Where does our food come from? How do reduce your footprint from food intake.

I disagree with Vegetarianism being promoted as a sustainable living and eating choice.  I am not vegetarian and have no desire to be. I am not saying that it is not sustainable to cut out meat and milk products.  It is a way to lower your footprint, but some of us just can’t do it. We need to look at the bigger picture. Where does the food come from? Whether it is vegetables, fruit, grains, meat, packaged, or processed.  There is a big chain of people, processes and places your food goes before it ends up in the store/restaurant and on your plate!!!  
 

In Our Ecological Footprint, food is included in the land use matrix along with the amount of land for the energy required to produce it, garden space, and crops.  Food is listed in the Footprint calculations, and it should be but there are associated energy and economic costs that must be considered.  Wackernagel and Rees say “tomatoes have footprints” and suggest that if we grow tomatoes in greenhouses it would be “7-9 times more productive, but 10-20 more ecological footprint per kilogram of tomatoes than open field grown tomatoes. “

Where does our produce come from? That is seriously important.  Organic food may cost more, but it’s not just because it is more natural, free of pesticides, how it’s grown. Pepsi discovered that the largest chunk of the footprint of its Tropicana orange juice was not in production (squeezing oranges) or in distribution (shipping heavy liquids is fuel-intensive), but in growing the oranges with natural-gas-based fertilizer (1).

One of the easiest ways you can reduce your own footprint is buy eating locally.  According to Get Local BC: “The average North American meal travels 2,400 km to get from field to plate and contains ingredients from 5 countries in addition to our own – that’s a lot of “food miles”” (2).  The David Suzuki Foundation has eating locally grown food as one of the top 10 ways to reduce your ecological footprint (2).

Studies have shown that  if people replaced enough imported food items with locally grown items they can actually reduce household GHG emissions by a quarter of a tonne (2). This can get tricky due to our seasons, and food availability. However there is a seasonal chart that you can download that I have attached it is for BC, be nice if we could find one for Ontario.

There are programs in place for Sustainable Seafood.  I am very glad that Canada, and stores and restaurants are on board this ship.   You can print out a card and take it shopping or out to eat with you (3).  I have attached the chart. This chart tells you what fish is safest to eat, which you should be concerned with and which to avoid.  It also tells you how the fish was caught and if it was caught using a sustainable method.  I am not an avid seafood eater, due to my lack of fish growing up but as I’ve grown older I do like it, but I am picky because I don’t know what it is.  The card suggests asking 3 questions: What type of seafood is this?   Where was it fi shed or farmed? How was it caught or farmed?

Wouldn’t it be great if we knew where all are food came from.   There should be similar efforts for produce and meat and dairy products as well.  Sustainable shouldn’t stop at seafood, or cutting out meat products. 

 

(1) http://blogs.hbr.org/winston/2011/06/local-food-or-less-meat-data-t.html

(2) http://www.getlocalbc.org/

(3) http://www.seachoice.org/