The Power on Our Plates

What if one of the largest drivers of climate change was also something that each of us could use to make ourselves and our communities stronger every day? And what if one of the most impactful actions we could take to improve the health of the planet would also have huge benefits for our own health?

In our Founding Year survey, we asked people what the biggest personal barriers were to tackling climate change. Most people who answered were clear that they were concerned about climate, but noted that they felt overwhelmed by the scale of the problem and were unsure of what specific actions they could take to fight it.

New research from Columbia University released in March of this year shows that one of the biggest drivers of climate change is also one of its most impactful solutions – and it’s right in front of us three times a day.

In this article we take a look at:

• how current food production practices are making climate impacts worse;
• how the choices we make around food every day can be both good for us and good for the planet; and
• some resources to help you get there.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

The food we eat every day is an essential part of life and responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions. If we continue with business as usual through the end of the century, global food production alone could contribute to an additional one degree of global warming, according to a new study. 

With each fraction of a degree of warming on top of this, the research is clear that there is greater risk to our lives and the lives of all beings on the planet – with devastating impacts for the most comfortable and catastrophic impacts for the most vulnerable.

We have to eat, and we can make a big difference for ourselves and the planet through our choices.
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FROM FARM TO FORK

There is so much more to food than what we see on our plates. Before it becomes our dinner, It needs to be grown, harvested or caught, transported, packaged, sold, and cooked. Once we’re finished with it, whatever is left over needs to be disposed of. Each step of this process requires energy and creates global warming pollution.

Some foods cause more damage to the environment than others. In conducting the research for the new study, lead author Catherine Ivanovich and her team calculated the emissions of 94 individual foods in 12 different food groups. They then charted the impact these foods would have on increasing global temperatures by the end of the century, if we continue with business as usual. 

The results showed that, when looking at the emissions created from farm and fork, dairy and certain meats like beef, goat, and sheep are “responsible for more than half of the warming by the year 2030 and through to the year 2100.” 
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THE POWER ON OUR PLATES

However, the study is clear that this is not a future set in stone. Ivanonvich and team noted three big changes that could result in reducing these predicted warming levels by half: eating more healthy plants, reducing food waste, and investing in technology to limit pollution in the food supply chain.

While the third is slightly more complex, the first two of these changes are ones that we have the power to make as consumers. Let’s take a look at them in more detail, including some resources that can help.

1. More plants on our plates:

The researchers are not calling for everybody on the planet to become a vegetarian. Rather, they encourage people to follow the dietary recommendations provided by Harvard Medical School.

The focus, according to Abramovich and team, should be on a diet that is better for our health, which also has the added benefit of having less of a negative environmental impact – good for you, good for the planet.

The Harvard recommendations prescribe a diet that includes healthy proteins, with a focus on vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and healthy fats. This encourages us to make plants the star of our plate, with animal proteins playing a supporting role – this means it’s okay to have red meat a few times a week and fish, poultry, and eggs a couple of times a day.

The study noted that these guidelines reflect average global consumption levels, and should not apply in areas where meat is an important part of cultures and traditions, or where access to other sources of protein rich food are harder to find. 

Instead, Ivanovich highlighted that these dietary changes should be targeted to areas like the United States and Canada, where today’s food production creates much more climate pollution than almost anywhere in the world.

Not only is a plant-focused diet better for our bodies according to the Harvard Guidelines, Ivanovich’s study shows that it is also much better for the health of the planet – now and in the future.
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2. Reducing food waste: 

Every year a third of food that is produced around the world is wasted between farm and fork. This is equal to 1 billion tons of wasted food that ends up in landfills, where it rots and releases 8%-10% of climate change-driving greenhouse gas emissions globally.

Because of this, Project Drawdown has listed reducing food loss and waste as the single-best strategy we can take as individuals and households for reducing emissions and fighting climate change. Ibramovich’s research echoes this clearly, showing that if household food waste could be cut by half, it would decrease the future warming associated with our food by 4-5%. 

Among the best ways for us to reduce food waste as consumers are: 

• Plan your meals and buy only what you need – www.savethefood.com has great tools to help!
• Understand the difference between “best before” and “use by” dates
• Compost your food scraps rather than throwing them away – like South Korea!
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RESOURCES TO HELP

From cookbooks to apps, there are many resources available to help us add plants to our diets and reduce our food waste for personal and environmental health. We’ve included our top five below.

1. SavetheFood.com – A website full of tools, recipes, planners, storage tips, and more to help you reduce food waste.
2. 10 minute fridge reality check – A printable pdf that helps you see how much food is going uneaten in your homes and provides tips to reduce household food waste.
3. Forks Meal Planner app (iOS) (Android) – This app offers “delicious recipes, seasonal menus, grocery lists, and all of the resources you need to make plant-based living easy.”
4. Scrappy Cooking on YouTube – This YouTube channel gives you ideas for how to repurpose food scraps that you would normally throw away into delicious meals.
5. Eating for Pleasure, People, and Planet – This cookbook by Tom Hunt is full of recipes and ideas to help you fight both food waste and climate change. His goal is to help us “eat better food that supports not only our health but also the well-being of the planet.”

Do you have any favourite tips and tricks to reduce food waste or eat a more plant-based diet? Share them with us at community@myclimateplan.com and we’ll keep adding to our list of resources!
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