Yes and Yes, food makes a massive difference to the world! This blog post will look at how rising temperatures impact foods and crops that we eat today. We’ll also look at how some foods contribute to climate change and what you and I can do to help, just by carefully selecting what we put in our shopping basket.
Rethinking what we eat can go a long way to improving not only our own health but the health of the planet as well.
Wheat, corn, rice and soybean provide two-third of human calorific intake. Understanding the impact of global temperature increase on these crops is therefore critical to feeding a growing global population. Crops are sensitive to climate change, including changes in temperature and precipitation as well as CO2 emissions. For example, corn yields will go down by 7.4% for each degree the temperature rises.
Diseases indirectly caused by climate change also impact the yield of many crops around the world. Consumers have to be prepared for changes in quality, price and availability of some foods as climate change is affecting our food choices.
Looking at the causes of climate change, it has become widely known that animal agriculture has a significant impact on climate change. Governments and businesses around the world are slow to react with policies and laws to reflect the greenhouse gas emissions from livestock farming. However, consumers are catching on to the alarming news and increasing number of people choose to eat less meat.
There’s a great podcast from Climate One called “How climate change will change the way we eat”. One of the points made was that if just 30% of the beef patty were replaced with mushrooms in Americans' 10 billion burgers consumed annually, "it’s the equivalent of 2.3 million cars off the road,” citing a report from the World Resources Institute. “It's the water usage of 2.6 million Americans, and it's bringing land back into new uses about the size of Maryland.”
Apart from considering the climate impact of the food we eat, we can make a huge difference by reducing waste from our households as well as from inefficiencies in the food chain. Currently, 33-40% of food is wasted around the world.
Processed foods generate more waste and CO2 emissions than natural and unrefined products. The most climate friendly food is the whole food diet and cooking from scratch is associated with many nutritional, financial and climate change benefits. However, not everyone has the time to live that way and the second best thing is to choose carefully where you get your prepared meals from.
New food production methods like regenerative agriculture, closed loop cooking and aquaponics demonstrate that food really can be a part of the climate solution.
Eco food tips:
Cut down on meat and other animal products. If you buy meat, make sure it is not from factory farms.
Farmers markets can’t be overstated - get local, organic, fresh food without unnecessary packaging.
When you buy staples like toilet paper, go for recycled and unbleached.
When you buy flour or sugar, select unrefined products, ideally with husks (wholewheat) as the fibres are great for you.
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