June 2014 Question #1
With an
ever-growing world population, it’s important to focus on sustainability for
not only the present, but for future generations as well. What steps can we
take in order to achieve a sustainable healthy diet?
posted by Sammy Barbier @ 3:32 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Great question. I think that there are many steps that we can take to effectively achieve a more long term sustainable healthy diet. For starters, the importance of a plant based diet cannot be stressed enough. As was mentioned in your article, plant based foods were much more likely to achieve a higher sustainability score compared to their animal based counterparts.
One simple way to increase the consumption of plant based foods is to challenge the way that people think about their protein. It's no secret that the majority of Americans love them some meat based protein; that's why our meals are centered around the meat component with other items being side dishes or accompaniments. Kind of like Mr. Pietro talked about in NFS 315, we should strive to have roughly 70% of our protein from plant sources and 30% from animal sources, when usually the opposite holds true for the average American. I'd be hard pressed, and it'd be the day that pigs fly, to ever stop eating animal products myself, but I'm all in favor of eating more plant based foods such as rice, beans, grains, nuts, soy etc. to increase protein intake and have, and will continue, to advocate such measures not only for health but for sustainability as well.
Educate ourselves & invest! The best way to fully understand the damage we are doing, and have done is to educate ourselves! What does it truly mean to be sustainable? can I feasibly contribute? What does it matter? Its difficult to trouble shoot if we don't understand. Second, invest in research! There is so much meaningless research out there; we need to place higher urgency on topics such as these.
By eating locally you can reduce the CO2 emission from vehicle transportation. Having a community local garden or growing your own fruits and vegetables would limit transportation and housing carbon footprints. Americans needs to consume more fruits and vegetables as it is. I agree with Arthur that we could obtain more of our protein from plant sources. I strongly support vegetarian lifestyle! Eat more raw foods so there is less cooking emissions, use stove top for cooking, and make sure your turn off your cooking appliances with not in use.
I think it's very important to consider the sustainibility of foods for the future generation. I think eating more plant based foods and less meat is definitely a step in the right direction. Processing and raising animals are definitely going to cause more CO2 emission than plant products. I think people need more education on what sustainability is and what foods are sustainable. Teaching others how to garden and grow their own foods is also a great way to keep the food source close. That way they also know what's going into their foods.
I like Haley's idea of eating locally because transporting foods can be just as damaging to the environment, especially if it's international.
I think it's very important to consider the sustainibility of foods for the future generation. I think eating more plant based foods and less meat is definitely a step in the right direction. Processing and raising animals are definitely going to cause more CO2 emission than plant products. I think people need more education on what sustainability is and what foods are sustainable. Teaching others how to garden and grow their own foods is also a great way to keep the food source close. That way they also know what's going into their foods.
I like Haley's idea of eating locally because transporting foods can be just as damaging to the environment, especially if it's international.
I absolutely agree with others supporting more plant-based diets and eating foods from local farms. Another trend that I think we are going to see become more popular is the idea of vertical farms in large cities. These structures are extremely sustainable in themselves, and allow cities to supply their own produce instead of having to bring it in from outside farms. These farms can even raise fish in a sustainable way with the invention of aquaponics. I think coming up with new ways to make our food supply more sustainable is something that we are going to see a huge increase in in the next few years.
I think Jessica brings up a great point that more helpful research is needed in this arena in order to make any large-scale changes. We understand that the population is growing and it's going to become more difficult to feed everyone, but what can we do about this? I'd like to see research that gives us some helpful suggestions, like this article.
You all have brought up really great points so far! I agree that the first step is probably education and letting people know exactly what sustainability is, because I think it's a complex concept. I would also agree that eating locally is one of the best strategies because it addresses a lot of areas that could be improved, like farming practices, vehicle transportation like Haley mentioned, etc. I will be interested to see if the vertical farms in large cities becomes more popular as sustainability becomes more "trendy"
I agree that consuming plant-based foods can greatly improve the sustainability of your diet. Growing your own food also helps as it limits transportation and allows you to improve sustainability by controlling the chemicals and water used. You can recycle water and compost.
Another thing that can be done to improve sustainability is avoid wasting energy by cooking foods that heat up the kitchen when you are using your air conditioning.
I had never thought about wasting energy by heating up the kitchen when the air conditioning is on, Jeanne! It just goes to show that small changes can make a difference.
In order to achieve a sustainable healthy diet, it all starts with education, as others have previously mentioned. More people need to be aware of the impact that large, industrial agricultural operations have on the environment. These big business operations use pesticides and antibiotics that pollute the environment and can cause health consequences for consumers. Also, choosing locally grown foods is better for the consumers’ health, because fruit and vegetables that are harvested at their ripest and transported shorter distances retain more nutrients than industrially produced fruits and vegetables that are artificially ripened and stored and transported for long periods of time. So educating people that it is better for the environment and their health to buy locally grown foods could hopefully increase sustainability efforts.
Susan brought up a great point about vertical farms in big cities. This could greatly reduce future pollution if cities do not have to have as much food transported in. Think of all the traffic that a city like Chicago has and all the pollution that could be reduced if fewer produce deliveries are needed. I hope more cities adopt sustainable practices such as this.
Eating locally can definitely have an impact on lessening the effect that food transportation has on the environment. I was in I-80 this past weekend every other vehicle was a semi truck. I'm assuming some, to most, of them were transporting food...so wow, that just goes to show how much gas is required for these long haul truckers to get food transported.
On a similar note, the Day After Tomorrow is on TV right now... not so subtle, subliminal, environmental change messages much?
In terms of telling people what diet to follow, we actually don't have to stray far from myplate since it is mostly plant based: 75% of the plate being fruits, veg, and whole grain fits pretty well with the results of this study. So I don't see this study shaking up our dietary advice too much.
However, encouraging the support of local farms is a great option when talking to anyone about a sustainable way of eating. The practices local farms use are typically so much more sustainable from fewer miles travelled to less packaging waste to preservation of local open spaces. And I'm sure even the meat from local farms would fall in line with principles of sustainable eating, if we looked at the emissions, the feed given vs the meat output, etc.
I agree with what Brady said about less packaging waste when you purchase from local farms. If you purchase produce and grains from the farmer's market and take your own reusable bags, it is possible to avoid packaging for most products (harder for small items like berries or flour).
I have heard of rooftop farming in cities, but not vertical farming. Thanks for bringing that up, Susan - I'll be looking into that. And Tina, I agree that teaching people how to grow their own food is a great way to practice sustainability.
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