Greening the way we eat

By Colleen Heenan

While more people are becoming locavores—or people who eat food that comes from a 100 mile radius of where they live—to reduce their environmental impact a new study suggests that subbing vegetables for dairy and red meat can be just as green.

A new study released in the April 2008 issue of Environmental Science Technology, states that switching intake of red meat and dairy proteins to chicken, fish and egg proteins cuts emissions equivalent to driving 760 miles in one year.

Switching to veggies one day a week can slash carbon by 1160 miles of driving per year, according to the study. A locavore, on the other hand, can expect to reduce their enviromental footprint by about 4 percent, cutting the equivalent of 1,000 miles of driving a year.

Though many people measure environmental impact by carbon emissions, this study puts methane gas, the harmful greenhouse gas released from cow waste, into the equation.

Cows, which have two stomachs to help digest cellulose, end up releasing a ton of methane gas through burping, passing gas and waste. Methane emissions contribute to about 30-40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions where as transportation of meat and dairy only produce about 4 percent of greenhouse emissions a year.

Also, their wastes which are put into lagoons continuously emit this potent gas into the atmosphere unless capped. When capped, the methane can be burned for fuel, which helps curbs its emissions.

But even though this study boasts significant environmental benefits for reducing dairy and red meat, eating local has other environmental and nutritional benefits, including higher vitamins and promoting local agriculture.

We need to rethink our current dietary habits and switch them to a more sustainable pattern. And with this study, we now know that switching to eating red meat (and drastically reducing dairy) only once a week can do wonders for the reduction methane emissions and hopefully even reduce the demand for cattle.

To read more about this study, check out:

Do Food Miles Matter?

Is it better to eat locally or eat differently?


Photo by Environmental Science and Technology