What did you learn about dietary choices from using the footprint calculator? Now imagine that you could translate what you learned into an effective societal policy on food- what would it be? And how would this policy effect the need to alleviate world hunger?
925 million people on earth do not have enough to eat according to the FAO [Food and Agricultural Organization]. That's almost 1 in 7 inhabitants of our planet!
Food & Hunger >
Why does food have one of the largest carbon footprints
About a third of all greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere by humans is liked to food. And in the U.S. each household produces about 48 tons of greenhouse gasses with 17% being food. Livestock farming is responsible for half of all man made greenhouse gasses and was shown in a report done in 2009 by the World Bank and the IFC(International Finance Cooperation). More research can be found here: https://www.greeneatz.com/1/post/2013/0 … e-gas.html. Farms that produce meat and dairy products are main sources of all foods gas emissions. Specifically, Beef and lamb are the number one highest producers of greenhouse gasses when looking at a food chart. Meat lovers produce more than double the amount of greenhouse gas emissions than vegans. This means that Going vegan or vegetarian would be a solution towards the reducing of our CO2 levels in the atmosphere but there are much more solutions to the problem. By doing things like not wasting food or eating less meat we can reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Of course eating less meat may come across as problematic for many who think it is their only source of protein, but switching to plant based proteins does the job just as well.
It was shown in a study that 55 thousand people who ate an average of 1.8-3.5 ounces of meat a day had a much lower carbon footprint than people who ate more than 3.5 ounces a day. In addition, Healthline.com says in an article that if people who eat more than the average amount of meat switch to plant based proteins, our planets temperature would moderate and become cooler. More research can be found here:https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/how-to-reduce-carbon-footprint#The-bottom-line.
Foods that contain high amounts of calories and saturated fats like eggs and cheese also are huge factors of producing greenhouse gasses. So not only can we change our source of protein to a plant based diet but we can also switch from dairy products and meat to fruits. Fruits contain a much lower carbon footprint than meat and dairy products like eggs and cheese.