http://www.care2.com/greenliving/10-ways-to-reduce-your-environmental-footprint-through-food-choices.html
10 Ways to Reduce Your Environmental Footprint Through Food Choices
By John Chappell, Eat. Drink. Better
A website recently delineated a simple list of 10 ways that you can reduce your environmental footprint through changes in your food choices. The list is fairly straightforward and involves changes that any person in any country can make to reduce their carbon footprint. Substantive facts for each item are also laid out and explained along with a brief description of how the change can affect the environment in a positive manner.
Here the list of changes you can make to your food choices to reduce your environmental footprint:
• Eat less beef, pork, and lamb.
• Eat out at restaurants less often.
• Eat fewer dairy products.
• Drink fewer soft drinks.
• Eat seasonal and local fruits and vegetables.
• Eat fewer packaged snacks and junk food.
• Upgrade to an energy efficient refrigerator.
• Eat wild fish that are not endangered.
• Drink less bottled water.
• Walk to your local farmers market or grocery store.
You can see the full list here.
The great thing about this is that none of these actions are difficult, expensive, or time intensive to perform. In fact each of these activities, by themselves or collectively will probably make you healthier, better fed, and even happier.
If you think about how you can reduce your carbon footprint and make yourself and your household more environmentally friendly, it’s going to be small changes like the ones listed. Not everyone has the desire or means to move off the grid and live in a self sufficient cabin in the wilderness, but small changes add up, and small changes are sustainable and can be built upon.
This is also by no means an exhaustive list, there are many other changes you can make to your food lifestyle and consumption habits to reduce your environmental impact, but these are definitely 10 ways to start and get the most bang for your buck.
Green Options Media is a network of environmentally-focused blogs providing users with the information needed to make sustainable choices. Written by experienced professionals, Green Options Media’s blogs engage visitors with authoritative content, compelling discussions, and actionable advice. We invite anyone with questions, or simply curiosity, to add their voices to the community, and share their approaches to achieving abundance.
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55 comments
add your comment »I don't buy water bottle ever, I have a water filter at home that lasts between 6-8 months. I don't dry my clothes in the dryer (I live in Florida so we get sunshine all year long). This is great for my clothes, and lowers my electric bill. I don't eat out much, I use my own grocery bags, I don't take my clothes to the dry cleaner, and I don't buy stuff that I don't need.
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as a college student, it is very difficult to live green. some ways that are more convenient, though not the best, are refilling water bottles from the water fountains, printing on both sides of the paper, walking as much as possible, and taking extra fruit from the cafeteria to have for snacks. these little changes work even if you're not in college but have a hectic lifestyle.
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Me again, I have 25 cfls in my house, use all organic cleaners, I have, for years, use time-of-day electric to use off peak hours for 4x cheaper electricity, NEVER cheat at that, and hoping for one day a VERY fuel effiecient car, as hydrogen for example.
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I try to buy used clothing items, make my own cleaning preparations, when I don't forget my cloth grocery bags, I cringe with embarrassment, I trade items, I freecycle, donate unused items, when I make purchases I buy the best I can afford to make sure that I have qualitiy products that last. I reuse all the paper products I can and recycle the rest, I stuff my purse full not to use extra bags when I don't have my cloth/recycleable bags with. I am disabled and must use my car, but I plan my trips not to retrace and try to keep my car well maintained to keep mileage at it's best and check tires and am very careful in driving habits in order to use as little fuel as possible. I do eat out, at family owned businesses, lest they lose their livelihoods, there is always the other side of the coin. Cheers!
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we have a greenhouse in an upstairs attic as I live at 6500 feet elevation. it's alot of work but at least we are consuming safe produce and not supporting supermarkers.
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Grow some vegetables and give many away to fam. and friends, have a compost outside,use our own bags at the grocery store, walk more and keep trying
Oct.11/09 Mary G.
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there one thing they miss on this list become a ape
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GET A NEW KNEE..
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Thanks for this!!! I'll try to do this more often...
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I have been a vegetarian for 3 years. Would be a vegan if I could give up cheese cake. We have an Energy efficient refrigerator, a water heater without a holding tank, a whole house filter to avoid bottled water. I myself gave up driving 3 years ago, When we use my husband's vehicle we make several reasons to shop at once. I don't live within walking distance of a farmer's market but I grow 30% of our family's consumption of fruits and vegetable in my own organic garden. We never eat junk food or drink pop. We will only be eating out while on vacation to Ireland this Autumn. At home, we always eat in. I feel that my family has a small carbon footprint due to our use of no packaging, limiting the family to one car, using our own shopping bags so as not to have to rely on the plastic shopping bags supplied by the store. Each of the 3 of us try to think of ways to further limit our carbon footprint and we adapt quickly to the good ideas of each other. We are very supportive each other in this effort. I also have 2 bee hives and have let most of our lawn go back to meadow, which I have planted with wildflowers for our bees. Thank you for reinforcing my family's efforts with this wonderful article.
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