Adventures in Sustainable Living Podcast

E68

It All Starts at Home: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint 

Part III

Welcome back everyone. This is part three of how to reduce your carbon footprint. In this episode I am going to focus on what we eat. 

Our agriculture systems have truly put us in a predicament. It has long been known that this is the source of our greatest ecological impact. Yet we must continue to produce food to feed a growing world population. But, believe it or not, it is actually our agricultural systems that are at the heart of the solution of the issue of sustainability both economically and socially. 

If you want to learn the solution to this dilemma, then listen to this episode It All Starts at Home/ How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Part III.  

Welcome back everyone to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast. This is episode 68 It All Starts at Home: How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Part III.  

There is absolutely no doubt that we live in an ever changing world these days. But many of the things we hear day-to-day are truly nothing more than a distraction. I often hear my co-workers and colleagues say something to the affect of “Did you see such and such on Facebook” and I never know what they are talking about. Or I hear news about some famous person that died and I have no clue as to who they were.  

Now this may lead some people to believe that perhaps I live under a rock or I spend way too much time on the homestead. But you may be surprised to know that I do subscribed to a New York Times News letter. I do make an effort to keep abreast of world events because I think it is important. Yet I strongly filter what I hear, what I see, and what I read. This is because most of what we hear and see everyday is completely unimportant and is nothing more than a distraction from the real issues of our time. And one of those issues is sustainability. If you really get down to this central issue, living a sustainable life in every possible way affects every single thing that you do, right down to what you put in your mouth. What we choose to eat is another big area where we produce our greatest individual ecological impact. 

Look at it this way. Think of what you had to eat for your last meal. Almost every single ingredient in your last meal was farmed, grown, raised, or slaughtered on a piece of land that used to be wildlife habitat. More than 50% of the arable land on this planet has been cleared for agriculture production. Land based food production continues to be the largest driver for loss of biodiversity, species extinction, greenhouse gas production and climate change. 

Now, should you feel guilty about this? Absolutely not. Trading wilderness for farm land to feed people was a decision made by our ancestor centuries ago. This is not something we can change at this point in our history and I dare say it will never change.  However, there are numerous ways to significantly reduce our impact. 

I do find it interesting that if you go through health related literature and come up with a list of current recommendation for the healthiest diet, it strongly correlates with the best way to eat sustainability. What this means is that if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, then improve your diet. 

As it turns out, at least according to the National Academy of Sciences, if we truly followed proper dietary recommendations, we could reduce our greenhouse gases related to the productions of the food we eat by 13% to 25%. Furthermore, the amount of land it takes to produce that food could drop by as much as 17%. 

So let’s just do a quick review of a few principles just to prove my point. Now I am not trying to be your diet counselor. I just want to quickly go over a couple of points. 

There are certain dietary habits that are scientifically proven to be healthier. Eating lots of vegetables and fruits. Eating protein loaded foods such as legumes, fish, shell fish, eggs, poultry, low fat yogurt. Choosing whole grain foods such as wild rice, quinoa, oatmeal and stay away from white rice and pasta. Limiting your intake of highly processed foods such as fast food, hot dogs, chips, cookies, froze pizzas, deli meats. Make water your drink of choice and stay away form sugar filled drinks such as soda and sports drinks. 

Bottom line. Prepare most of your meals at home using whole or minimally processed foods. Choose from a variety of different protein sources just to keep things interesting. Choose a variety of fruits and vegetables with a variety of colors. And, take a day or two a week and go meatless. 

But, if you want to get much more specific, here are five different diet plans that are backed by science and proven to be healthy:

1. Low-carb, whole-food diet
2. Mediterranean diet which focuses on plenty of vegetables, fruits, fish, poultry, whole grains, legumes
3. Paleo diet: this focuses on unprocessed foods
4. Vegan diet: This diet completely eliminates the consumption of animal products. 
5. Gluten-free diet

Now let’s take a look at diet plans from the perspective of sustainability:

1. Consuming whole foods means there is minimal processing between the farm and your plate. This means less energy usage, fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and in most cases, a lot less if any packaging requirements. 
2. Eating plenty of vegetables and fruits: Once again this focuses on fresh, whole foods, with minimal processing. 
3. Limiting processed foods: Processing foods in any way increases resource consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, a lot of processed foods rely heavily on the use of palm oil, the production of which is directly related to deforestation. At least according to the United Nations, Malaysia and Indonesia lose about 300 footballs fields worth of forest to the palm oil industry every single hour. 
4. Reducing your meat intake: Off all the things in our diet, the production of meat, especially beef, has the greatest ecological impact. 

It doesn’t take a lot of searching to find plenty of science to back up the claim that a heather diet is also the most sustainable one. That said, there are some very specific things you can do to accomplish that because what you choose to put on your plate does make a difference. 

Avoid Highly Processed Foods

Things such as potato chips, frozen pizza, deli meat, hotdogs, supermarket white bread, cookies, candy. In other words, avoid those foods that have a long list of ingredients that you have no idea what they are. The next time you are in the supermarket take the time to read the ingredients in a bag of Cheetos. They may be tasty but products such as this are nothing more than a laboratory experiment. 

And this even includes off-the-shelf supermarket bread. The last time I was in the supermarket I read the label on a loaf of bread. There were 47 ingredients.  My home made sourdough bread has flour, water, yeast, a small amount of sugar, and whatever herbs I choose to add.  

Stick to eating basic ingredients. 

Whole grains, nuts, seeds, fresh fruits. 

Eat what is in season, which may not be exactly what you want. 

If you choose to eat fruits and vegetable that are out of season, this means that produce has to travel long distances to get to your location. Purchasing out of season fruit means that fruit is flown in from somewhere which of course has a significant environmental impact. 

Use preserved foods in the off season. 

Frozen, canned, and dried foods in the off season are a more sustainable option relative to fresh foods that are flown in from great distances. 

Consider Organic

Organically grown produce means limited use of pesticides, use of sustainable soil practices, manures for fertilizer, and using cover crops. All of which are sustainable. 

Buy fruits and vegetables in bulk. This limits the use of unnecessary packaging. Typically fresh and minimally processed foods use very little packaging. 

And one of the easiest things to do is to reduce your food waste. As much as 40% of the food produced in this country literally goes to waste. That produces an unnecessary strain on the environment while poverty and hunger still exists throughout much of the world. 

Grow Your Own

And one of the most sustainable things that you can do is of course to grow your own food. It is not difficult nor time consuming to have a small vegetable garden. It is a good way to spend some time outside, reduce your stress and produce some of the best organic food you will ever eat.  

Reduce Your Meat Consumption.  

And of course, I have to through this one in there at the end.  

If you truly want to make a difference, then start by reducing you consumption of animal products and shift away from eating so much red meat. Think of eating more foods that are lower on the food chain. Again we are back to more fruits, fresh vegetables, whole grains and less red meat. 

I think I have made it clear that I have no intention of becoming a vegetarian. But what I have learned is that not all meats are created equal from the standpoint of sustainability. Some animals have a greater impact than others. But if we just reorganize our diet, we can make a big difference in our individual environmental footprint. Not only that but with a little reorganization, we can all make a huge difference and not complete sacrifice eating our favorite foods. 

In order to keep meat as a protein source in your diet while minimizing your ecological footprint, your intake should look similar to the following: 

Beef intake 6% of total meat consumption

Beef indeed is at the top of the list for using the most land, water, time, and other resources in order to go from pasture to plate. Think of beef as a special occasion type food muck like cooking a big turkey once a year for the holidays. I know very well how we all love a big fat cheese burger but that should not be a daily part of our diet. 

Lamb 18% of total meat consumption

While sheep are a little more efficient relative to cattle, they are still very resource intensive. 

Pork 31% of total meat consumption

Pigs are very efficient as far as converting feed to meat. They produce about 20 to 30 piglets a year and they will literally eat almost anything. That makes them much more efficient to feed since they can simply consume food waste.  

Chicken 45% of total meat consumption

Chickens readily reproduce, gain weight quickly. While factory farmed chickens are not very environmentally friendly, there are a lot of other options on the market such as free range birds or those raised on local family farms.  

So there is a very basic breakdown. A combination of pork and chicken should make up about 76% of your meat consumption. Lamb and beef should be reserved for special occasions.  

And don’t forget about the “blue foods”  which are truly some of the most nutritious foods on the planet with the least ecological impact. Blue foods in a reference to anything that is caught or cultivated in a fresh water or marine environment. I don’t want to repeat myself too much because I covered a lot of this in E 65 which was called Blue Foods May Be the Green Future. 

But just a quick recap. Things such as clams, oysters, mussels, and squid are low on the food chain, packed with nutrients, and are quite sustainable. In fact, several studies have shown that a selective diet of aquaculture and wild caught fisheries has a lower ecological impact that even a vegetarian or vegan diet. 

Even things such as seaweed are highly nutritious. Another good example is Spirulina, which is a blue green algae that grows in either fresh or salt water all around the globe. Spirulina is a plant based protein that is one of the most nutrient dense foods on earth. It also happens to provide pain relief, is a potent anti-oxidant, and has anti-inflammatory and brain protective properties. 

There are tremendous benefits and so much potential for “blue foods” to play a big part as a sustainable protein source for a growing world population. Some people even believe that farming the seas is the only way we are going to be able to feed the planet. 

That said, we must also take into account that our agricultural systems are the main source of food and income for most of the world’s poor and food-insecure people, around 75% of whom live in rural areas. Consequently, it is our agricultural systems that are at the heart of the solution of the issue of sustainability both economically and socially. No matter what choice we make, our success in developing a sustainable future also has to take into account even the most marginalized people on the planet. After all, in many cases these are the folks that are producing a significant portion of our food. 

The global seafood industry actually employs hundreds of millions of people many of which are in some of the poorest countries in the world. Yes that industry needs improvement. Yes there are a lot of people working on that very issue. Despite what you may see in documentaries such as Seaspiracy, if you simply look at the hard science, the oceans are in far better shape than what we have been lead to believe. 

Truly our planet is at a crossroads. I am thoroughly convinced of that especially after spending the last year or so working on this podcast. We have to make changes, maybe even sacrifices. But we are not yet past the point of no return. We have numerous alternatives and some fantastic technology that we can use to our advantage. But we must focus on the more sustainable options. We must also not forget that we tend to use money and technology to solve our problems instead of addressing the underlying behavior that got us in the predicament in the first place. That is where making better choices comes into play. 

So just for a quick summary of what I have covered in the last three episodes. There are three bigs areas in our lives where as individuals we produce our greatest ecological impact. 

The first is, 

1. How we travel, meaning our dependence on automobiles, accounts for approximately 30% of our impact. There are a number of reasons we became so dependent on our automobiles, which is a matter of culture and geography. But, it is possible to greatly reduce your dependence on your automobile by planning ahead, streamlining your tasks and chores, riding a bicycle for shorter trips, using public transportation, car pooling, and telecommuting. All you have to do is get creative. That is exactly what I did. Not only will it save you time and money, but it will also reduce your stress and your environmental impact. 

The second area is, 

2) How we live, meaning how we manage our homes. This accounts for another 30% of our impact. This is primarily because 62% of American homes are still heated and cooled by the burning of fossil fuels. That said, there are numerous ways to decrease your energy usage. Unplug your devices when not in use. This alone costs Americans $19 billion a year in electric bills. Improve the insulation of your home. Purchase energy efficient appliances. And consider going solar. When it comes to running your home, just remember that the greenest energy is the energy we never use. 

And the third area is

3) What we eat. 

This accounts for another 18% of our individual impact. Now I am certainly not suggesting that we all go vegetarian. But, just remember that the healthiest diet is also the most sustainable diet. Doing things such as eating more fresh, organic, fruits and vegetables, stick with whole grains, nuts, seeds, stick to what is in season, and stay away from highly processed foods. One of the foods that produces our greatest impact is meat. So, if you want to eat meat as I do, then the greatest portion of what you consume should be chicken, pork, and blue foods, and limit beef and lamb to less than 20% of your meat intake and consider reserving those two meats for special occasions. 

The whole point of this three part series was to address the most common question that I hear which is “How do I reduce my carbon footprint?” While I do understand that it is so easy to become overwhelmed with our ever changing world and simply sit back and think there is nothing you can do as an individual to make a difference. Well, I have shown my listeners in the last three episodes that there actually is a lot that we can do. There is a lot that we should do. We cannot sit back and wait for big business and big government to make the decision. The choices that we make are actually very powerful.  One person can make a difference. 

I want to leave you with one last thought. Oscar Wilde, who was an Irish poet, dramatist, and very very out spoken,  once said, “Experience is the name we give our mistakes.” I think it should be obvious that we now have experience with what the world would be like if we do not live sustainably. Imagine what    it is going to be like 50 years from now if we do not learn to do things differently. It comes down to what kind of future we are leaving the next generation. 

Well that’s it for this week folks. If you continue to enjoy the material that I produce can you please take the time to leave me with a review. I would greatly appreciate it. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Adventures in Sustainable Living podcast as well as my companion blog Off Grid Living News. And as always, don’t forget to take advantage of all the resources in the transcript of this episode. 

But for now, this is your host Patrick signing off until next week. Always remember to live sustainably because this is how we build a better future. 

Resources

Eating for your health is also better for the environment 

5 Diets That Are Supported by Science, Healthline

Healthy Eating Basics

The Healthiest Diet is Also the Most Sustainable One

11 Tips for Sustainable Eating