Today, more people are concerned with eating environmentally friendly than ever before. Eating with a conscience is one of the easiest ways to help the environment. So, here’s some ways to eat more environmentally friendly in 2017.
Eat Locally Produced Foods
The food you eat travels on average 1500 miles to get to you. When you eat locally-produced foods, it reduces transportation pollution that is associated with shipping foods. However, local foods also support local farmers and your local economy. One of the best ways to find local food is to attend farmer’s markets. By attending a market you’re not only helping the environment, but you are also getting some of the best produce you can find. Eating foods that are in-season also falls into this category. If the food is naturally being produced at this time, that benefits the environment in terms of water consumption and regulation. Local foods can include produce, dairy products, and meat.
Eat Less Meat
One of the ways to make the biggest impact when trying to eat more environmentally friendly is meat. Meat is the biggest food polluter. Over half of the grain grown in the United States goes towards feeding livestock, which could be eaten by humans.
Due to the energy transfer, the livestock that eats this grain only gains around 10% of the energy in it, and then humans only gain a fraction of that energy in the meat. Therefore, it’s more energy efficient for the person to consume the grains in the first place. In addition, beef is particularly bad. One cow releases 117 pounds of methane, a gas similar to carbon dioxide but with 25 times more potency, every year. By eating less beef it can help mitigate these dangers. Try going meat-free for one day, or a few days a week.
Look At The Packaging
How many times have you bought a food product in packaging that seemed like too much for such a small item? Oftentimes, food is packaged in lots of plastic that is unnecessary to the actual product. The plastic is quite a waste. If possible, it’s better to buy products with less extraneous packaging. This reduces waste that ends up in landfills and in oceans.
Purchase Sustainable Seafood
Consuming seafood can often have a negative effect on the environment – from over-catching certain species leading to their decline to destructive methods of catching crustaceans. One of the easiest ways to eat more environmentally-friendly seafood is to check the packaging. Make sure that it says that is is sustainable. Remember that just because it was wild-caught, it does not mean that it is green. You can even download a sustainable seafood app to learn about the fish that you’re eating.
Don’t Use Disposable Utensils
One of the easiest ways to eat more environmentally friendly is by using real dishes. Using paper plates and napkins, or plastic silverware, adds to the trash that is already present in the environment. By taking an extra step and using real plates, silverware and cloth napkins, the environment will thank you.