By Alyson Lundstrom
(Originally published for ZeroMe)
We make a choice three times a day about the earth we want to see; breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Okay, for some of us, five times a day (snack and second lunch). Food choices are an edible vote about your vision for the earth’s future.
Every bit of our food needs to be grown, processed, prepared, consumed, and disposed of. We are in an intimate relationship with the food system, which one might argue is a one-sided relationship and at times abusive.
Our demand for foods that are beyond nutritional need (hello meat three times a day eaters) or out of season is pushing the supply abilities of Mother Earth. Any therapist would tell you that both party's needs should be met in a relationship or else, it's a toxic one.
These foods landed on this list for their resource-depleting ways and the carbon footprint they left behind. Using the Nutri-Score method, the foods were evaluated by comparing environmental impact and nutritional value. Considering nutritional benefits represents the synergies and tradeoffs that consumers and providers need to consider when assessing planet-friendly foods.
The most effective small change you can make to do your part for a more regenerative earth is on your plate. Let’s take a look at food’s worst earth offenders and alternatives that will turn your plate into a planet pleaser.
Eat Activism: You Have One Job, Lay Off The Guacamole
1. Avocados
What’s a world without guacamole? Well, a better one if we eat it in moderation. Unfortunately, the cultivation and water resources demanded for production to keep up with the world’s love affair of guacamole leaves a significant environmental footprint. For example, the growth of avocados requires twice as much water used by a fairly dense forest. In addition, we fly these wonder fruits worldwide in gas-guzzling airplanes, further deepening their environmental impact.
The Earth-Friendly Alternative: Ok, this one is tricky to replace. Is there anything on earth like an avocado? Our recommendation is the less impactful pea.
Hear us out - blend up these little guys with a pinch of seasonings, and suddenly everything is right in Avocado Toast land again. And better for the earth.
2. Prawns
Our global appetite for large prawns farmed in waters such as Thailand and Sri Lanka has also triggered the ecocide of mangrove swamps. According to the World Wildlife Fund, a steady stream of organic waste, chemicals, and antibiotics can pollute groundwater and coastal estuaries. This compounding impact can change the hydrology of wetland ecosystems.
The Earth-Friendly Alternative: Small cold water prawns like those from Happy Prawn Company that are traceable to sustainable cultivation in Indonesia. Check out Monterrey Bay Aquariums Seafood Watch for sustainable prawn options. Those that rank the least impactful; certified banana prawns or wild caught brown tiger prawns.
3. Sugar
Sugar, not only rough on your body, but also rough on our planet. Our addiction to sugar has created an intense demand for resource demanding cane crops.
A jaw-dropping 145 million tons of sugar are produced in 121 countries every year. Sugar cane crops require 88 gallons of water to produce just five pounds of sugar. In addition, our global addiction to sugar exacerbates the crop's tremendous amount of wastewater, emission, and sludge that is created in the process. These byproducts end up in our water system, creating anoxic environments that may lead to massive fish kills.
The Earth-Friendly Alternative: sugar beet sucrose, maple syrup, or local/ ethically sourced honey all offer low-impact alternatives with high traceability.
4. Soybeans
Soybeans are an enormously versatile food crop that provides for both human consumption (oil, sauces, tofu, and alternative milk) but also into animal feed. Unfortunately, their cultivation in South American countries has caused devastating deforestation where eco-diversity is destroyed, and soil is depleted of nutrients in the process. In addition, copious amounts of agrochemicals required for their growth pollute water systems, while heavy machinery involved in soybean processing leaves a massive carbon footprint.
The Earth-Friendly Alternative: Lentil and peas are low-impact choices. They work in symbiosis with the earth, converting atmospheric nitrogen into helpful ammonia or nitrates that actually improve soil fertility and reduce dependence on fertilizers.
5. Palm Oil
Palm oil is virtually impossible to avoid - it is in up to 50% of the products you find in the supermarket. Its combination of different types of fats combined with a malleable consistency makes it a highly valued ingredient by processed food producers. In addition, it provides the foaming agent in virtually every shampoo, liquid detergent, and soap on the market.
The downsides of palm oil cultivation are almost too many to mention. To put it concisely, palm oil has left orangutans, pygmy elephants, and the Sumatran rhino homeless through egregious amounts of deforestation, has enormous human rights violations associated, and has contributed an inequitable share of greenhouse gasses through its harvesting.
The Earth Friendly Alternative: There are currently sustainably certified palm oils on the market. You can look for the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil Certification (RSPO) to confirm that ethical and environmental measures are being employed. Alternatively, Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil is a low-impact choice.
6. Beef
We don’t feel bad about this one. If you're still eating red meat every day of the week while turning a blind eye to its heavy environmental impact, you deserve to have your steak taken away. Beef is the most carbon-intensive, resource-depleting food group on earth. One pound of beef creates the equivalent impact of 57 pounds of CO2 compared to a protein-rich lentil bean which requires only 0.45 pounds of CO2 per pound to bring to your plate.
The Earth Friendly Alternative: Lentils. If you can’t get behind beans instead of a steak, consider a flexitarian diet that includes more fish or chicken; which are two less impactful choices, in moderation.
7. Chocolate
We know. This hurts us too. Cacao is notoriously one of the most unsustainable crops of earth, causing deforestation and soil nutrient depletion. In addition, its processing often involves fellow earth offenders, soy, and palm oils. There is also an ethical aspect to chocolate that involves slave labor in African countries that has gone unchecked.
The Earth Friendly Alternative: Choose ethical chocolate with Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance certifications, third-party groups who vet chocolate companies for fair working conditions, and the sustainable harvesting of ingredients.
The bottom line is that "eat activism" is a simple way to not be part of the demand that fuels the problem. Absolutism is simply not sustainable or realistic. Moderation is the key to all life's desires, not limited to guacamole and an occasional grass-fed cut of locally sourced beef.
They say you are what you eat, so if we can, why try not to be a fossil fuel guzzling, resource-depleting beef jerky when we can be a sustainably harvested palm oil-free chocolate bar?
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