What’s Better About Green?
It takes 17 percent of the fossil fuel consumed in the United States to produce the food we eat. The result is three-quarters of a ton of carbon dioxide emissions per person, according to researchers at the University of Chicago. Add to the equation that food travels an average 1,500 miles before it's bought and eaten and you’ve got an expensive environmental price tag. As organic food becomes mass-produced, there's increasing debate about whether the movement is losing its soul and its ethic of sustainability, especially if it’s being transported distances. Whatever the upside of big organic, there's no question that eating locally grown foods and shopping at your farmers’ market help reduce CO2 emissions by cutting down on transport.
Whether you're a carnivore or herbivore also has CO2 consequences. We don't blame you for enjoying the occasional filet mignon. But the average meat eater causes a ton and a half more carbon dioxide emissions for food production than the average vegetarian. Like it or not, your diet can have just as much effect on your carbon emissions as your choice of car.
According to the Organic Trade Association, organic farming releases fewer greenhouse-gas emissions into the air than conventional farming and uses 50 percent less energy. This makes eating organic a good way to shed CO2 pounds, as well as a better direction for the agricultural industry. In addition, organic farms that are smaller-scale, less mechanized, and more biodiverse have been shown to use 60 percent less fossil fuel per unit of food than conventional industrial farms. And organic farming further reduces greenhouse-gas emissions by avoiding synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
Changes in agricultural practice could reduce U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by one-fifth, according to the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. But until farmers, lobbyists, and Congress get their act together, here are a few things you can do to eat a little greener:
• Buy locally grown food,at the farmers market and in the grocery store. Read labels, especially on produce, to find out where your food is coming from and ask your grocer to stock more regional produce.
• Buy organic food. Producing it puts less CO2 into the atmosphere than producing conventional food does. Additionally, you are in direct contact with the environment in three ways: what you breathe, what you put on your skin, and what you eat. Why put pesticides and meat-plumping hormones in your mouth if you have the choice not to?
• Avoid processed foods, which use up more energy in production than fresh foods and meals you prepare yourself.
• Cut back on the amount of meat that you eat—especially beef. Meat production is energy-intensive.
• Make an effort to buy food that comes with minimal packaging and therefore requires less energy to produce. Side benefit: less trash.
• Plant your own garden. No yard? Plant a container garden and you'll have fresh ingredients within arm's reach.
• Read Michael Pollan's The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It won't directly save you carbon pounds, but it'll make you a lot more food savvy.
Much of the information in this article was derived from Meaghan O’Neill’s article The Green Challenge Food Diet published in April, 2007 on slate.com.
