Do you want a low carbon diet? Do(n’t) eat local!
“Don’t eat local”, said no one ever when talking about sustainable food. And that’s right. It’s not helping if you buy your groceries from the other side of the world. After all, transport generates greenhouse gases (GHG) as well. Yet, it is not the most important factor of sustainable food.
An often overlooked aspect of sustainable food is the production process itself. It is responsible for one-fourth of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. That’s more than the whole transport sector or energy use in buildings
Low carbon food
It’s much more important what you eat than where it comes from. Every one of us has their own favorite and chooses red meats, pop sodas and processed foods over a portion of veggies any day. This not only causes about 2.6 billion people globally to be overweight, that’s 38% of the world population2 (!), these food products also have the biggest impact on our environment.
There are enormous differences between food products. And it might be kicking down an open door, but beef is by far the largest polluter with 60 kilograms of greenhouse gases per kilogram of meat. Poultry or pig meat is already 10 times better than the average meat cow when talking about the carbon footprint. The obvious winners are vegetables and fruits (usually below 1kg GHG per kg food).
As you can see in the figure below, most GHG are emitted because of land used for production. In the case of animals, we shouldn’t forget about the land necessary to produce their feedstock such as soy or grains. When changing land into crop or grazing land, many of the GHG that are captured will be released.
Also processes at the farm stage cause many emissions, because of fertilization or the fermentation process in the stomachs of cattle and sheep (ruminants). Both land use and farm-stage emissions together are over 80% of all GHG in the food sector. Far more than transport, packaging or or retail together1.
To be clear, my message is not for you to start importing your food from all over the world. Air-freighted transport is more impactful than a boat trip (50 times more emissions). Not many foods are shipped by plane (0,16%), but some high perishables such as certain berries, green beans and asparagus need to arrive fast because they need to be eaten soon after picking. You can avoid air-freighted transport by choosing products with a longer shelf-life2. As a fun-fact, many people believe avocado’s are flown in, but they actually just take a cruise1.
I hope that by now you know that fruits and veggies from afar have a lower carbon footprint compared to animal products right next door. Other questions you can ask yourself are: Do they use heated greenhouses for production? What type of fertilizer is used, is it biological? If you want to eat meat, do you choose chicken or beef?
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Live a luxurious life
When you go to the store, you’ll find an overload of all sorts of chocolate, coffee, meats or fish. Please keep enjoying your food, but try treating your chocolate as a luxury, something special to enjoy on a special occasion, when you are having friends over or a delicious and relaxing me-time moment. That way it will surely fit into your every healthy diet. And I promise, you’ll enjoy it even more!
Food is literally a gift of nature and we should do something in return if we want it to keep on giving. Next time you buy your favorite food, think of me. Is this a healthy planet everyday food? Jackpot, you are lucky! If not, consider treating it as your luxury moment.
1 Hannah Ritchie (2020) - “Sector by sector: where do global greenhouse gas emissions come from?” Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/ghg-emissions-by-sector ' [Online Resource]
2 Hannah Ritchie (2020) - “You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local” Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local' [Online Resource]
