Source:Â Â http://www.coopamerica.org/
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Action: Eat Vegetarian and Local for a Healthier Climate
Here are five high-impact ways to reduce the climate impact of your diet:![](http://www.coopamerica.org/emails/canews/img/vegetables98x73.jpg "outbind://59-00000000778E4E2653516946879B29055D277C5B07002B9F99661874F640B86C12471D55C2CA0000000E8BD80000BEC802E54430044283D77DD321398B090000029547140000/\")
1.  Eat Less Meat – A recent UN report revealed in November that livestock farming produces 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, and University of Chicago researchers recently reported that the average meat-heavy American diet produces a ton and a half more greenhouse gases per year than a vegetarian diet. Switching to a more plant-based diet reduces grazing-related deforestation, methane emissions from livestock, and many other climate-change factors associated with raising meat. 2. Grow Your Own Food – According WorldWatch, US food typically travels more than 1,500 miles from farm to plate, racking up huge climate costs through the burning of fossil fuels for transportation. Growing your own is as local as you can get, with next to zero climate impact.
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3. Buy Local, Organic Food – Visit farmers' markets or join a community supported agriculture (CSA) project. Find local sources of food by searching for your city or zip code at the Local Harvest Web site.
4. Talk to Your Supermarket – As your grocer to carry more local, organic products. Fill out a comment card when you shop, or speak to the manager, and ask your family and friends to do the same.
5. Bring Local, Organic Food to Schools – Nineteen states already have established "farm to school" programs to reduce the transportation impact of school lunches and to support local economies. Get active with your state's program or help establish a new program by checking out the resources that the Farm to School Web site.
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Comments: 12
Food is one of the most important things in our lives. Of course, there is the physiological need to eat. And that played an influential role in the evolution of our species, making us who we are today. But food helps contributes to who we are by shaping our cultures, our families, our relationships, our habits, our finances.
Because it is so personal and intimate, many of us consider food to be a private affair. "I eat what I eat because of my reasons (my grandmother cooked it, had it on our first date, etc)." But the facts you bring up remind us that all of our actions - including the meals we choose to eat - have consequences beyond our own lives.
Another reason to consider being vegetarian is that the FDA recently approved meat and dairy products from cloned animals for human consumption. When industry (if and when) decides to introduce cloned products to food market, consumers will not know, because they will not be required to be labeled. That was the case with genetically modified food. The only protection consumers have is to buy organic food.
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976886193
I have one more. For a healthier climate, eat less.
The League - Food is a very personal affair to most people - which I think has led to some of America's problems with obesity, etc. It amazes me how many people I see who claim to be on a diet and they are drinking diet sodas, eating packaged meals....don't they realize that a glass of water and some good old rice, beans, and veggies would be much healthier?
Pat - that would work for the majority of people who overeat. I was fortunate in that my Mom taught me to quit eating when I'm full. Even if it's something you love you can always have leftovers! No need to finish it all in one sitting.
I got really invested in the local food movement when I realized that buying locally would have a more dramatic impact on the environment than any other change I could make in my lifestyle. Then I realized that I could muliply that impact by recruiting neighbors to do the same. I've talked several families in my neighborhood to join the same CSA so that we can take turns picking up produce. Locavores rock!
Steve - we have a farmer's market here also, though I don't go there as frequently as I should. I do frequent the local co-op though! They stock a lot of local produce also.