🌱🍚Module 8.2 Guiding Question 6: The Role of Consumers

4. Food miles and the carbon footprint

But what if you're at the store trying to decide between some locally grown apples that aren't organic or some organically grown apples from the other side of the country or the other side of the world, which is the better choice? *This is really a question of which aspect of getting that food to you has the highest carbon footprint. The answer may surprise you.* 5. Shipping, even large distances is a small part of the carbon footprint of industrial Raised Crops - One study estimated that about 90% of the carbon footprint for food grown using conventional industrial methods is from the production of the crop, fuel for equipment, raw materials for pesticides and fertilizer production, not its transport. Therefore, buying organically grown produce even from far away may reduce the carbon footprint more so than buying locally grown industrial crops. Of course, buying locally grown organic produce is the best option.

Personal food choices

Buying organic produce not only reduces the carbon footprint of the food, it's also healthier for you. But it can get expensive, so if your buying dollars are limited, consider steering your purchases away when you're able from the dirty dozen, the 12 fruits and vegetables most likely to be contaminated with pesticide residue. The clean 15 are the products least likely to have pesticide residues, so if you can't afford to buy all organic produce, buy these from the regular produce shelf, but always wash our produce well before eating or cooking.

B. Labelling

Consumers are becoming more aware of how their food is raised and how it impacts their environment, their communities, and their own health, and they are buying more and more organic foods and ethically raised animal products. But to make good choices like this, consumers need to know how the food was produced and where it comes from. Consumers need to be diligent about evaluating claims and make informed decisions about what to purchase in order to avoid greenwashing-- claims related to environmental benefits about a product when the benefits are actually minor or nonexistent . - For example, organic cookies are probably not healthier than those made with conventional ingredients, and cage-free eggs may still come from chickens living in overcrowded conditions. - So you have to do some research to see what labeling claims really mean and which ones have a regulatory definition, like organic, and which ones don't, like all natural.F

What role does the consumer play in helping build a sustainable food system?

It's not just farmers who need to take action to transition agriculture to a sustainable model. Consumers too can influence agriculture by the choices they make. Wise choices can also reduce the carbon footprint of the food by reducing the use of fossil fuels in its production or shipping.

A. Consumer choices matter.

When choosing a food, with sustainability in mind, consider how your food was raised and how far it was shipped. To encourage and enable farmers to raise crops in a sustainable way, consumers must seek out and buy those products.

A. Consumer choices matter.

1. Choose food grown with low impact. - This means buying certified organic food whenever possible or buying products that you know are raised in a lower-impact way even if not certified organic. 2. Buy foods from local farmers. - This may mean buying from local producers that you can meet to learn how they're producing the food they are selling. 3. Local agriculture supports local economies and provides fresher and healthier food to consumers. It also tends to be less package-- maybe no packaging at all if you bring your own bags and jars to put it in. 4. Food miles and the carbon footprint a. Food miles: represent the distance a food travels from its side of production to the consumer. Buying locally has another big advantage-- it reduces the food miles and the carbon footprint of the food. Much of our food travels quite far, about 1,500 miles on average. b. carbon footprint: the amount of carbon released to the atmosphere by a person, accompany, a nation, or an activity.