Thematic Report: Food and the Environmentby Sainath Manikandan | 17-12-2019 14:33 |
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   Recent studies show that the food we eat or choose to eat has a big impact and effect on our planet. Does that sound weird? But that is the truth and fact. Animals that are raised for meat production contribute to nearly 14.5% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Diary products and food products coming out from cow are considered to be the biggest problems in terms of harming our planet. There are quite a number of reasons for this. We are using a lot of energy to rear animals for food. We need to keep the animals for food in a healthy condition, feed them well and provide them with adequate food and water. We are also using almost 26% of the earth¡¯s terrestrial surface for the livestock grazing as per UN FAO. Apart from all these, the animals due produce a lot of waste such as methane gas. We have to properly handle that otherwise, it might considerably damage our natural resources and environment. While considering the efficiency of food groups, the least efficient is meat as it uses so much of energy to produce whereas fruits and vegetables provide humans with more energy. So the amount of greenhouse gases produced by meat and other livestock are more. It is much better for the environment if people switch over to be a vegetarian or vegan. Another option would be to reduce the meat consumption. Having non-veg, food occasionally will also have a good impact for the environment. When we compare bread to rice, rice requires a lot of water to grow while bread has a relatively smaller impact on our environment. Another biggest threat to emissions is the usage of harmful fertilizers to grow grains. In order to reduce and minimize our carbon footprints we should not waste food as so much of energy is used for its production. Soy milk or oat milk is more environment friendly than cow milk. This is because of the amount of water used to produce the milk from cow. Last but not the least; it is good for both the environment and our health that we switch over to fruits and vegetables. Let¡¯s switch over to a environment friendly diet, with non-starchy vegetables and fruits so that we can heal the environment and protect them for our future generations. Photo credit: Moms Clean Air Force & Brighter Green |
