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Food choices are directly tied to greenhouse gas emissions, from the fossil fuels used to grow, process, package and transport our food to the emissions from methane-burping cows and forest conversion to farm land. The food production system consumes 17% of the total amount of fossil fuel energy use in the world. Small changes in the way we shop, eat and grow our food can make a big difference! |
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Reduce food miles and transportation emissions |
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1. Eat locally grown and with the seasons. The average meal travels 1500 miles from the farm to your plate, burning fuel and spewing greenhouse gases all the way.
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2. Bike, walk or ride the bus to the store or combine errands to reduce the emissions involved in getting food from the market to your home. Try this at least one (more) time a month.
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3. Ask how your food made it to the store and avoid food that traveled by plane. Food that travels by air emits more greenhouse gases than that which travels by rail, truck or ocean barge. A Hawai’ian pineapple transported by air results in 50 times more greenhouse gas emissions than a Costa Rican pineapple shipped by ocean barge. |
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Choose organic
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1. Switch one (or one more) of your staples to organic.
Healthy soil sequesters carbon, removing it from the atmosphere and its contribution to the greenhouse effect. Soil farmed organically stores 2-3 times more carbon than soil farmed with conventional methods.
Conventional farming requires 50% more fossil fuel inputs than organic farming. |
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Cut down on packaged and processed foods
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1. Cut one packaged or processed item from your weekly diet. Visit the bulk bins or try making your favorites yourself. The processing and packaging of our foods accounts for about half of the total energy used in the food production system. |
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Trim the meat from your diet
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1. Avoid meat for one (or one more) meal a week. We only need about 50 grams of protein daily, much of which can be found in breads, grains and other foods. Cows burp methane, a greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Reducing your meat and dairy intake is good for your heart and for the climate! |
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