3 easy changes to your diet that will help save the planet
With the planet hotting up and food production a major contributor to greenhouse gases, it doesnt take a rocket scientist to work out that we need to start looking at the way we eat.
According to a UN-backed study, the worlds top soil could be gone in 60 years.
That may not mean much to you – it certainly didnt to me, until I realised we need it to grow everything.
It might not be as well-known an issue as climate change but, with topsoil being lost faster than it can be replenished, its already having serious consequences, such as flooding, desertification, and declines in species.
All the while the global population is exploding, expecting to reach 10 billion hungry mouths by 2050.
More people and less food means more people are malnourished or at risk of starvation.
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Last year, 800 million people went hungry.
In the UK, were already seeing a rise in a malnourished generation, with 4.1 million children living in poverty, with those in primary school most likely to go hungry.
So maybe we should start to take note, because the reality of others which seems so comfortably far away isnt so far away after all.
You remember that ecosystem triangle you did at school? Small things make a big difference – meaning small changes to enough peoples diet will lessen our overall impact on the planet.
Things like helping cut greenhouse gases, which are another huge contributor to global warming and hunger.
When you find out that if every UK household was to cut just one meat-based dish out of their diet every week it would reduce CO2 emissions by 8.4%, making a difference seems a lot easier than you think.
So, here are 3 simple chang
es you can make to your diet that are both better for you and the planet:
1. Go for organic options where you can afford to
Organic farms use less fertilisers and so tend to be better for the environment. One study showed that, on average, organic farms support 50% more wildlife than conventional farms.
So, if you can afford it, an organic option can make a difference.
A good starting point is to choose organic for the products that tend to have the highest levels of pesticides – the dirty dozen: strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery, potatoes.
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Wheat, corn and rice are the grains we eat the most. The problem is that these crops are grown very intensively, and rely heavily on fertilisers and herbicides to grow which damages the fertility of our soils.
However, ancient grains like spelt, barley, quinoa, buckwheat and amaranth have deeper roots, so can draw more water and nutrients from the soil without the need for fertilisers.
Eating these alternatives encourages more diverse farming, and they require less chemical fertilisers and waters to produce. Farmers could grow different species of crops on rotation, alternating between those that exhaust the supply of soil nutrients with those that replenish them.
3. Eat less but better meat
Animal farming is thought to be responsible for 14.5% of all greenhouse gas emissions so cutting down on cheap grain-fed meat is a simple and easy way to reduce your carbon footprint.
Try eating meat from animals that have eaten natural pasture and are accredited with the Pasture-Fed Livestock Association label.
Pasture-fed animals are often grazed in a way that helps to rebuild fertility in the soils and are therefore an important store of carbon.
The other thing we can all do is cut down on food waste.
