It’s no exaggeration to say that our food eating habits are the biggest long term threat to the environment. In the wake of the depressing news that the Brazilian government has just passed a bill to destroy up to 860,000 acres of Amazon rain forest to make way for farmland, as well as mining, we need to be doing more than ever before to try and change our habits. It is only through small changes to our everyday habits that we can hope to effect a larger change and save our planets green areas from being turned into farmland for methane producing cattle. Here’s some good places to start.
Change your attitudes to meat
In a perfect world, we’d be seeing a lot more people taking the vegan option, but that requires a pretty drastic change to your lifestyle, as so many foods take some kind of element from an animal. A good place to make a start is by trying a Meat Free Monday. It is estimated that if more people were to start eating for just one day a week without any meat the impact of cattle farming will start to reduce.
When it comes to walking into a supermarket to sort your meals for the coming week, a little extra care in where your foods are coming from can make all the difference. Ensuring you’re eating fish that isn’t being heavily farmed is a good place to start. Avoiding more popular fish like salmon and haddock, and opting for the likes of hake and halibut ensures stocks aren’t driven down. There’s plenty of lists online to keep you right.
Grow your own
There’s a great deal of logistics that goes into taking the food you buy from the farm to the fridge. From the equipment that goes into farming vegetables, to the transportation, which can sometimes go over many hundreds of miles my truck. Cut out the middleman by growing your own vegetables at home. Many common types can be easily reared at home, and you can even grow some in window boxes, if you’re lacking in space!
Use technology to your advantage
The advancement of technology and industry can be blamed for the many problems that are facing the environment today. But in that same sense, we can also thank the likes of the internet for providing everyone with access to the right information to help them make more informed choices about the food they eat. A great number of food apps are available to download to your smart phones to keep you educated on the go.
It might seem like the most drastic option to affect a change in your eating habits, but the eating of insects is being regarded as a viable alternative to traditional foods. There’s all kinds of businesses that have sprung up in the Far East that are looking into creating insect based foods for the public. If eating bugs isn’t up your street, then the knowingly named Soylent could be for you. It’s a powder that takes all the nutrients you need for a day, and packs them together as a drink. Definitely handy if you can’t be bothered cooking!
We don’t have to accept this cycle of the planet being destroyed by our ever increasing demands on agriculture. Little adjustments to our habits can ensure we preserve the parts of the world that are the most fragile.