We eat. We have to, or we’ll die.
The upside is that food is wonderful. Delicious. Delectable. Delightful.
Some foods are better than others, and it all depends on who we are and what our 3,000 tastebuds like the most. A cheeseburger, to me, might be a chocolate eclair for you. Or, your duck pate’, to my apples. And on it goes.
But some food is better than others when it comes to affecting our planet. A recent study has found that what we eat has a direct impact on the bigger picture. Nearly 99 percent of all food production on land and sea leaves an ecological footprint. We eat, and we affect.
There are a lot of eco-friendly eaters out there. Most of them know things like the fact that almonds are a water-intensive crop. Or that fish farms pollute the water. And so much more.
But a new study released just a few weeks ago tells us much more. Those people in their spiffy labs amassed data on food production and its impacts on the Earth.
They discovered what types of food production have the most significant consequences on the planet. The study was published in the journal Nature Sustainability.
Here are some of the things they looked at:
• displacing ecosystems for cropland
• destroying seafloor habitat with fishing equipment
• water used by crops and livestock
• nutrient pollution of waterways from fertilizer-tainted runoff and concentrated fecal matter
• greenhouse gas emissions from farming machinery and boat engines
• production of fertilizers and pesticides
• livestock flatulence and manure
It shouldn’t surprise us that pigs and cattle rank as the top environmental offenders. We’ve been hearing about this one for a while now. Cows have a massive impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Pigs impact our water quality — pig poop in the water.
They checked in on seafood too. Aquatic systems produce 1.1 percent of the world’s food. But those water systems account for 9.9 percent of the global environmental food footprint.
They really dug in deep on all the areas. For instance, with fish? They broke it down into categories. The category that includes fish like cod, flounder, and halibut had more than four times the environmental impact than other fish. It is all because the trawls they use to harvest those fish end up destroying the habitat along the seafloor.
Rice and wheat ranked near the same level as some animal-based products like cow milk and chicken meat. This resulted because growing the grains requires so much water. Another bad thing about rice and wheat is that they are produced in such massive quantities around the world that they wipe out natural habitats.
Five countries account for nearly half of all this detriment. They are India, China, the United States, Brazil, and Pakistan.
Some people may scoff at all of this. But our planet is in dire straits. The more we educate ourselves about these things, the greater the chances that we’ll make changes in our own lives. And if 8 billion people all start doing little things, it will add up to great big things.
They say we are what we eat.
But it seems our world is what we eat too.
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“I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness.”
― Aldo Leopold
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“People would rather believe than know.”
― Edward O. Wilson
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“Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.”
― Sophia Loren
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