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 >
Limiting Beef and Meat Consumption - My Carbon Footprint
When I calculated my carbon footprint, I found that I released approximately 1,808 kilograms of carbon dioxide last year due to my food consumption. Although this amount is below the average Californian’s emission of 2,223 kilograms of carbon dioxide per year, I was still alarmed that my carbon emissions for this category alone were above the globally sustainable level of 1,000 kilograms per year per person.
As I was filling out my food information for the Calculate Your Footprint Survey, one question that particularly interested me asked how many vegetarian, poultry and seafood, beef, and pork meals I ate each week. Upon further research, I learned from the New York Times article “Your Questions About Food and Climate Change, Answered” that food-related processes (production, processing, packaging, shipping, etc.) release about 25% of the planet’s annual greenhouse gas emissions, and livestock emissions comprise approximately 58% of this amount (14.5% of the planet’s total greenhouse gas emissions per year). The article adds that while beef and lamb meals emit high amounts of carbon dioxide, plant-based meals are much more environmentally sustainable. The Time article “How a Vegetarian Diet Could Help Save the Planet” corroborates this idea, stating that widespread adoption of a vegetarian diet could lessen greenhouse gas emissions by 63%, and shifting to a vegan diet could reduce these emissions by 70%.
Currently, I typically eat 7 vegetarian meals, 7 chicken meals, and 7 beef meals per week. To reduce my carbon footprint, I intend to have at least two more vegetarian meals each week. At first, I was unsure how I would be able to do this. I have high protein requirements as an athlete, and my allergies and dietary restrictions mean that nuts, beans, and soy are not healthy choices for me. Eggs seemed like an appealing choice at first, but statistics from the Healthline source “Egg Whites Nutrition: High in Protein, Low in Everything Else” show that whole eggs have high concentrations of cholesterol, a type of lipid that can increase the risk of heart disease if consumed in excess. Fortunately, I found that one egg white has 4 grams of protein and 0 milligrams of cholesterol, making egg whites a protein source that I could eat more frequently. Additionally, I will replace some of my beef meals with chicken and pork meals. Citing a study from the journal Science, the New York Times article “Your Questions About Food and Climate Change, Answered” portrays how 50 grams of protein worth of beef emits an average of 17.7 kilograms of carbon dioxide, but pork and poultry only emit 3.8 and 2.9 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 50 grams of protein, respectively.
Link to New York Times article “Your Questions About Food and Climate Change, Answered”: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 … e=REGIWALL
Link to Time article “How a Vegetarian Diet Could Help Save the Planet”: https://time.com/4266874/vegetarian-die … te-change/
Link to the Healthline Article “Egg Whites Nutrition: High in Protein, Low in Everything Else”: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/eg … -nutrition
Wow, I didn't know how much carbon dioxide you can release just by eating meat in your meals. I am a vegetarian and have been my entire life, so I didn't actually know I was helping our the worlds carbon emissions just by not eating any meat.