Climate-Friendly Diet

Having pointed out the things wrong with today's food production, I thought it would be a nice closing remark to suggest a plan for a climate-friendly diet. After reading and writing about the topic for the past three months, I want to leave you with an useful post that can help you change your eating habits for the better (and fulfill the purpose of my blog!).

People tend to acknowledge the role of packaging of food products has to play in the climate change discussion but many of us do not realise the harm meat consumption does to our planet. Even though cutting down meat is not necessarily difficult and can save you money, people seem to be reluctant to do it (Mäkiniemi and Vainio, 2013). It also depends on whether people perceive climate change as a moral issue. Although diets can be controlled at an individual level, changes in our society are also needed. We are in a need of clear labeling and availability of climate-friendly products alongside with public knowledge about environmentally harmful food products (Mäkiniemi and Vainio, 2013). So what basic steps could we take to make our everyday diets more sustainable? After going through the posts on my blog you should already have a good idea of the action we should all take, but this post should act as a helpful guide to anyone interested in making their eating habits more environmentally sustainable.

(Source: http://sustainablediets.com)

Baroni et al (2006) have once again confirmed through empirical testing that diets based on high meat consumption and chemical conventional agriculture have the greatest environmental impact than any other diet out there. The objective of their study was to tease out the 'critical points' of environmental impacts, the smallest changes in our eating habits that will lead to largest environmental benefits (without any extreme changes). And cutting down on meat consumption is the main trigger. Even though people are often reluctant to change their consumption of meat, raising awareness of its climate change impacts may change public opinion about meat consumption. So rule number one for a climate friendly diet: trade your meat for vegetables.

Second guideline towards a sustainable diet: eat real food that is free from processing. Remembering my previous post on processed food we know that, each step of the way on the processing cycle heats our climate: processed foods require more energy than whole foods. From chemical fertilisers and synthetic additives to freezing and canning, these foods carry a higher energy need than whole foods. Look for foods that are as close to their natural state as possible to be sure they have not gone through energy-intensive processing. Here is a video that takes on a tour on a typical American supermarket with two food specialists (learn to look out for the processed food):

Third suggestion for a climate-friendly diet: eliminate food waste. While approximately one third of the global food is getting lost or wasted (FAO, 2011), our individual efforts to cut down on the food we bin every day can go a long way. Food waste brings horrific environmental impacts (remind yourself from my earlier post): emission release, toxin infiltration into soil and waterways and land loss to land-fills. With helpful tips by Love Food Hate Waste, cutting down food waste can be easy, cut down your spending in the supermarket and bring improved environmental health. And if despite all efforts to bring your food waste to zero, make sure you compost the food that you no longer want. Consumers with gardens are especially lucky, getting a viable source of fertiliser, but even urbanites without a green space can often dump their compost in local farmers markets. 

(Source: http://motherorganica.com)

Having addressed the issues of food trade and agro-chemicals in previous posts, the fourth guideline for sustainable eating is: look for local and organic produce. It is important to get to know the food miles and the way your food is grown. Although finding organic and local produce can turn out to be challenging due to limited availability and priciness, the 'locavore' movement is growing. In order to really push for the organic movement, appropriate labeling is needed for customers to identify desirable products and that is largely in the hands of the policy makers and producers. But as the demand for organic produce increases, so does the need for labeling. 

And a final suggestion for the fans of climate-friendly eating: grow and cook as much of your own food as possible. This is the purest form of local and organic eating and has been largely in the shadows during the course of this blog. Why not start your own sustainable farm? Everyone with a garden is lucky enough to benefit from available green space but even in urban areas, technological advances and new ideas are making way for agricultural solutions that can be practiced by urbanites like many of us. A good example of this is Incredible Edible (check previous post), bringing gardens to urban areas. I am currently experimenting with Click & Grow to see how my own little garden turns out in the heart of London. Growing your own food can be one of the best ways to cut down individual impact on the environment. (Plus it is fun!)


I hope this gives you a guideline where to go from here as my blog slowly comes to a close. For me, reading and writing about the global industrial food production has definitely changed the way I think about food. Thanks for reading!

Till next time,
Laura