The Holistic fish
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Recipes
  • Beauty
  • Reading
  • Contact

Let's talk "diets"

5/7/2017

2 Comments

 

Before you continue on, let me clarify that this is not gonna be a post about weight loss diets - so those looking to obtain a summer/bikini ready body may not find this useful, however whatever reason made you click on this link I encourage you to continue on and, hopefully, get some inspiration. 

I want to talk about our diets environmental impacts
If you watched the documentary "Cowspiracy" you are probably already somewhat aware of the environmental impacts of our diet 
If you haven't, or are just in need of a refresher, here are some facts:

- With increases in "wealth" , refined sugars, fats, oils and meats are increasingly common in most diets
- This dietary shifts will lead to an estimated 80% increase in greenhouse gases by 2050, just around the corner (Tilman & Clark. 2014)
- Non-vegetarian meals are estimated to have 1.5-2 times environmental impact compared to vegetarian meals (Reijenders & Soret 2003)    
- The environmental impact is due to land-use change. With an increase of demands for animal  produces more land needs to be created, leading to deforestation efforts.
- Already around 75% of global agricultural land is used for livestock rearing and the production of crops to feed said livestock (Foley et al. 2011). We could use less land to feed humans on the same vegetarian sources of proteins (e.g. legumes, soybeans..)
- Deforestation and land-use changes are a major source of biodiversity loss, perhaps even more than climate change! (Tasser et al. 2017)
Picture

Perhaps this all sounds a bit doom and gloom.
But what can you do?

I am not suggesting you all go vegan (I would be an hypocrite) but there are some things to start:

- Limit your meat consumption. Most people in developed countries tend to eat animal products 2-3 times a day! Try and see if you can just limit to once, and if you are already in that category do alternate days, or perhaps become a weekday vegetarian/vegan? Or try go vegan for a month. Basically, just be mindful. 

- Know where your produces come from! Try find local produces, you will also help your local economy instead of feeding the big companies, also reducing the carbon footprint due to transport (more to come on this in a future post). Yet, as a reminder, buying local will not entirely fix the problems and a mindful diet is still more important to reduce your footprint (Weber & Matthews, 2008). However I personally find that going to markets itself makes me a more mindful consumer rather than entering a supermarket and filling my basket, so it's in its own way a mindset shift, I encourage you to try.


If you already do something to reduce the environmental impact of your diet, let me know in the comments :)
And any (constructive) discussion welcome as always... 



2 Comments
Mike Oxlong
7/13/2017 09:20:03 pm

Grain isn't free, if the companies that create "human" food bought more there would be less available to animal feed suppliers.

Also as to soil degradation, a herd of cows in a field would cause less damage compared to the constant ploughing,seeding, harvesting etc that is increasingly mechanised.

Reply
Holistic fish
7/13/2017 09:52:53 pm

Thanks for your comment. Agree that a herd of cows on field isn't a problem but demand is way too high to have only field/free range cows - and if we need more fields then we go destroy more habitats... hence demand needs to be reduced (not necessarily halted...)

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Disclaimer: some posts may contain affiliate links.  At no extra costs to you, buying through the link will help me in this blogging journey!

    SIGN UP TO MY TELEGRAM CHANNEL

    Archives

    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Action
    Beauty
    Climate
    Community
    Conservation
    Diet
    Ecology
    Economy
    Environment
    Fashion
    Food
    Health
    Living
    Marine Conservation
    Minimalism
    Recycling
    Research
    Spirituality
    Sport
    Travelling
    Waste

    Follow
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from marcoverch, Pascal Volk
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Blog
  • Recipes
  • Beauty
  • Reading
  • Contact