EATINGHEALTHY TOCURBGLOBALWARMING
Final Research Paper: Eating healthy to curb Global warming
Name
ENGL135 Advanced Composition
DeVry University
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Eating healthy to curb Global warming
Global warming is a phenomenon which is affecting our lives in more ways than one.
Over the past few years, its effects have become more noticeable. Climatic changes have caused
some major natural disasters in the past few years and humans have played a pivotal role in the
accelerating the warming of the planet. Many animal species have become extinct in the past
century due to climate change. Some of the major reasons are rapid industrialization throughout
the world in the past century, rapid depletion of forests and the extensive use of fossil fuels
which have increased the carbon content in the air.Healthy eating practices can curb global
warming and reverse some of these changes. Proper farming, local distribution of food products
and cuttingdown on meat and fish consumption can drastically reduce the carbon footprint of a
community.
Today, farming has taken on a global scale. Food items produced in one corner of the
world is sent for consumption to the other end in a matter of days using various forms of
transportation. The demand for global cuisines and products which are not grown locally has
increased considerably due to globalization and change in lifestyle and eating habits throughout
the world. Food processing involves a massive amount of fuel usage, first for manufacture of
fertilizers for cultivation and then for food processing. Added to that, long distance movement of
food products means massive usage of fuel for transportation as well. This clearly is not a
sustainable model. Petroleum is a finite resource and its usage adds to the already existing
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. According to a report by Food Share in 2003 from Canada,
it was found that the average distance travelled by locally produced food products was 62.7 miles
and on the other hand, imported food items travelled 3333 miles on an average.(Bentley &
Barker, 2005) The report states that the total carbon dioxide emission from transportation of
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items doesn’t just depend on the distance travelled. It also depends on the mode of
transportation. Lamb chops from New Zealand travel by air and are thereby the most polluting.
Organic farming without the use of synthetic fertilizers would also help curb greenhouse
gas production. Not only are synthetic fertilizers harmful if they enter into the food chain, but
also their production and usage also causes a lot of pollution as seen different studies.(Wood &
Cowie, 2004)Organic farming on the other hand helps in soil conservation and management and
uses greener techniques like crop rotation or natural manure which can be very helpful.
According to a report from The Rodale Institute, organic farming greatly reduces fuel
consumption and can even reverse some of the effects of pollution and sequester carbon into the
soil which removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Fuel consumption is said to be reduced by 33%
by the removal of artificial nitrogen from organic systems.(LaSalle & Hepperly, 2008) The
governments can introduce “ecolabels” for food products which will give out details about the
total carbon footprint of any food product and can be very helpful in increasing awareness of
consumers and changing habits.
Meat consumption and cattle rearing has been found to be one of the biggest sources of
greenhouse gases across the world. In a 2006 report by the United Nation Food and Agriculture
Organization, it was noted that livestock farming alone makes up about 18% of the world’s
greenhouse gas emission. In comparison, public transportation systems like cars, trains, planes
and boats contribute 13%, which is a lot lower. Most of this emission is due to deforestation for
creating new farmland. The second reason is the processing, storage and transportation of the
meat. Meat is extremely perishable and needs to be consumed quickly, which means that quicker
and more fuel consuming modes are generally used. The second problem is of manure. Livestock
manure nitrous oxide, which has 296 times more warming effect that carbon dioxide.(Walsh,
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2008) Flatulence in cattle produces methane as well, which also is major greenhouse gas. It has
23 times more warming effect and considering there are 100 million cattle in the US alone, this is
a big problem. Geophysicists GidonEschel and Pamela Martin have suggested that cutting down
even 20% of the average yearly meat consumption 176lb would reduce the greenhouse gas
emission significantly. (Walsh, 2008)According to the FAO, to produce half pound of beaf,
approximately 7.4 pounds of CO2 is emitted. That’s nearly gasoline for driving a car for about
10 miles. In comparison production of vegetables only produce about 0.1 to 0.2 pound of CO2
for the same amount. These facts show that even a slight decrease in consumption and
production of meat would translate into a lot less greenhouse gas emission. It also shows that
meat alone contributes most of the greenhouse gases considering the whole food production
industry as a whole making this the first priority.
If not checked, these greenhouse gases can have far more catastrophic effect on the
planets climate. While the earth does go through heating up and cooling down phases, it has got
accelerated by excessive greenhouse gas emission. Eating more local grown and vegetable based
food will not only is healthy for our body, it will also cut down on greenhouse gas emission.
Meat consumption is the most important and tricky problem to be tackled. Changing food habits
of a community is not possible by force and can be only done through awareness but it can be
very rewarding in the long run.
Human population on earth has exceeded 7 billion in 2011. This high population makes it
important for our generation to invest and optimize the food production and distribution
channels. In the past few paragraphs, we discussed the problems faced due to our current food
habits and in next few paragraphs we shall discuss about the solutions to the problems in some
more details. Today, farming is mostly done by the use of artificial fertilizers. This allows short
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term gain by increasing soil productivity but in the long run, it damages soil fertility. Contrary to
popular belief, it was found during research by scientists from University of Illinois that farms
using high amount of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers were having up to 20% lower yield than farms
which were not. (Gache, 2007) The first solution of this problem is to lower the usage of
synthetic fertilizer. Consistently low usage and demand for synthetic fertilizer will be able to
cause a decrease in production which will lower fuel consumption. Usage of organic fertilizers
aids the growth of soil organisms like earth worms. This allows the soil to remain loose and airy
allowing it to hold more moisture and nutrients along with better root development. Carbon
sequestering is also better, as discussed earlier. The nutrients are held in the soil for a longer time
as well.
Our change in food habits due to globalization has increased the demand for exotic food
items. The global movement of food considerably contributes to the consumption of fuels and
release of greenhouse gases yearly. Raising awareness about the environmental problems due the
import of food items among the consumer needs to be the first step. Since demand drives the
supply, proper awareness generation will be able to lower the demand and thereby lower the
movement of food globally, reducing the consumption of fossil fuel. This can firstly be done by
disclosing the food miles on food items to the end consumers.(Council, 2007) This will allow
them to choose products which are locally produced more easily. Secondly, local farming of
items should be encouraged and steps can be taken by governments to promote and incentivize it.
From the consumer’s perspective, food should be tried to be sourced from the farmer’s market if
possible. Subscribing to community supported farms for weekly needs of vegetables will allow
more farmers to turn to sustainable organic farming and help reduce the release of greenhouse
gases. Once proper demand will be generated, big companies would also invest in organic
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farming and local production of food. Effort should also be made to eat seasonal fruits and
vegetables which are produced locally instead of out of season ones which needs to be imported.
Cooking food from scratch should also be taken up whenever it is possible. Processed food also
involves a lot of transportation and manufacturing overhead which can be avoided this way.
In the previous part we saw that meat production and consumption causes the release of
about 18% of the annual greenhouse gas release into the atmosphere. (Walsh, 2008) Meat
production and consumption causes the production of greenhouse gases in more than one way.
Flatulence of cattle alone is a big portion of greenhouse gas production and methane has a more
profound warming effect than CO2. In the United States, today, meat is sometimes imported
from countries such as New Zealand which are very far away. Cutting down on meat imports
from other countries and relying on local production would be a solution. Meat is extremely
perishable and a lot of energy is used up in transporting the meat quickly and in edible condition.
While it is impossible to completely stop meat consumption, awareness needs to be created
towards the ill effects of meat on the health. This can slowly lower the overall consumption of
meat. Since even a small amount of meat production comes with a heavy amount of greenhouse
gas production, even a slight decrease in consumption will result in a greater decrease in
pollution.
In the past few years, the effects of global warming have become far less subtle. Global
warming has caused changes in climatic patterns across the world. Snow caps in the Polar
Regions are showing indications of receding and melting further during summer. (Solomon, et
al., 2007) Melting of the ice caps at the poles could cause a significant rise of ocean water level
which could have catastrophic consequences. Countries like Maldives and Bangladesh, which
have most of their land area barely above sea level, would witness permanent flooding in many
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parts of the country. This will inevitably cause large scale human migration and displacement.
Research also shows that in some cases, precipitations have been found to become heavier even
though the total rainfall in the area has decreased. Heat waves have increased over the past
century according to available data.(Solomon, et al., 2007) Continuing unsustainable farming
and eating practices could result is shortage of food in the future for the coming generation. This
problem could more dangerous because of the size of the human population currently. It is
important that we take these measures seriously and act upon it as quickly as possible. The
choices consumers make, drives the market and the production of food or any other goods.
Implementing some of the steps given above and a change in lifestyle to reduce usage of food
with high value of associated food miles will have a positive effect on greenhouse gases.
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References
Bentley, S., & Barker, R. (2005). Fighting global warming at the farmer’s market. Retrieved
from foodshare.net: http://www.foodshare.net/resource/files/ACF230.pdf
Council, n. R. (2007). Food miles: How far your food travels has serious consequences for your
health and the climate. Retrieved from food-hub.com: http://foodhub.org/files/resources/Food%20Miles.pdf
Fiala, N. (2009, February 4). How meat contributes to global warming. Retrieved from Scientific
American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-greenhouse-hamburger
Gache, G. (2007, October 30). Nitrogen fertilizers are bad for the soil. Retrieved from
news.softpedia.com: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Nitrogen-Fertilizers-are-Bad-forThe-Soil-69549.shtml
LaSalle, T. J., & Hepperly, P. (2008). Regenerative organic farming:a solution to global
warming. Retrieved from Rodale Institute:
http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/files/Rodale_Research_Paper-07_30_08.pdf
Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K., . . . Miller, H. (2007).
Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental
panel on climate change. Retrieved from ipcc.ch:
http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg1/en/spmsspm-direct-observations.html
Walsh, B. (2008). Meat: Making global warming worse. Retrieved from Time Health:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839995,00.html
Wood, S., & Cowie, A. (2004). A Review of Greenhouse Gas Emission Factors for Fertiliser
Production. Retrieved from IEA Bioenergy Task 38: http://www.ieabioenergytask38.org/publications/GHG_Emission_Fertilizer%20Production_July2004.pdf
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