Sustainable Detox: Food
Detox Introduction
Hi! I’m Molly, a businesswoman and new mom that wanted to feel less helpless about climate change. I created this detox to help define what individuals have the power to do and explain why it's important to do so. If you’re new to the detox, you can view the full intro post here. This post specifically focuses on food!
Your actions and abilities may seem small, but they're mighty and can create beautiful change for ourselves and our posterity!
The Impact of Our Food Choices on the Environment
The global food system accounts for more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions (Nature Conservancy), and the top three issues are…
Food Waste
Meat Production
Extractive Agriculture
Let’s get into why…
Food Waste
When I first moved to New York, I worked as a waitress at weddings, galas, and bar mitzvahs. During my first wedding at Gotham Hall in New York City, I was amazed. The building was beautiful with its extremely tall ceilings and it was decorated to the nines with more flowers than I could count. And of course, there was food everywhere - on trays, buffets, and a sit-down meal. At the end of the night, I was told to help throw all of the extra food into trash bags. I couldn’t believe it. I asked if we could donate it to those in need and was told no because it was a liability issue. That night there were multiple trash bags of perfectly good food put to waste. I witnessed the same thing happen again and again and again at other events throughout the city and always felt helpless and upset.
You (hopefully) aren’t throwing out multiple trash bags of food every day, but the average U.S. citizens are wasting more than they should. 30 million TONS of food is wasted in U.S. homes each year (ReFED). This food waste hurts our wallets and the environment.
How it hurts our wallets is pretty obvious. We’re throwing our food and therefore hard-earned dollars spent on that food down the trash! But how does it hurt the environment? First of all, this food requires resources to be produced, processed, packaged, prepared, and transported to us, and all of these processes generate greenhouse gases in one way or another (ReFED, Project Drawdown). These processes also use excess water and land, and some even cause unnecessary deforestation (to create enough crops to meet the demand). This harms our ecosystems which are vital for our existence (Project Drawdown). Secondly, when food is not eaten, it most often ends up in landfills, where it produces methane, which is an even more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (USDA).
Meat
I get it. Eating less meat is hard! It’s delicious! It’s cultural! My husband is Brazilian and he has told me on multiple occasions that his native country’s top three priorities are #1 Soccer (Futebol) #2 Meat #3 God. Meat is a HUGE part of his culture and also mine from growing up in the south with southern BBQ and fried everything. Despite these difficulties, we are constantly trying to improve, because it’s not only better for the environment but also better for our health (and often our wallets). Not to be grim, but people who eat red meat and processed meats have a higher risk of dying from heart disease, stroke, or diabetes. People with diets that focus on fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, peas, lentils, and nuts weigh less and have a lower risk of heart disease (Mayo Clinic).
But what is it about meat that’s so bad for the environment? Several reasons… First of all, cows burp when processing their food, which creates methane, a potent greenhouse gas (PBS). So the more cows that we demand to eat as consumers, the more burps, and therefore more gas. Ew! Additionally, animal production (and animal feed production) causes deforestation and when forests are destroyed, this accelerates global warming (Project Drawdown, Greenpeace). Forest loss contributes to the extinction of thousands of species and we depend on a healthy, biodiverse environment for survival (Greenpeace).
Extractive Agriculture
Lastly, many of the methods for how we grow our crops have been harmful to the environment. Much of our farmland has been treated as machines, forcing production from the land over and over again. This has caused biodiversity loss, used much of our fresh water, and released many greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere through fertilizer usage (The Nature Conservancy, MIT). We need to replace these harmful practices with regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture is wonderful, but it is complicated to explain because it is not just one solution, but many different solutions with one goal. The goal of regenerative agriculture is to grow high-quality food while improving soil health and the natural ecosystem (Ellen MacArthur Foundation). Some regenerative agriculture techniques are outlined in the infographic above and some are explained below.
Crop Rotation. In most agricultural areas today, one crop is planted over and over again in the same field, ultimately harming the land and its soil. Crop rotation involves planting different crops on the same plot of land to improve soil health, optimize nutrients in the soil, and combat pest and weed pressure (Regenerative Organic Alliance).
Cover Cropping. Cover cropping is the practice of planting multiple crops in the soil at once to make the soil maintain better health. Having these other crops in the soil helps reduce soil erosion, increase water retention, improve soil health, increase biodiversity, and more (NRDC).
Rotational Grazing. This technique is all in the name! With rotational grazing, livestock is moved from one area to another, which allows the land to replenish, renew carbohydrate stores, and improve yield (University of Kentucky). This technique is in contrast to continuous grazing, which is when cattle continuously graze one area of a pasture making the land hard to recover, especially from droughts.
Composting. Composting is the process of recycling organic matter, such as manure, leaves, and food scraps, into a valuable fertilizer that can enrich soil and plants (NRDC). Adding compost to fields boosts soil health and helps the soil capture and store atmospheric carbon dioxide (Regenerative Organic Alliance).
Actions For Improvement
What can we do about these three issues? The ultimate goal is to eat plant-based food made with regenerative agriculture practices as much as possible by wasting as little as possible. To break it down more…
Reduce Food Waste - Households account for 39 percent of food waste in the United States, which is more than farms, restaurants, or grocery stores, so we need to do something about it (ReFED)! There are many ways to reduce your food waste and it is one of the easiest and most impactful actions that individuals can take! To help reduce your food waste….
#1- Have a Plan - At the beginning of each week, decide what recipes you’ll make or when and where you will eat out.
#2- Have Fun - get creative with leftovers or random items that are about to expire in your pantry! If you download the supercook app you can plug in what you have at your home to help make your ingredients seem more exciting! You will feel a sense of pride by creating something new and by being sustainable! It is also fun to follow social influencers who share recipes! I really like the scraptastic series done by goingzerowaste.
#3 Compost the Rest - Composting allows us to divert waste from landfills, reduce methane emissions, and turn “trash” into something useful (NRDC). If you are unsure of what it is, then check out this Composting 101 article by NRDC. Composting can be different based on where you live. If you are lucky, your city picks up your compost from your home! If not, you could compost in your yard or drop it off at a location near you!
Eat more plants. There are so many exciting meat alternatives and recipes to try! Also, it’s often cheaper to take the vegetarian route. Plus - you do not have that weird gristle in the veggie options - which personally makes me want to gag! If eating meatless sounds overwhelming, start small at one meal a week and then grow from there if you can. Anything helps!
Support Regenerative Agriculture - It may sound like individuals cannot play a part in this piece of the food puzzle, but they can! Here are several ways you can support regenerative agriculture…
Go Local: Buy from your local farmers market and talk to the farmers about their agricultural practices. Eating locally helps to keep valuable natural resources, minerals, and nutrients in the loop (World Economic Forum).
Speak Out: Talk to your policymakers about policies in favor of regenerative agriculture (NRDC).
Look for products with certifications. These two certifications are up and coming, but look out for them and support them when you can! Two regenerative agriculture certifications that I’ve seen are:
Land to Market: Their seal gives consumers confidence that products come from land that is verified regenerative.
Regenerative Organic Certified: Regenerative Organic Certified® is a new certification for food, fiber, and personal care ingredients. To receive the certifications, farmers and companies must follow stringent requirements for soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness.
Money You Can Save
U.S. citizens spend approximately $1,500 a year on food they throw in the trash (SWNS, Project Drawdown)! Also, many plant-based options are cheaper than meat. Just think about what else you could do with an extra $1,500+! In fact, you should set a goal right now. If you truly start wasting less food and eating plant-based options, then buy yourself and a friend a ticket to see your favorite artist or sports team! You will have earned it!
What I’ve Done & Saved
This is a hard category for me. As I mentioned, meat is a large part of the culture of my husband’s Brazilian background, so we’re taking it day by day. We’ve been experimenting with vegan recipes and we actually enjoy most of the ones we’ve tried! We are also pretty careful with our food waste. We don’t overbuy our groceries because we have a grocery store within walking distance and can always pop over if we need something! When we go out to eat or order take out we think about what meals we would want to eat again just in case we have leftovers - this helps us save money and waste!
One of my favorite things to do is to cook soup and freeze what we don’t eat so that I can have it weeks down the line when I’m pressed for time and need a quick meal. I get ideas for soups and other easy meal prep meals by using Tasty - I love their visual format!
Though I don’t have an exact number to report, we definitely see our expenses decline when buying less meat, meal planning, and not letting our food go to waste! We also give occasional leftovers to our dog Lulu (all dog-friendly foods of course). She loves being sustainable too!
How to Start
You’ve got this! You don’t need to conquer all these at once! Start with one task a week or even a month and then go from there. Whatever you need to do to be sustainably sustainable. Any little bit counts!
