Most of you will approve with me that they enjoy a good meal, with meat or fish, fresh vegetables, a tasty drink and a desert.
But have you ever considered that your choice of food has a powerful impact on your health, your quality of life but also on your CO2 emissions
Did you know that 2 pounds of meat have an equal CO2 emission as driving 160 Milles in a car?
So why my behavior towards alimentation impacts the environment?
Meat is Co2
World food crisis is no longer to prove with the economic situation : over 900 million undernourished people worldwide have contributed to the fact that 36 countries applied for food aid last year.
Take this one: beef can feed 1500 persons but the food used to produce the beef could have feed 15 000 persons. Hugh!
50% of the cereal farmland is currently used to feed the cattle. These lands needs irrigation systems and are not open to produce cheap food for humans starving in this world!
Some experts advise: “Why not divide our consumption of meat by two?”
Globaly they say that meat consumption has considerably increase these last decades and with no health reason. Another unknown impact of the too many cattles is that they increase greenhouse gas because they are, by far, the first producers of gas in the world.
Fruits and vegetables season’s, WHO CARE?
We have loose the rhythm of seasons and fruits and vegetables that correspond to them.
Who knows now when is the strawberry season?
The fact is that eating strawberries in winter can consume more than 20 times more energy than eating them on the normal season: Spring.
This is because of the producing system and the warm that has to be produce for the strawberry to come up. The same problem appears with tomato for instance.
Not to mention the better taste of these fruits and vegetables on season, the energy gain is considerable.
And because we have a tendency to forget when is season for what, I’ve printed out a reminder that you can bring during your shopping time.
Eat local dude!
Did you know that some strawberry yoghurt necessitate more than 6 000 miles for all the ingredients to be imported. One the same note:
Some Scottish langoustines has to be sent in Thailand to be peel and then sent back to be commercialized. This is insane! and out of any rationality.
There is therefore a call to encourage your local products
A civilization of the waste
Excess of food finish often in the garbage
The consumption of animals proteins by pets has also a huge environmental cost
More than ever the data we have to integrate is that there is no an endless amount of resources and than the lack can happen sooner that we think
You, you, you, all about you
To increase productivity antibiotics are incorporated into meat and vegetables. At the end of the chain we eat them and incorporate them into our bodies.
This increase our resistance to antibiotics effects and reduce our capacity to recover when we are ill and in need of it.
Another fact that has to be put into account is the coast of sanitary crisis such as Foot-and-mouth disease or the Mad-Cow Disease (MCD).
- So we can and we should use and re-use of our liberty of choice. -
In the society of consumption the choice we can make as customers has a major impact because they act with the market law of supply and demand. Choosing your food is like a ballot paper and it’s important to remember that when we know that some sojas or soaps are produced to the detriment of the Amazonian forest.
It’s not only less consumption but most of all better consumption. The choice we make at the supermarket on a daily basis can increase our ecological footprint or not but also our health.
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo,
YOUR CHOICE MATTERS.
This entry has been prepared with the help of the beautiful “Defi pour la Terre” website of the Hulot Fundation.
March 19, 2009 at 3:27 pm
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