What did you eat for dinner four nights ago? You probably cannot remember what you ate (unless you happened to eat the greatest meal of your life four days ago). Though eating is fundamental to our survival, because of our fast-paced lifestyles we frequently mindlessly force food into our mouths and call it good. We do not stop to consider the environmental effect of eating that Taco Bell burrito that we picked-up on the run. Our eating habits are intricately connected to living a sustainable lifestyle.
Why is it important?
When living a sustainable lifestyle, what you choose to eat can have significant effects on the natural environment. All the different types of food that you eat each have their own unique impact on the environment. Some foods have less of a negative impact while others have a great impact. A sustainable diet focuses on the environmental impact of the cultivation, processing, production, and transportation of the various foods that an individual eats. To figure out the environmental impact of a certain food it is imperative to consider that food’s carbon, nitrogen, and virtual water footprints.
A food’s carbon footprint is the sum of carbon dioxide emissions produced from all the aspects of a food’s lifecycle. It is easiest to think of a food’s lifecycle as all the steps it takes to get that food from the ground or the field to your dinner table. This includes the “growing, rearing, farming, processing, transporting, storing, cooking, and disposing” of all of the foods you eat1. Each of these steps in a food’s lifecycle has the potential to emit environmentally harmful greenhouse gases. All the effects of greenhouse gases that we have already discussed can happen as a direct result of the foods that you choose to eat.
Similarly, a food’s nitrogen footprint is the sum of the reactive nitrogen emitted into the environment during all aspects of a food’s lifecycle. Nitrogen enters a food’s lifecycle primarily through the use of inorganic fertilizers and energy use. Though reactive nitrogen is necessary to produce food, too much nitrogen can have detrimental effects on the environment. Industrial runoff from agricultural production or concentrated animal farming frequently contains large amounts of reactive nitrogen. This runoff makes its way into our waterways causing eutrophication (when life cannot be sustained in an aquatic environment). Reactive nitrogen emitted into the atmosphere from energy use require in production causes smog and haze which lead to acid rain that destroys ecosystems. This smog and haze also lead to climate change.
Lastly, when considering whether or not your eating habits are sustainable you must think about a food’s virtual water footprint. A virtual water footprint is the sum of all the water used to produce that food, directly and indirectly. As previously discussed, water equals energy and energy equals emissions. The production of foods that have a high virtual water footprint, like meats and processed foods, use an astounding amount of water. For example, the water footprint of 200 grams of beef it the equivalent to the water it takes to take 47 eight-minute showers2. A few sustainable changes in your diet can have a drastic effect on your personal virtual water footprint.
- http://www.greeneatz.com/foods-carbon-footprint.html
- http://waterfootprint.org/en/water-footprint/personal-water-footprint/
How to:
You can take multiple, simple steps to create more sustainable eating habits for yourself. The steps range from changing your consumer habits to actually changing the types of food that you eat. First, I’ll list and explain sustainable ways to change what your eating habits through consumer habits.
Buy locally produced food whenever possible! Not only does buying local decrease the carbon footprint from transporting that food, it also supports the local economy and promotes financial sustainability. Some grocery stores will have products organized by where the product is from. Grocery stores, like Harris Teeter, will also have special sections promoting local food when it is available. In addition to big-box grocery stores, Charlottesville has an incredible farmers market that take place on Saturday Morning on Water Street downtown. The farmers market connects local farmers directly to consumers. Another local food resource, The Local Food Hub, aims to connect local farmers to consumer. The Food Hub’s website lists restaurants that they distribute local food to. So if you are not in the mood to cook your own meal, you can still eat at restaurant that sustainably serves local food.
Buy USDA certified organic foods! The environmental benefits of buying organic foods are extensive. Organic agriculture reduces water pollution and reduces non-renewable energy, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. Organic agriculture also promotes biodiversity by not using genetically modified organisms and pesticides. Though organic foods tend to be expensive, the environmental pay-off is worth it.
Decrease meat consumption! Meats, especially larger animals like beef and pork, have large carbon, nitrogen, and virtual water footprints. By decreasing how much meat you eat you are decreasing all the negative effects of these footprints that I discussed above. It is best to eat little to no meat, but this can be hard for people who really love to eat meat. If you are one of those people, simply start by limiting the amount of meat you eat on a weekly basis. Try “Meatless Mondays”, only eating meat with your dinner, or substituting chicken for beef. It may seem hard to limit how much meet you eat, but the positive environmental impact is monumental.
Eat foods that are in season for your region! Growing native foods during the proper growing season requires less resource use for their cultivation. When you buy foods that are in season for your area, you are decreasing the carbon, nitrogen, and virtual water footprints.
Eat less processed foods! Highly processed foods require larger amounts of resources than fresh produce. Processed foods need large amounts of water and energy for their production.
Waste less food! As Americans, we hardly ever realize how wasteful we are as a culture. Thirty percent of food that we purchase is wasted. One of the downsides to buying more fresh and organic food is that those foods go bad faster. Buying fresh and organic foods requires for you to plan ahead your meals to prevent food from being forgotten. Even if your food does go bad, compost it! By reducing the amount of food that goes to landfill, you reduce all the negative environmental impacts of landfills that we previously discussed. By composting your food scraps you are continuing the natural lifecycle of that organic material. We will discuss what you can do with compost in an upcoming chapter!
Sustainable eating habits are about taking deliberate steps to minimizing your negative environmental impact. Even if some of these steps seem to extreme for you, just doing one of the steps makes your lifestyle more sustainable!
Green & Me 