat less animal produce
We now eat more meat than ever – over the past 40 years annual meat consumption has grown from 56 to 89 kilos of meat per person in Europe. Two common losers in this meat boom are animals and the planet.
Compared with other foods, animal products carry a large carbon footprint (or should that be hoofprint?), especially when it comes to beef, lamb and dairy. It’s not just that meat is energy intensive to produce. It’s also that cows and sheep belch up large volumes of methane, a greenhouse gas around 25 times more potent than CO2.
The average Brit could cut the emissions of their diet by around a fifth by reducing their consumption of animal products by 50 per cent.
Animal welfare is another concern. To cater for our runaway demand for meat, factory farming has flourished. This kind of intensive farming sees profits prioritised over animal welfare. Many animals are kept permanently indoors and subjected to cruel farming practices, such as debeaking.
One way to stop this is to support only those farms committed to good standards of animal welfare, such as free range and organic production.
Cut back on air-freighted foods
Most imported food is transported by road or ship. However, a proportion of high-value perishables – especially out-of-season berries and beans – arrive by air, which gives these items an unusually large carbon footprint.
Avoiding air-freighted produce (which is labelled in some shops) helps reduce carbon emissions. But most air-freighted food arrives from poor countries in Africa and elsewhere, and groups such as Oxfam have expressed concerns about the economic impact of Westerners boycotting such produce.
Grow some fruit and vegetables
The cultivation and transportation of fruit and vegetables adds around 120kg per year to the average person’s carbon footprint. Growing some of your own is a great way to reduce this figure.
Home-grown food reduces the need for trucks and cars driving to and from supermarkets. It’s often very efficient in terms of production, too, requiring minimal energy intensive fertilizers – and no tractors! Growing your own fruit and vegetables is also a fun and rewarding activity that results in fresh, healthy produce and little harm to the environment.
Share this
(What is this?)