Reduce Carbon Footprint Seasonal Eating

Reduce Carbon Footprint Seasonal Eating / From Food. Eat locally-produced and organic food. It has been estimated that 13% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions result from the production and transport of food. Transporting food requires petroleum-based fuels, and many fertilizers are also fossil fuel-based.

A BBC poll has revealed that fewer than one in 10 Brits know when some of the UK’s most well-known fruit and vegetables are in season, and supermarkets do little to help. But would a strawberry at the Christmas table really be so out of place?

It’s always five o’clock somewhere, goes the sot’s adage. This sound principle may also be applied to the seasonality of fruit and vegetables. These days, the year-round availability of everything from Peruvian asparagus to Dutch tomatoes is pretty much ubiquitous in UK supermarkets. Such disregard for British growing seasons has become something of a cause célèbre for foodie types, and a new survey by BBC Good Food Magazine has found our knowledge of the seasons to be pitiful.

Summer is filled with fun picnics, backyard parties, and tasty food. Sweet, right? Have you ever considered how all that food is impacting your carbon footprint? Bringing our food from seed to table accounts for as much as a quarter of all human carbon emissions on our planet. Summer is a great time to take advantage of local produce and reduce the impact of your food. Eating seasonally and locally can reduce the carbon footprint of your food by up to 10%.  Read on to find out the details and more summer sizzling ways to reduce your food’s carbon emissions!

Avoid processed food

Whether at home or in a manufacturing plant, the less processing your food sees the better! Reduce your carbon footprint by eating more raw vegetables. Ditch those chocolate brownies and switch to local fruits and veggies. It’s good for you and the environment, because it makes you healthier and eliminates the carbon footprint of your stove. This is best way to Reduce Carbon Footprint Seasonal Eating. Not use the processed food.

In fact, raw dieting is the new trend. Avoiding cooking reduces your power use, which is one of the largest parts in the footprint of an average American. A gas oven only uses 6% of its energy to cook and an electric one is not much better at 12%. If you have to cook, the most efficient method is simmering on the stove-top. The next best is the microwave – it uses 50% less energy than the oven.

Of the 2,000 people polled, only 5% could say when blackberries were plump and juicy. And 4% guessed accurately at when plums were at their best. One in 10 could pinpoint the season for gooseberries. All of this is despite 86% professing to believe in the importance of seasonality, and 78% claiming to shop seasonally.

In the great scheme of our foodish shortcomings – the obesity, the steady rise of ready meals, our unwillingness to cook – does it really matter if people don’t know when a broad bean is in season? Jack Adair Bevan runs the Ethicurean restaurant in Bristol, which, as far as possible, cooks with the seasons using produce grown in its walled garden. Despite this laudable approach, he’s not about to lambast those who aren’t so attuned to nature’s flux. “We’re pretty spoilt in the sense that having a garden means we have it all here – our eye is on the seasons constantly. But I can see it would be hard for someone without a garden. If all they have to go on is what’s in the shops, well, you can get pretty much anything all year round.”

To be sure, quality of flavour is and should be high on the list of why it might be worth being in touch with the seasons. A pale January tomato is a foul thing. A strawberry at the Christmas table would be an aberration. Or would it? “I think they seem wrong because they don’t taste good,” says Prince. “If you could find amazing tasting strawberries in December then, for many, that would be far preferable to Christmas pudding.”

Arguments in favour of seasonal eating go beyond flavour, however. The nebulous spectre of localism, inevitably, materialises. If you were to argue that, in a blind tasting, most of us wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between British and Peruvian asparagus, you would, in all likelihood, be met with a volley of argument concerning air miles and freight and footprints. This is largely bunk. Unless you live in an asparagus-producing part of the country – the Vale of Evesham, say – then the ecological impact of Peruvian versus British asparagus is vanishingly small. If you drive to the supermarket it is nixed altogether, if not tipped in favour of Paddington Bear’s homeland.

There are floatier arguments. In an interview in 2010, Guy Watson, founder of the Riverford Organic vegetable box scheme, says “I am an advocate of local food, partly on environmental grounds but mainly because I think it’s important that people feel a connection with where their food comes from.” We can, in this instance, conflate local with seasonal, but it doesn’t get us much closer to a strong argument for shopping seasonally. Other seasonal cheerleaders use words such as “harmony”. It’s a nice idea, but it’s as wishy-washy as any winter strawberry.

Go vegetarian: how effective is that?

Ultimately, however, our understanding of food seasons, while clearly leaving room for improvement, is less of a concern than countless other defects in our relationship with food. There was a time when the “hungry gap”, was a cause for genuine alarm, the unyielding fields making for spartan dinner tables. I can’t help wondering if our forebears wouldn’t be tickled by our sniffiness at eating green beans in March. This is best way to Reduce Carbon Footprint Seasonal Eating.

Livestock production contributes 14.5% to 18% of all GHG emissions. Vast tracts of land are cleared to make way for growing food for cows. A meat lover’s diet has the highest carbon footprint at 3.3 tons of GHGs. A vegetarian’s carbon footprint is about 1.7 tons GHGs.

Looking to go vegetarian or vegan to reduce your carbon footprint? Know the facts. When carbon emissions are calculated per calorie, not every plant-based food comes out best. Animal products, including meat and dairy, have a higher carbon footprint than sugars or grains, but also have higher nutritional value. For example, corn produced 1.9 g of CO2e/kcal, which is slightly more than the 1.8 g of CO2e/kcal produced by beef. When meat is substituted calorie-per-calorie for vegetarian products, the effect of is modest. Do a little research to figure out which fruits and vegetables are more carbon-friendly!

Studies find that with smart substitution of meat-based products it’s possible to reduce food-related CO2e emissions by up to 19% while still maintaining a healthy diet!

The best approach to reducing the footprint of your food does not lie in a single action – it has to be an integrated strategy. Incorporating the different tips mentioned above and purchasing carbon offsets will allow your lifestyle become more carbon-balanced. Blow are the best way given to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Seasonal Eating and by

Changing your diet could help reduce the carbon footprint of your food:

• Eliminating waste by eating what you buy — 25%
• Going vegan — 25%
• Eating in-season, while avoiding hothouses and air freight — 10%
• Recycling and avoiding excessive packaging — 6%
• Reducing waste by buying items from the front of the shelves, reduced-price items, and misshapen fruit and vegetables — 2%
• Cooking using less energy— 5%