People seem to like reading about anything that concerns food. I definitely do not blame them as I think about food most of the time. This is not an exaggeration: some would say I am obsessed, I like saying I'm passionate (it's just a matter of perspective). The point is, food is important: it fuels us, defines us, is at the centre of social bonds, it even defines the way our time is used and framed. And, by being such a pillar in our lives, it also means that this is one of the greatest leverage we have, as individuals and communities, to be more sustainable, socially aware and environmentally-respectful. Therefore, I want to write a non-exhaustive guide on how you can eat more sustainably, without it meaning that you have to become a vegan or a hippie tree-hugger with your own vegetable garden (even though I have nothing against both these categories of people. We live in a free world. Sort of).
Food is nevertheless a complex topic, and I tried to make this post as digestible (pun non intended) as possible. So bear with me.
- THE FIRST AND EASIEST THING: ANIMAL PRODUCTS -
Reduce your consumption of animal products: meat, fish and dairy.
I am sorry to start with this as you probably heard it many times before, but unfortunately, this is a huge part of the way toward a more sustainable diet (and better for your health along the way).
I have talked about it in my previous post on veganism, but will mention a few facts here again, just so you grasp the problem. I am going to try to be concise and straight to the point.
I would tend to say there are three issues regarding a careless, daily, shitty meat, fish and dairy consumption: the environment, your health, animal welfare. In a non-exhaustive order.
Of course, these things matter to varying degrees to different people, which it's normal. Nevertheless, it's not because you affectionate one more than the other that you shouldn't look at the others. See the bigger picture, right?
So.
Environment
Meat has a big impact on climate change. Indeed, meat is responsible for a huge release of greenhouse gas (aka GHS, aka the stuff we put in the atmosphere that make our climate warmer, drier, colder or wetter, according to regions, like carbon, methane or nitrogen). Back in 2012, the UN (United Nations) released a report that said that meat consumption had a direct effect on climate change. In fact, most studies attribute about 15% of total GHG to animal agriculture, which is HUGE. I will not go too much into details, but what you basically need to know is that animal agriculture entails deforestation, as all the food that animals will eat needs to be planted SOMEWHERE (= loss of trees = less CO2 absorption = more global warming, and destruction of biodiversity = no more forest = no more animals = no more us).
Also, cows produce methane. So yes, people laugh a lot when vegans say that (also because they say it in a very annoying way). That does not make it less true. When you know that there are 3.6 billion ruminants on the planet, 50% more than half a century ago, and that methane is 30 times more potent than CO2, well, it's kind of scary. So stop laughing about methane (if you were). Finally, a global switch to a vegetarian diet could cut GHG emissions by TWO-THIRD (incredibly huge) and avoid $1.5 billion-worth of climate damage and saves millions of lives.
Health
STOP EATING PROCESSED MEAT AND SAVE YOUR BOWELS.
Said in a more politically-correct manner, WHO (World Health Organisation) released a report in 2015 that stipulated that the high consumption of processed meat is carcinogenic for humans. What that means is that your nice and greasy sausage/bacon/ham-in-your-Tesco-sandwich/hotdog are increasing your risks of getting cancer. This also concerns non-processed red meat (beef, buffalo, the big animals).
Fish, on the other hand, is seen as a rather healthy food, full of omegas, good fats and proteins. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean you can replace your daily steak with salmon.
The fishing industry is completely destroying the oceans. Between 90 and 100 million tonnes of fish are pulled out from the oceans each year, and for every 1 pound of fish caught, up to 5 pounds of other marine life is caught as well and then discarded as by-kill (whales, dolphins, shark, turtles ect ect ect).
Actually, there is not really any way to eat fish sustainably today, as the farmed fish, such as salmon, is heavily polluted the waters with sea lice and pollutants to get rid of sea lice.
Animal welfare
This one is always controversial, as people always bring the Humans VS Animals debate in, which is absolutely not the point here. What you just need to know, whether you care or not, is that if you buy your meat and dairy in supermarket whether organic or not, the animals which end up there whether as chicken wings, beef steak, eggs or yogurt were treated in a pretty horrendous way. Whatever opinion we have on the matter, intensive production is incompatible with animals wellbeing. It's just impossible to kill one cow per minute and expect it to have a happy life (or a happy death for that matter). To give you a few facts, animals have absolutely no space to move during their entire life of often less than a year, even an inch, they are injected with antibiotics all the time as living in such close proximity increases the proliferation of diseases or mutilated alive (removing pigs' tail and teeth for example). Most of them never even see the light or go outside. Cows have infected udders, and are unable to feed their calves which are removed from them straight away to feed us. We are the only mammal who drink the milk of another mammal. #matterforthoughts
I mean, it's pretty big stuff. And I haven't even addressed the issue of killing, which is most of the time done when animals are still conscious.
I am aware that a distinction needs to be done between the act of killing in itself and the way the animals are killed. Even though you think that animals are meant to be eaten by humans (which is not the debate here), the way they are raised and killed is a crucial matter as well. Also, I think it's important for us to take into account the reality that, most of us would be incapable to kill the animals we eat. Have a you ever cut the throat of pig? It makes a disgusting noise, is bloody as hell, not to mention the noise the pigs make themselves which is quite hard to stand. Or cut clean a chicken's neck? Or break a rabbit's one? I have been exposed to this as a child (never big animals killing thank god) as my grandparents were farmers, and I can tell you in all honesty that it makes you think twice about what's in your plate and how it ended up there.
I could go on for much longer, but I will stop here for the moment. There is only so much information a person can take at a time.
- THE SECOND AND STILL VERY IMPORTANT THING: BUY ORGANIC -
Environmental impact
Organic food is definitely one of the ways to go to protect the planet and your health.
Conventional agriculture kills the planet: the pesticides used for growing plants lead to a tremendous loss of biodiversity (insects, bees for instance - remember what Einstein said? No bees, no humans), pollute the water (only 2% drinking water available on the planet, 9 billion people in 2050 - think about that pal), it leads to climate change due to deforestation, ploughing and manure management, and provokes soil erosion which leads to reduced soil fertility and degraded land.
WWF has an excellent explanatory guide regarding this if it interests you: http://wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/agriculture/impacts/
Furthermore, the use of GMO crops have an impact on our health, on the environment and on farmers. Vandana Shiva, a very intelligent lady that you should absolutely know, explains it much better than I do: https://seedfreedom.info/7-gmo-myths-debunked-by-vandana-shiva/
Carbon footprint
83% of the carbon footprint of your food is related to the way it's produced.
That means that buying organic does make a difference. Now, don't get me wrong: I know organic is more expensive, believe me, I experience it every day, hence the reason why I do not always buy organic myself, as I can't afford it, and most of the time, organic food products are packaged in plastic (something I will never understand?!). This is a big problem, so big that I can't expand on it right now but will in the future #staytuned
However, I do think that sometimes, it is possible to buy organic, especially vegetables, fruits and grains as they are the cheapest things to get anyway. And even if you get one organic product per week out of 20, it is still one, so good for you!
- THE THIRD AND QUITE NOT SO EASY TO DO THING: BUY LOCAL -
Why?
Well, I don't think you need a drawing there (if you do, I'm worried). As you must know but not really be aware of, our food come from all over the world, and is transported by plane, boat, trucks and trains. It usually travels thousands of miles before reaching our supermarkets and therefore our plates. Furthermore, our food not only travels thousands of miles, but the food industry is so complex in terms of production, storage and consumption that the local VS non-local debate is far from being black and white, good VS bad. Food is at the heart of geopolitical issues, makes some people very, very rich, and others very very poor and is therefore a complex topic to understand. It's actually unbelievable that such a basic human need became at the heart of such complex turmoil, but I'm not able to change that right now. Call back in 200 years.
How local is local?
As a rule of thumb, local is within 100 miles (160 kilometres). Obviously, I wrote as a rule of thumb, so there is no rule really. But I guess if I ask everyone in the UK: "what is more local, kale or a banana?" I expect everybody will know (and if you don't, you should urgently review your vegetable knowledge).
The local topic is easy and complex at the same time, and I cannot tell you what to do, apart from broadening your own knowledge and trying to be aware to limit your consumption of stuff that travel around the globe to reach your plate. If you are interested in this topic however, the book The 100-Mile Diet can definitely help to understand this whole thing much better, as it touches upon not only where and how food is grown, but the advantages of eating local on your mood, your body and your awareness as a whole (I have not read it myself, so I cannot say if it's worth reading or not: I'm just giving clues).
- THE FOURTH THING: JUST DO YOUR OWN THING -
Eating a certain way will not make sense if you don't chose the diet you're eating.
Do not follow trends, do not follow others, do not fall into something because you heard it was the right thing to do. That said, do your own research and learn what's good for you while being good for others.
This is the greatest thing about food: it's infinite complexity, the fact that some things will work for certain people and not for others, or at certain times of the year and not others, makes it super interesting. As I mentioned in my post about Veganism, food is central to the way we live. It determines our fate, the planet's, the lives of people who produce, the animals which are in your stew and sandwiches and everything in-between.
This blog post was thus about enlightening you and hopefully made you more aware of the food matter (I don't like calling it issue, it frames it as a forever-negative problem).
Anyway, next time you buy bananas or sausages for breakfast, think twice and see the bigger picture.