Food and Carbon Footprint

Some people choose to be vegetarian in concerns of animal cruelty, others due to health issues, and there are also those that wants to reduce their carbon footprint. Each food has their own carbon footprint, as water and nutrients are needed to grow them and later on to be transported. That is why people are encouraged to shop at their local market. A beef carbon’s footprint is a lot bigger compared to poultry, as a cow is larger in size and needs a lot more food compared to chickens.

Regardless of food choices, what I believe in is to finish the food on our plate. Of course shopping locally is the most basic logic, but I would not force someone to be vegetarian. Even if someone were to choose to be vegetarian, the option of eating meat would still be there. In the industry, as long as there is a demand then there would still be meat. The problem of food itself lies in the industry itself. Whether a food is ugly to be sold at a supermarket, making it a reject product. Even though nothing is wrong with the taste of the fruit or vegetable, but just how it looks. In being responsible towards our food, how it is finished with no scrap food, it would lead us to an effort of carbon neutrality.

This also reminds me of the problem farmers are facing, based on the stories I have heard from people dealing directly with them and based on my own experience. When you try helping farmers sell their product, you are dealing with the problem on where to sell these products. The option is to sell them in market, but then the question is on how to get them there. Meanwhile a story I have heard is that there are farmers that have chosen not to harvest their chilies even though they were ripe. The reason was that, even if they harvested the chilies, they would have a profit loss. Chilies in Indonesia are expensive, so it is odd that the farmers do not want to harvest them. This is because the most profit is achieved by the middle man. The one that buys these harvest from the farmers with a low price, that later sells them to customers with the market price.

It is the reality in the field, at least the ones that I have encountered. That is why if anyone have innovative ideas on how farmers can receive a bigger profit, I would like to hear them in the comments. Or maybe on how the products farmer sell can receive a bigger advertising. In the end, the people I have discussed with are stuck with still selling the harvest to the middleman who receive the biggest profit and not the farmers who are actually at a disadvantage.