Lower My Carbon Footprint

In 2007, an article in the Economist piqued my interest. It had to do with your carbon footprint and the food you purchase.

What's a carbon footprint?

A carbon footprint is "the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organization, event or product" (UK Carbon Trust 2008).

Carbon dioxide is one of the common greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. Others include water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Carbon seemed to be the catch word and so evolved the jargon term "carbon footprint".

Having a big footprint means you personally add more greenhouse gasses into the environment than the average person.

The average American household burns through about 8.1 metric tons of greenhouse gases as a result of food consumption. By contrast, if your house has a car that gets 25 mpg and you drive 12,000 miles a year, that produces 4.4 metric tons of greenhouse gases.

Small shifts in an average household's diet from more greenhouse gas-intensive foods to less greenhouse gas-intensive foods would reduce that household's food-related greenhouse gas emissions as much as eating entirely local products. For example, replacing just 21 to 24 percent of red meat in the diet with chicken or fish would cut out as much greenhouse gas as buying all-local.

If, like most Americans, you get close to 30 percent of your calories from meat, dairy, and poultry, your diet contributes over 3,274 pounds (1,485.1 kilograms) [of carbon dioxide emitted annually]. Vegetarian diets contribute half that, but you can also replace your calories from red meat with fish, eggs, and poultry, for savings of over 950 pounds (430.9 kilograms).

So which foods that we buy are the culprits? If I want to shrink my carbon footprint, which foods could I buy and which should I stay away from?