Food:

Food related questions seek to establish the quantity of land it requires to both produce and transport the food purchased and consumed by an individual.

1. How often do you eat animal based products?

Livestock effectively assimilate simple raw materials in to complex proteins for human consumption. This is a highly inefficient process requiring high inputs of food, water and energy. The intensive nature of many livestock operations contribute to a multitude of environmental problems.

Using beef cattle as an example, it takes approximately ten kilos of organic protein and 100,000 litres of water to produce just one kilo of meat. Similarly 78 calories of fossil fuel are required to produce a single calorie of beef protein. The land requirements in terms of grazing and energy for each kilo of beef are approximately 1.5 hectares. Globally, large areas of rain forest are cleared each year to provide this space.

Millions of people remain with insufficient food and water in the developing world while these resources are managed specifically for livestock consumption in the developed world.

Cleary the amount of animal based products eaten affects demand for these products. By individually reducing consumption, demand falls and the environmental impact of livestock farming is reduced, as is the overall personal ecological footprint.

2. What proportion of the food you eat is fresh and locally sourced?

Purchasing locally produced food has a number of environmental benefits. These are mainly related to the number of miles produce travels from its site of production to point of consumption.

In today’s global market we consume food produced from across the globe. This is shipped, flown and driven in to the UK consuming fossil fuel in the process. Fossil fuels are not only a non renewable resource but produce pollution and green house gases when used in transportation contributing to health problems and climate change.

It is estimated that food and drink accounts for over a quarter of all goods moved by road in the UK. Similarly global airfreight trends continue to increase. It has been estimated that for every calorie contained within a carrot air freighted from South Africa, 66 were used in its transportation.

Purchasing food that is produced in the UK greatly reduces the number of ‘food miles’ a given product has to travel, saving finite fossil fuel, preventing greenhouse gas production, ultimately reducing the overall environmental impact.

Further information and teacher’s notes on the issue of food miles can be found at:
http://www.sustainweb.org/g5cp/s3_g2.htm