Between land use impacts, methane produced by animals, animal feed, and the processing of animal carcasses, there is a significant impact from meat and dairy products, as compared to vegetables. However, all foods pack a punch in the carbon footprint arena when it comes down to the energy required to grow or preserve foods out of season, or when we don’t use what we buy.
When making responsible purchases, it’s easier to factor in things we can see (e.g. packaging) over things we can’t, such as farming practices, cold storage, and transportation footprint. In doing research for this series, I’ve been learning how my own choices with respect to food purchases, while well-intentioned, were grossly misinformed, and how some choices count for a lot more than others.
While buying local food is beneficial for local farmers, it doesn’t make that much of a difference to the environment. Transportation-related greenhouse gases are a drop in the bucket compared to GHGs associated with land use, farming, and methane produced by cows. Looking at the numbers shows that it’s what you eat, not where it comes from that makes the biggest impact.
Subscription services to healthy, farm-fresh produce promote health for the people who eat the food and financial viability for the farmers who grow it. Many people believe the biggest value of a CSA program is the low environmental impact of buying local, but this first post in a series on CSAs looks at whether eating local food is really the best way to save the planet.
During our time in Fukushima, we heard many references to Germany’s simultaneous shuttering of conventional generation sources and their accelerated roll-out of renewable energy. The mentality of many Japanese people is “if Germany can do it, so can we.” In this installment of this series, we will take a look at the feasibility of such major fuel shifts in Germany and Japan.
For years I have wrestled with the moral quandary of weighing my love of travel and seeing beautiful places in the world with the knowledge that continued air travel to those places will likely hasten their destruction. That knowledge has not stopped me from traveling (at least not yet), but it does result in more frequent pangs of guilt every time I board a plane.