Big Picture

When you think of food, you may not always think of the environmental impact your choices have. By making conscious decisions when shopping, dining out, or growing your own, you can impact the environment directly, not to mention your own health. The old saying "it isn’t easy being green" really does not apply here – you just have to know what to ask and make sure to put your money where your mouth is!

Factoids n' Stuff

• Approximately 23% of the energy used in food production is allocated to processing and packaging food. (Murray, Danielle. Oil and Food: A Rising Security Challenge, May 9, 2005, accessed September 1, 2006.)
• 10% of the energy used annually was consumed by the food industry. (Heller, Martin C., and Gregory A. Keoleian. Life Cycle-Based Sustainability Indicators for Assessment of the U.S. Food System. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for Sustainable Systems, University of Michigan, 2000: 42.)
• An estimated 20-40lbs of nitrogen per acre of conventionally grown corn is released into the groundwater and streams leading to the Chesapeake Bay. Nitrogen starves water of oxygen, killing fish and other marine life. (“Biofuels and the Bay—Getting it Right to Benefit Farms, Forests and the Bay,” Chesapeake Bay Commission)
• An Ohio study revealed that 67% of water taken near poultry farms contained antibiotics, contributing to the growth and development of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. (www.sustainabletable.org, Jjemba, Patrick K. “The Potential Impact of Veterinary and Human Therapeutic Agents in Manure and Biosolids on Plants Grown on Arable Land: A Review,” in Agriculture, Ecosystems, and Environment, 93 (2002), pp. 267-78: 268.)
• On a factory farm containing 35,000 hogs, over 4 million pounds of waste are produced each week. (Loehr, Raymond. “Pollution Implications of Animal Wastes—A Forward-Oriented Review,” Water Pollution Control Research Series. Washington, D.C. Office of Research and Monitoring, Environmental Protection Agency, 1968, p. 26.)
• The agricultural industry was directly responsible for 6% of the U.S. impact on global warming in 2004. (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “Agriculture,” in Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2004 (Washington, DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2006): 1.)
• Herbicide tolerant GE (genetically engineered) crops have created weed resistance, causing pesticide use to increase by 70 million lbs between 1997 and 2003. (www.sustainabletable.org)

What Goes In?

Make sure you are getting real food rather than a bunch of chemicals you can't pronounce. Starting at the bottom of the food chain, is your food au naturale or are you getting a bunch of things you didn't ask for, like pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, or steroids? The next step in bringing food to you, wherever you are, is transportation. How far did your food have to travel to get to your mouth?

What Comes Out?

Does the food taste good? Are the portions too big? How much food is wasted? What do they do with that wasted food? Throw it away? Of course, there's the packaging too. Is the establishment you are at using paper, plastic, real dishware? Do they recycle? Are they encouraging you to recycle?

How's it Run?

Do the employees seem happy and healthy? Do they take the time to explain what you are getting – i.e., do they know where the food comes from and are they happy to tell you about it? Do they have a genuine care for quality rather than quantity?

What They Care About

Do they understand the interest in organic and local foods and do they know why that’s important? Have they researched local suppliers and do they think about meeting the farmers or fishermen who provide them with food? Are they thinking of ways to offer more natural choices, or do they just care about making a buck?

What to Ask

• What's been added to my food?
• Where does my food come from?
• Is this food local, organic, or both?
• Does this meat come from a factory farm, or was it naturally raised?
• How far did my food have to travel to get to my mouth?
• What do you do with the leftover food that you have?
• What are you doing to help the negative impact that the mainstream food supply currently has on the environment?
• Do you know what your carbon footprint is (given all the different foods you are providing) and what are you doing to offset your carbon footprint?

What to Do

• Buy local – go to farmers markets, visit local farms, and ask whoever is helping you for the most local choices.
• Buy organic – ok, ok, this can get expensive so if you're tight on cash, at least buy organic for the dirty dozen.
• Grow your own – This is the single best thing we can do for the environment – this summer, pick one thing and grow it yourself.
• Eat a little less animal protein, and get high quality naturally raised meat from a small, sustainable farm in your local area.
• Avoid the center aisles at the grocery stores – they are full of chemically processed foods and drugs that are contaminating our water supply.
• Ask a lot of questions – you'll know what's up by how your questions are answered.
• Take your own reusable bag or container – pretty self explanatory but this makes a huge difference.
• Start composting – compost your unused fruits and veggies and take them to your local community garden – the gardeners will love the help!

Find Out More

• Eat Well Guide
• The Meatrix
• Environmental Working Group
• Sustainable Table
• "Unhappy Meals", by Michael Pollan, New York Times Magazine