Food

Food - from necessary to wonderful pleasure, food has an impact on climate change. How can you still eat different ingredients while reducing your carbon footprint? The UK is about to establish a binding target to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% over 1990 levels by 2050. The food chain accounts for around 20% of the nation's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Science based actions

A more sustainable party drink : see below!

Pick your fruits in the right season

Education based actions

Teaching your children, friends or family about sustainable food will help in bringing a bigger change. For example, although eating a vegan diet has proven to reduce carbon footprint, a lot of people hesitate in chosing this path, believing it might be unhealthy or that meat and diary alternative are too little. Learning how to properly cook and eat, both in non-vegan and vegan cuisine can help you stay healthy.

Political based actions

1. Use and promote 'bio' labels : try to understand what is behind a bio or organic label, and denounce any brand which is not abidding to it

2. Campaign for less unsustainable food in public food services (schools, workplace)

Science based actions

Growing plant-based meat

Dairy : a replacable must ?

Education based actions

Learn more about sustainable food and current food production chains in this series of documentary!

Political based actions

Campain for sustainable and ethical food. Why ethical ? Aside from already helping the wellbeing of workers in the food industry, ethical food also promote durable agriculture and economies in different countries. Have a look at what the label Max Haavelaar does and how it has been helping farmers accross the world.

Fairtrade

Documentaries

Green house gas emissions for diverse types of food. Prepared by Freyja Yeatman

Sources:

Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers, J. Poore and T. Nemecek, 22nd February, 2019

Special Report on Climate Change and Land - Summary for Policy Makers, IPCC, 2019

The climate mitigation gap: education and government recommendations miss the most effective individual actions, S. Wynes and K. A. Nicholas, 12th July, 2017

Shifting Diets for a Sustainable Food Future, J. Ranganathan, D. Vennard, R. Waite, B. Lipinski, T. Searchinger and P. Dumas, 20th April, 2016

Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change and Health, Environmental Working Group, CleanMetrics Corp., 2011

UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021, United Nations Environment Programme, 2021

Climate impact of alcohol consumption in Sweden, E.Hallström N.Håkansson A.Åkesson A.Wolk U.Sonessona, 2018

Alcohol

The average British citizen emits the equivalent of driving 6-21km in a car a week in alcohol consumption. Indeed, the carbon footprint of a pint of beer is driving a car for 2.5 km. This equivalent was calculated in the study Food Climate Research Network, and the average alcohol consumption in the UK by Drinkaware.

Alcohol is formed when yeast ferments (breaks down without oxygen) the sugars in different foods (grapes for wine, potato for vodka). Alcoholic beverages are usually split into fermented and distilled drinks, processes that increase the amount of alcohol in the drink. These processes have different carbon footprint, as well as the raw material production, transportation, packaging and end life. A can of beer imported to the UK from the USA will have a very different footprint than a beer on a tap from the local pint shop.

How to mitigate the carbon footprint of alcohol?

Reduce transport : drink local alcohol, for example stay with french wine rather than american wine, as well as local beer
Drink beer from the tap rather than the bottle to reduce the energy put in the production of the beer bottle.
Favor alcoholic drinks with a lower alcoholic content when possible