Eating Lower on the Food Chain

Our choices about what we eat matter.

Daily decisions of eating chicken versus beef or purchasing precut, plastic wrapped produce instead of a whole apple have a big effect on the environment. The good news is, we have the power to make small changes that yield real health and environmental benefits. Together, we can reduce GHG emissions, preserved animal populations, and fewer toxic chemicals. 

What we can do

One way to accomplish this is to make the active decision to eat lower on the food chain. Food chains refer to a series of plants and animals that relate to each other through foraging and predation. For example, a land based food chain might consist of grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Eagle. Food chains start with a plants or algae that can derive energy from the sun and move up to contain animals and sometimes humans. 

Carbon and Water Footprints: The Basics

The reason why eating high on the food chain is more environmentally degrading than eating lower foods such as fruits and vegetables is because the carbon and water footprints of animals are much more expansive than that of the latter. The Carbon footprint of a steak for example refers to all the greenhouse gas emissions caused directly an indirectly by its production. Indirect factors include the fossil fuels that went into making the fertilizer and pumping the irrigation water to grow the grains to feed the cows. Indirect factors may even go so far as to include the emissions that resulted from converting forest land into farm land suitable for raising cattle. Not to mention the gasoline required to transfer the beef to processing plants and then to your local grocery stores. All of this does not even include the direct factors such as methane emissions, a gas roughly 30 times as potent as carbon dioxide, that the cows themselves emit! Alternatively, produce, many of which are high in protein themselves such as beans and legumes, have a much smaller carbon and water footprint, making them more sustainable!

5 Delicious Ways to Eat Lower on the Food Chain:

 

1. Eat More Vegetables. 

This one is a given considering how much smaller the carbon and water footprints of produce is compared to meat and fish. By filling up on vegetables, you can still meet your daily protein needs while causing a lot less damage to the environment.

2. Try Meatless Mondays. 

Going completely meatless is tough! Believe me, I have tried. But going meatless for a day, now that is something we are all capable of! Don’t be fooled by how easy it is, the effects do add up! In fact, skipping a single quarter-pound hamburger can save more than 400 gallons of water and the energy it takes to power a smartphone for six months. Do it every week for a year, and the greenhouse-gas savings are equivalent to biking 1,000 miles instead of driving. 

3. Eat Seasonally.

Fruits and vegetables grown out of season in greenhouses and shipped across the country, or the world, are typically grown using large amounts of water and energy to re-create optimal growing environments. 

4. Eat Outside the Box

Grocery stores make it easy on you when they offer precut produce. Is it nice? Sure, but totally unnecessary! It takes all of about 2 minutes to cut up a mango at home so I find that buying precut produce to be a wasteful use of single use plastics.  If you’re out and about, I certainly see the appeal. Sometimes a cup of fruit purchased from your office cafeteria or precut watermelon at the beach can really hit the spot. But for the most part, if I am at the grocery store and plan to go home after, I try to stay away from any unnecessary packaging and just cut it up myself. 

5. Choose Pasture Raised

When you do eat meat, dairy and eggs, opt for pasture-raised products. It’s better for you and the earth. Grass, as opposed to corn and soy, is less likely to be irrigated so is less reliant on blue water resources.