Eating healthy to curb Global
warming
DeVry University
ENGL 135 Research
Presentation
Thesis Statement
• Healthy eating practices can curb global warming.
• Proper farming, local distribution of food products
and cutting down on meat and fish consumption can
drastically reduce the carbon footprint of a
community.
• Use of artificial fertilizers coupled with long distance
travel of food products is a major source of
greenhouse gases along with meat production and
consumption.
• Organic farming with local distribution and lower
meat consumption is a solution to this problem.
History
 Climate change and global warming has
accelerated in the past few decades.
 Change in food habits coupled with an
increase in consumption of meat.
Change in farming techniques along with
the use of artificial fertilizers.
 Population increase magnified the above
problems.
Effects of the Problem
• Transportation of food over long distance
causes more fuel consumption. (Bentley &
Barker, 2005)
• Since some items are imported from the
other end, food miles associated with them
increases.
• Increase in fuel consumption means
increase in greenhouse gas release.
• Food processing for transportation over
long distance and subsequent
transportation causes heavy usage of fuel.
Effects of the Problem
• Meat consumption and production causes
major greenhouse gas release.
• Manure and flatulence along with
transportation causes the bulk of the
above problem.
• Use of Artificial Fertilizers are causing
degradation of soil and increased fuel
consumption.
• Fertilizer production and transportation
required high fuel usage.
• Being salt based, they cause degradation
of soil.
Solutions
Using food items from local farmers market
and using organic farming methods and
natural fertilizers while farming.
• This will help reduce food miles.
• Natural fertilizers increase long term
nutrition of soil and sequesters carbon.
• Supports growth of soil organisms.
Another Solution
Meat consumption needs to be lowered
immediately.
• It is currently one of the biggest producers
of green house gases
• Lowering consumption by a fraction would
result in higher amount of CO2 emission
drop.
• Changing food habit is gradual and
creating awareness is probably the best
option.
Call to Action
• Polar caps are receding.
• Severe flooding has become more
common.
• Low altitude countries at high risk.
• Fuel is a finite resource.
• Food shortage could happen due to
reduced soil productivity.
References
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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-for-The-Soil69549.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_Paper07_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