Carbon Food-Print?
Reducing your carbon foot print through food and other everyday products
Reducing your carbon foot print through food and other everyday products
Certain meats, grains or other food products take so much oil and energy to cultivate that we may be better off eating less of them. Did you know consuming one double quarter pound burger adds 26 ounces of oil to your carbon footprint for the day? That’s 3 full glasses of oil used to make just one burger! Sure the world has quite a bit of oil stored under its turf…but Earth also houses billions of people who love consuming burgers and other carbon intensive foods daily.
By: Holly Lynn
A good place to start is by knowing the CO2 impacts of the foods you eat. (Yeah, that apple you snacked on this afternoon has a carbon footprint too!) Think about how much oil went into the production, packaging and transporting of your lunch before you order it. Three guidelines to help you make CO2-smart choices are: buy locally, buy in season, and buy organic. For example, buying a strawberry out of season has a heavier footprint than buying an orange from a local farm because of the extra power it takes to produce and transport the out of season fruit.
All across the globe people are taking initiative to make carbon foot printing food a common undertaking. In Sweden, regulations require all packaged food to be labeled with the amount of carbon it took to produce that particular item. In the UK, there are several organizations like Food Carbon who work to educate people on the impact their food has on the environment and how they can make better choices.
If you decide to consume foods that have a lighter carbon footprint your actions will be a statement that you are taking initiative for our environment even though you’re not being told to. Your actions will also encourage the food industry to compete not just in prices but at environmental levels too. Your actions as an individual may seem small but you will actually become part of a large movement of people working to care for both the earth and our bodies.
If you’re interested in calculating your food carbon footprint check out this website: www.foodcarbon.co.uk
All across the globe people are taking initiative to make carbon foot printing food a common undertaking. In Sweden, regulations require all packaged food to be labeled with the amount of carbon it took to produce that particular item. In the UK, there are several organizations like Food Carbon who work to educate people on the impact their food has on the environment and how they can make better choices.
If you decide to consume foods that have a lighter carbon footprint your actions will be a statement that you are taking initiative for our environment even though you’re not being told to. Your actions will also encourage the food industry to compete not just in prices but at environmental levels too. Your actions as an individual may seem small but you will actually become part of a large movement of people working to care for both the earth and our bodies.
If you’re interested in calculating your food carbon footprint check out this website: www.foodcarbon.co.uk
So, what is your food’s carbon footprint? Usually when we think about how much CO2 we send into the atmosphere, we consider how much gas our cars use every week or how long we keep our house lights on. Although these are significant parts of our CO2 impact, what we eat has an equally huge affect that is often overlooked! The tricky part about reducing the carbon footprint of your diet is it’s not like electricity or gasoline- you can’t stop eating food forever. Eating is essential for living! So how do we balance living healthy internally with our food choices and living healthy externally in our environment?
Grand Army Plaza Farmer's Market in Brooklyn, NY
www.grownyc.org/grandarmygreenmarket
www.grownyc.org/grandarmygreenmarket
health.
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