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 >
Food Waste
From the quiz, I learned that my family and I have been eating too much meat which is harmful to the environment and our health. Eating meat specifically beef means that we are wasting more water and are releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to PETA.org, one hamburger is equivalent to 20 miles worth of fossil fuel and it takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat. This just shows how meat has a negative impact on the environment. A way to prevent this is to simply reduce your intake of meat, but chicken or tofu could also be a good alternative. Because of my family's newfound knowledge of meat, we have decided to only eat meat about 3 out of 7 days a week. Furthermore, according to Harvard Health Publishing, eating less meat also prevents the risk of blocked arteries or heart disease.
Sources: https://www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/how … vironment/
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying- … h-red-meat
In your post, when you cited PETA's research on the amount of water used to produce a pound of meat, in the source, the type of meat is not identified. Is this intentional, or perhaps is it smudging numbers to produce a greater outrage? According to the 71 percent, ( https://www.the71percent.org/what-is-ne … -our-food/ ) the water used to make one pound of chicken is 518 gallons of water, which while still being an unnecessary amount, conflicts with the generalization made on the PETA website. This could possibly skew data and should be considered when choosing sources.
I agree with both of you. Carbon footprint from food waste bigger than most countries. Having so much wasted food is why the carbon footprint for food is so high.
This is one area where my carbon footprint is far below average, which is because I am a vegetarian. My mom decided to raise me as a vegetarian, not because of the carbon footprint, but because of other health benefits. Now I am glad to see that it helps with the environment's health as well. I have now learned from https://www.greeneatz.com/foods-carbon-footprint.html, that raising livestock around the world or just animal products in general causes about half of all human emissions and also that beef produces some of the most carbon emissions compared to any other type of meat. You can improve your carbon footprint even by just eating chicken instead of beef. I am glad to see that this is one area where I am not damaging the environment as much as I could be. I do wish I had space in my yard to grow more vegetables and raise chickens to lay eggs, so that I could further reduce my carbon footprint.