conscious eating Eating for the Planet
DIET FOR A CLIMATE CRISIS by Sheila Julson
W
hat we choose to put on our plates influences not only our physical health, but also the
health of the environment. While much of the climate conversation focuses on the burning of fossil fuels, commercial food production—particularly livestock—uses large amounts of land, water and energy. Wasted food contributes to approximately 10 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Leigh Prezkop, food loss and waste
specialist for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), says agriculture accounts for about 70 percent of the world’s fresh water use, while pasture and crop land accounts for about 50 percent of the Earth’s habitable land.
“Te environmental impacts begin with
the soil,” Prezkop explains. “Soil that’s depleted of nutrients loses its ability to capture carbon and produce nutrient-rich foods. Te long chain continues with the processing and packaging of that food, and then transporting it to grocery store shelves and, eventually, to the consumer’s home.”
Eat Less Meat Animal agriculture is the leading cause of climate change, argues author, screenwriter and playwright Glen Merzer in his latest book, Food Is Climate: A Response to Al Gore, Bill Gates, Paul Hawken & the Conventional Narrative on Climate Change. “When we
have 93 million cattle farmed in the U.S. and 31 billion animals farmed globally each year, they create mountains of waste,” says Merzer, a dedicated vegan of 30 years. “That waste infiltrates water supplies and causes contamination, such as E. coli outbreaks, in foods like lettuce and tomatoes that are grown downstream.” He adds that cows belch methane,
a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and that grass-fed cows belch even more of it than grain- fed, feedlot cows. In addition, nitrogen fertilizers used to grow animal feed run into waterways. Overfishing and ocean warming threaten populations of phytoplankton, which sequester carbon
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