5 Tips for Making Food Choices with Climate Change in Mind

Now that it’s October, the weather is cooling down here in Maine, but overall, I know that the global temperature is still warming. Even at the end of September, we had a couple of days that got up to 80 degrees, which I don’t remember happening when I was a kid, and we had some 90-degree days in June.

These and other signs of climate change are all around, but here in the U.S., meaningful action has stalled out. I personally find this discouraging, though I’m glad that other countries continue to make strides.

But even though climate action isn’t happening as much at the government level, we as individuals can still take action.

And one of the biggest ways we can do that is with our food choices. That’s because about one-quarter to one-third of greenhouse gas emissions generated by people are from the global food system.

What we eat

One of the biggest factors, of course, is what we eat. It may not surprise you to know that raising animals for meat and dairy is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to food-related emissions. And of meat, cattle raised for beef is a bigger contributor than other types of meat.

One reason is that cows simply take up a lot more space than, say, chickens or even pigs. To make space for them, a lot of forests are being clear-cut, including large amounts of the Amazon rainforest. From this perspective, knowing where your food is coming from matters. Beef from cattle raised on deforested land is responsible for 12 times more greenhouse gas emissions than cows reared on natural pastures.

But even in general, cows simply require a lot of food and space. They also produce methane, and I found out in an article in the Portland Press Herald recently that they don’t do well in hot weather, particularly dairy cows. “They start to feel heat stress — and start producing less milk — when the heat index tops a mere 68 degrees.” Farmers have to decide if they want to buy expensive barn fans – and pay for the electricity – to keep dairy cattle comfortable. This will become even more problematic as the world gets hotter.

Another problem is that raising animals for meat is inherently inefficient because you also have to grow food to feed the animals. I was astonished to learn that while the U.S. grows a huge amount of corn (96,000,000 acres), only 2% of it is consumed by people, and 40% of is for food raised to feed animals we raise for food.

Additionally, while livestock take up almost 80% of the land used for agriculture, they only produce 38% of the world’s protein and 17% of the calories. The rest comes from plants eaten directly by people, even though those crops only use about 20% of the agricultural land.

It’s not only beef and dairy animals, though. Other animals raised for meat also contribute, and even things like chocolate and coffee, which are often grown on land from deforested rainforests, contribute to climate change.

If you want to learn more, you can use this climate change food calculator.

What we don’t eat

The other large problem is with food that doesn’t get eaten. Too often, people buy more food than they need, or farmers grow more food than can be used, and then that food goes to waste. While some places are doing more with composting, most of the time, that food goes into landfills, where it rots and produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

In fact, 17% of all available food goes into the trash every year, worldwide. When you factor in everything that went into producing and transporting that food, as well as the methane from the rot, this contributes more than 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And I found this eye-opening: “If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitting country in the world.”

Making different food choices

The good news is, you can make changes to both what you eat and what you don’t eat that can make a big difference.

The simplest is to simply eat less beef. Even if you only did that, you’d be doing a lot. I’m a big fan of a YouTube channel called Vlogbrothers, and last year, John Green shared the idea of “Beef Days”. He said that he and his family were going to pick four days a year to celebrate something big by having beef, and then each person would also get two “flex” days where they could eat beef simply because they wanted to. And that was it. On the other 359 days, they might eat other meat, but not beef.

You don’t have to do it that way, of course, but just try cutting back. Maybe experiment with some vegetarian dishes, or some new recipes for other types of meat. You can find all kinds of great recipes online, and I’m also a big fan of the Moosewood Cookbooks for yummy vegetarian dishes.

You can also pay more attention to where your beef comes from. I get most of my meat from a local company called Walden Meats that delivers meat to my door. The beef that I get is from pasture-raised cattle (so they’re not eating all the corn some other cattle are) from small, independent farms that focus on regenerative farming. And I don’t eat a lot of it. Each delivery is 5-7 pounds – and it’s not all beef – and that usually lasts me 3-4 months. You can also tell them your preferences, so if you didn’t want to get beef, or only rarely, you could probably ask for that.

Another option is to use milk and dairy alternatives, since most dairy also comes from cows (unless you’re getting goat’s cheese or something like that). The good news is, you have lots of options on that front these days, and they actually taste pretty good.

I was diagnosed with a mild milk allergy back when I was 10, and believe me, the options at the time were terrible. Goat’s milk is definitely an acquired taste, and not one I really acquired. Now, it’s almost an embarrassment of riches. I was especially happy to see that Breyers even has some non-dairy ice cream (made with oat milk) that tastes very good and isn’t as expensive as a lot of the other dairy-free options.

As for what you’re not eating, you could try cutting back on what you buy if you notice that a lot of it ends up going to waste. No matter what, though, you’ll always have some food scraps, and composting can be a great option. I’m very happy to use Garbage to Garden here, and for those who don’t want to pay for the bucket drop-off and pick up, Portland now has stations around the city where people can deposit their food scraps for free, and Garbage to Garden will pick them up. But there are other options, too, depending on where you live.

Staying judgment-free

The final thing I’d add is to try to remain judgment-free about other people’s food choices, and your own. It can be very easy to feel superior to others who eat a lot of meat, or might eat a lot of beef, but that doesn’t generally make the other person want to change their habits.

Also, I’ve known people who tried to be vegetarian or vegan and eventually had to start eating animal protein again because of health issues. And I’ve known a couple of people with severe anemia that could only be addressed by eating lots of red meat. Plus, in many rural places, animals and animal products are essential for people to survive.

So, I try to remember that I don’t know where other people are coming from, and I do my best to refrain from judging.

Your choices matter

As with many big things, it can feel like addressing climate change through individual choices doesn’t help. How can one person eating less meat or less beef really matter?

And yet, it does. As John Green pointed out in his video about “Beef Days”, one of the biggest things we can do is try to change social norms. Here in the U.S., it’s very much the norm to eat a lot of meat, and beef in particular. I mean, we have Burger King, as well as Arby’s, where the slogan is “we have the meats”.

But if you start to make changes, and maybe talk to your friends and family about it, they might start to make changes. That can slowly ripple out, and as more people start to focus on this, it becomes more and more impactful.

So, consider what you can do, and who knows? You may even find that you like eating less meat – I know I’ve had fun learning about other options, so you might, too.