Go Greener, Australia

Recently I linked to the Australian Conservation Foundation’s Consumption Atlas, which says “A staggering 26% of our greenhouse pollution, 47% of our water use and almost 60% of our eco-footprint is embodied in the food we buy”. It takes a lot of fuel, water, electricity, fertiliser, pesticides and plastics to get food to the shops for you. Today I’m going to show you 6 ways you can reduce your food’s eco-footprint.

1. Buy local foods whenever possible. Local foods haven’t been trucked all over the country or shipped all over the world, so they haven’t added to pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions. Buying locally supports the farmers and market gardeners in your area, and the small businesses who sell their food.

   It’s been easier to choose local foods lately, at least if you’re buying fresh produce in Australia. Country of origin labels are required on fresh foods, so you can choose the Australian oranges rather than the Californian ones. Processed foods don’t have to be labelled this way, but often mention where they were processed or packed, and whether they were made from local ingredients or imported ones.

   What counts as eating locally? Well, that depends on where you live! I’m lucky enough to live near the Swan Valley and the delicious food of the South-West region of WA, so it’s probably easier for me to stick to my own corner of the state than it would be for someone living in Alice Springs. In my opinion, Australians should at least try not to eat food grown overseas, unless it’s something that can’t be grown here (such as chocolate or coffee).

2. Buy fresh foods in season whenever possible. In-season foods haven’t been kept in cold storage for months, or shipped in from some part of the world where they are in season, so a lot of electricity and petrol is saved. Many top chefs love to change their menus with the season, to take advantage of the freshest and best foods available at each time of year - why not do the same? In winter you walk past the tomatoes kept in cold storage and the asparagus shipped in from the northern hemisphere, and eat hearty stews with potatoes and root vegetables. In summer you leave behind the stews and go for the leafy greens and juicy fruits instead. Most food magazines and websites have lists of what foods are in season at different times of year.
3. Buy foods grown in eco-friendly conditions if they’re available (local, in-season, eco-friendly food is even better!). Organically-grown foods don’t use huge amounts of pesticides and herbicides to keep them pest- and weed-free, and don’t need huge amounts of fertilisers made from petrochemicals. In this way, they reduce the amount of chemicals being poured into our soil and washed into our water sources. Free-range animal products are better for the animals’ health and well-being . In Australia, look for foods that have been certified as organic or free-range rather than those that only put “organic” in the product name.
4. Choose foods with less packaging. Do your tomatoes really need to be shrink-wrapped in plastic on a styrofoam tray, or could you just put them in your trolley and later into your (re-useable) shopping bag? Does your pasta snack really need to be in a plastic tub with cardboard wrapped around it and stickers all over it, or would one of those sachets or tubs be fine on it’s own? The easiest way to reduce your household waste is to avoid bringing it into your home in the first place.
5. Prepare meals from scratch more often. This is related to the previous point about less packaging: you could buy dozens of microwaveable pasta snacks, each in their own disposable plastic tub; or you could buy one large packet of pasta, one of sauce (or make your own from fresh tomatoes) and freeze them in re-usable Tupperware-style containers. The second way gives you the same amount of food with only a fraction of the packaging going into landfill. Obviously not everyone has time to make meals from fresh ingredients every day, but why not learn how to cook your favourite foods, or the ones you eat most often? It’s surprisingly easy to make your own pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, or minestrone soup, and the difference in eco-friendliness will add up over time.

   The final suggestion actually comes from Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I reviewed recently. I didn’t think I could phrase it better myself

6. Choose processed foods with fewer ingredients. “Food processing uses energy in two main ways: (1) extracting, dicing, mixing and cooking the ingredients; (2) transporting each individual ingredient. Products with fewer ingredients have probably burned less gas. For example, the oatmeal box on our pantry shelf lists one ingredient: rolled oats. With some local walnuts and honey, it makes a great breakfast. By contrast, our Free-range Happy 75% Organic Cereal Chunks box lists seventeen ingredients, all of which had to be transported to the processing plant. Who even knows how much fossil fuel it took to make it 75% Happy?”

Making a few simple changes and reading a few labels when you shop will not only reduce your impact on the environment, it’ll lead to some very tasty meals. As Kingsolver says, “Food is the one moral arena in which the ethical choice is the one more likely to make you groan with pleasure. Why resist that?”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 8:01 pm and is filed under food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.