You are what you eat

I'm in another class called Practical Environmentalism with Professor Paul Wapner, and a couple of weeks ago our focus was on agriculture. One of our assignments was to keep a food log for two days of everything we ate, and then try to trace our origins. (So if you're really interested in my thoughts, I have a 6-page paper you could read! Haha.) As a result of this, I have definitely started to consciously examine not just what I eat, but where it comes from and what kind of an impact my decisions have on the environment. I get

I do try to think about the environment when I buy groceries and make decisions concerning food. However, for the most part I put more emphasis on eating right for my body. Certainly, this can go hand in hand. By eating less processed foods and more fruits, vegetables, dairy, etc., I am not only getting the nutrients I need, but also cutting down on negative impacts that big factories can have, such as pollution, waste, chemical use, poor working conditions, and more. Of course, these issues also arise on farms, so I also try to eat as locally and organically as I can. I shop at Whole Foods and try to pay attention to how the foods were made/ harvested and where they come from. However, I do have a meal plan, and I get some of my fruit from MGC. Just this morning I ate a banana from Ecuador, which probably had the greatest environmental impact of the foods I've eaten recently. There are a lot of things to consider when making food choices, and sometimes the best option is not easy to see.

After discussing how eating locally is a much better choice for the environment, Professor Wapner sent us this article that he found: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/02/25/080225fa_fact_specter. Shockingly, the article explained how sometimes eating local foods leads to a higher carbon emission than eating imported foods. For example, growing apples in New Zealand and shipping them to New York or Northern Europe has less of an environmental burden them growing them locally. This is because there is more sunshine in New Zealand, so there is a higher yield with lower energy requirement, and most of the electricity in New Zealand is generated by renewable sources with low carbon emissions. This was a revelation for me, and it was a little disheartening to find out.

Making the best food choices for the environment is not an easy or simple process, but I think that by being more conscious of our decisions we can reduce negative environmental impacts. Too many people never question where their food came from or how it was produced. I think that by eating foods that are in season and grown locally and organically, we can reduce negative impacts on the environment and also improve our health and well-being.