Climate Friendly Eating

Submitted by: Jonathan Fitter, June 24, 2022

Generally, the foods that are best for the environment are plant based foods. Eating foods such as vegetables, cereals, beans, herbs spices and fruit, and the many products made from them need much less land than meat and other animal products need.

A lot of plant food has to be fed to farmed animals before they are ready to be eaten. This needs much more land to produce it all on.

There is an ever increasing population of humans and farmed animals. And the land available for this increasing population is reducing all the time, since the world is not getting bigger, and the available land for us to expand on to is being used up fast. 

Cutting down more trees for the extra food to grow on for the expanding population means there are fewer trees, and this affects the climate. There are fewer trees to produce oxygen and to absorb carbon dioxide, less biodiversity, and more flooding. The more cattle for beef and dairy there are, the more methane is produced, which is a potent greenhouse gas.

Plant foods use the least resources and land area. The next best is eggs. The next best after that is chicken. Next are the smaller animals like sheep fish and pork. The animals that use the most land and resources are cattle, both their beef and dairy products.

Buying locally produced food is good because less petrol fuel is used in transportation. And if it is organic, without the need for pesticides that is better too, because beneficial insects are dying at an alarming rate. Foods from trees are ideal, such as fruits and nuts; this increases the number of trees.

Eating meat and animal products are fine in small quantities. If less is eaten, but is organic and free range, then you get better health, happier animals and less land used. And the overall cost for people eating less, but better animal produce is not more expensive.