Plant Based Meals

Can Peanut Butter and Jelly Save the World?
From Larry West,
Your Guide to Environmental Issues.
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Eating plant-based meals conserves natural resources and slows global warming

Looking for small ways to make a big difference for the environment? Why not start by making yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
As members of the PB&J Campaign(no, I’m not kidding) like to say, “You don’t have to change your whole diet to change the world. Just start with lunch.”

Eating a plant-based lunch (such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a bean burrito, vegetarian chili, or a hearty salad) instead of an animal-based lunch (such as a hamburger, a tuna or grilled cheese sandwich, fish and chips, or chicken nuggets) will save water, preserve land and slow global warming.

How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Slows Global Warming
Every time you eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or other plant-based meal instead of an animal-based lunch, such as a hamburger, you save the equivalent of almost 3.5 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, including 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide.

That’s about 40 percent of the carbon you would save by driving a hybrid vehicle for the day instead of a standard sedan.
How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Saves Water
Growing plants for food takes a lot less water than raising animals. As a result, every time you substitute a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or some other plant-based meal for an animal-based meal such as a hamburger, you save about 280 gallons of water. Eat three PB&J sandwiches a month instead of animal-based meals and you can save as much water as you would by switching to a low-flow showerhead.

How Eating a PB&J Sandwich Saves Land
Raising animals for food takes a lot of space. For example, animal products require 6 to 17 times as much land as soy to produce the same amount of protein. Eating a plant-based lunch like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of a hamburger, ham sandwich, or another animal-based meal saves anywhere from 12 to 50 square feet of land from deforestation, overgrazing, and pesticide and fertilizer pollution.

How Eating One PB&J Sandwich Helps the Environment
By eating lower on the food chain—plants instead of animals—you also consume fewer resources. Why? Because, basically, everything you eat comes from plants. You either eat plants directly—in the form of fruits, vegetables and plant products such as peanut butter—or indirectly after animals have converted plants into meat, milk, eggs, butter and cheese.

The problem is that animals are not very efficient as living food factories that convert plants into food for humans. Animals use most of the plants they eat to produce the energy they need to walk around and keep breathing. To stay alive long enough to become part of your lunch or dinner menu, every cow, pig and chicken has to eat much more protein, carbohydrates and other nutrients than it will yield once the ax finally falls. As a result, it takes several pounds of plants to produce one pound of beef, pork, chicken, eggs or milk.

Inevitably, that means it also takes a lot more land, water and fuel to produce one pound of meat, milk or eggs than it does to produce one pound of edible plants. Not only do the animals need food, water and room to roam, but growing the plants to feed the animals that will, in turn, become food for you requires even more land and water as well as fuel for farm machinery and irrigation pumps.

To help provide some context, the PB&J Campaign says the water required to produce the beef in one hamburger could grow enough peanuts for 17 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. And the land required to put that same beef patty on your bun could produce enough peanuts for 19 PB&J lunches.

How You and Your Diet Can Make a Difference
Basically, this all comes down to your power as a consumer. Every time you choose a hamburger, omelet or grilled cheese sandwich over a plant-based meal, you’re telling your local restaurants and supermarkets to buy more meat, eggs and dairy products. By choosing more plant-based meals, you’re asking for less meat and a more efficient use of resources. Either way, your unspoken but unmistakable messages are received by your local merchants and conveyed to wholesalers and farmers.

Want to do more? Share this information with your friends, coworkers and family members and urge them to take action. Urge your school or office cafeteria, or the local restaurants you frequent, to offer more plant-based dishes. Organize a weekly PB&J lunch (or other plant-based meals) at work, home or school and calculate the positive environmental contribution you’ve made.

A Special Word About Seafood
Often, when people start thinking about reducing their meat consumption, their thoughts turn to seafood. Unfortunately, if your goal in consuming fewer meat-based meals is to eat more efficiently, reduce your carbon footprint, and free up more resources, then seafood is no better option than beef, chicken or pork.

All seafood arrives on your dinner plate from one of two sources: it’s either caught by commercial fishing boats or raised on fish farms. About half of the seafood we eat is wild-caught, but commercial fishing creates a lot of greenhouse gas emissions because fishing boats use a lot of fuel.

There are also other environmental problems with wild-caught seafood. First, 69 percent of the world’s major fish species are endangered and in decline, according to estimates by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Second, many commercial fishing methods do a lot of environmental harm. For example, trawling scrapes up everything in its path, turning delicate marine ecosystems into undersea deserts, while long-line fishing results in a tremendous amount of bycatch, fish that are hooked unintentionally and discarded in pursuit of the target species.

Aquaculture, or fish farming, poses many of the same problems as the process of farming other animals for food. If farmed fish and shellfish eat grain and soy, then raising them commercially is as inefficient as fattening cattle or hogs. If the farmed fish eat fish meal, which is made from wild- caught fish, then they contribute indirectly to the environmental problems caused by commercial fishing: greenhouse gas emissions, over-fishing, bycatch, and environmental degradation.

The next time you go grocery shopping or order a meal in a restaurant, don't think exclusively about flavor and price. Give some thought as well to the long-term environmental effects of the food you choose to eat. It makes a difference.

Sources:

Global warming statistics: The global warming calculations are based on information from “Diet, Energy, and Global Warming,” by Gidon Eshel and Pamela A. Martin of the University of Chicago.
Water statistics: The water figures are based on information in “Water Footprint of Nations,” a report by the 2004 UNESCO Institute for Water Education.
Land statistics: The land statistics are based on information from the “Quantification of the environmental impact of different dietary protein choices,” by Lucas Reijnders and Sam Soret, which appeared in a 2003 supplement to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and on the protein output per acre for soy and peanuts reported in the 1996 edition of Food, Energy, and Society, edited by Pimentel and Pimentel.

Save The World With Your Food

First in a series of who knows how many.

There are so many facets to food and how important it is to our body, mind and soul.

We've offered it to our gods, we pray for "manna from heaven", we've written about it, talk about it constantly, think about it, and watch shows about it. We use food to celebrate and to mourn, in acts of faith and defiance.

In the not so recent past, food was not only a source of nourishment, but a true connection to the Earth and the Divine. However, just as with so many other aspects of our culture, we have lost our respect for it and have exploited it to our fullest detriment.

I'm not saying every morsel should be a divine experience, or that an epiphany occur at every meal. But taking food for granted is no long an option. By taking a simple, straight-forard approach over the course of a year will make any degree of transition back to respecting food far easier.

Since each facet of our food and nutrition is interlinked with each other, there is no specific starting or ending point. I've broken the subject down into 5 categories:
Eating Out
Eating In
How to Eat
Growing Your Own Food
Preserving Your Own Food

Each of these topics has several subtopics to show how easy it is to make a difference within your daily life and making a difference in the world.

I am also sure I will be editing this entire series ad nauseum. LOL -

How You Eat Affects The Environment

10/19 From The Grist
Snack and Diane An interview with sustainable-food advocate Diane Hatz

Ever dreamed of eating your way across the country? This summer, Diane Hatz did just that on the Eat Well Guided Tour of America. Convinced there was more to the sustainable-food movement than met the eye (i.e., it ain't just happening on the coasts), Hatz and her colleagues from Sustainable Table partnered with several other organizations to organize a 25-city tour that stretched from West Hollywood, Calif., to New York's Hudson Valley. Hopping aboard a biofueled bus, the group set out to discover the true tastes of American eaters.

new in Grist: An interview with sustainable-food advocate Diane Hatz

How you eat affects the environment at least as much as how you drive your vehicle.

The following are points to consider when shopping, cooking, eating out, and eating the meal.

1) Quantity.
A woman whould eat no more than 1200 calories a day and a man should eat no more than 2000 calories a day. Most Americans eat far more than their recommended dietary limits. This affects more than just your body fat content.

It takes energy to produce any food. And since we are no longer the true hunter gatherers our bodies are designed to be, it takes far more energy than the sun to produce our grains and vegetables as well as the grasses eaten by our meat sources.

It takes petroleum fuels to plant, water and harvest our grains and vegetables. Then it takes petroleum fuels and electricity to transport these to processing plants. It takes petroleum fuels and electricity to process the foods, package the foods, deliver the foods and store the foods until we use petroleum products to pick the foods up. That's all before we even prepare it for ourselves.

If we eat less, we are using less fuels overall to sustain us and our lifestyle, thus helping our environment.

2) Where we eat makes an enormous difference. Americans eat out an average of 20% of the time. 1 out of 5 meals - or just over 4 meals a week.

When you take into account the amount of fuel used to get to the restaurant, then the amount of electricity and natural gas it takes to create your meal, there is a huge environmental impact. Now factor in the amount of fuel it takes to get all of the workers to the restaurant, the fuel it takes to remove the packaging and uneaten foodstuffs from the property. And finally, factor in all of the items from #1.

By eating at home, you have better portion control, use far less energy per serving, and far less petroleum fuels per serving from farm to plate. You also save an incredible amount of TIME - something we all need more of these days.

3) Where you shop has several implications. Driving around for bargains to save a dollar here or there ends up not being much of a bargain when you look at the amount of fuel wasted in the process. Considering the price of gas and the future of its price, shopping at only one or two stores begins to make far more sense.

When in season, shop your farmer's markets. Most small farmers are virtually organic (for economic reasons as much as environmental), so what you buy from them has far less impact on the environment than produce found in your large grocery store. Also, the amount of fuel consumed to bring it from farm to market is substantially less than that from grocery stores. Check the labeling on your produce at the store. CA, WA, OR, TX are samples.

Check the labeling on your seafood. China, Thailand, and other countries are common. Buy seafood produces in the US - the amount of fuel used to get it here in a fresh state from half way around the world is enormous!

4) #3 works right into #4. Eat for the season. Yes, strawberries in December are a wonderful treat, but consider where they had to come from - the southern hemisphere! Think of the energy impact of such a journey for a half a pint of fresh strawberries that don't even taste like your local strawberries.

Freeze some when they are in season locally for that December taste of June.

Buy and eat squash and apples - fruits and vegetables that store through the winter months.

5) How you shop is also a great segue from #3. Rather than making frequent trips to the store, make only 1 or 2 throughout the week. It takes a bit of planning and a bit of storing, but unless you can walk to your store, the amount of energy you save (not to mention TIME), will be substantial. Why waste all of that empty space in your refrigerator when you can use it - which will consume less energy than the empty space does? - an empty fridge uses more electricity than a full one.

6) Reduce your red meat. I like a good cut of beef as much as the next person. So I'm not advocating removing it entirely from your diet. That's foolish and unrealistic. But cutting down isn't. The amount of energy it takes to raise beef cattle far outweighs the amount of energy returned from the cattle in the form of meat and other products retrieved from the carcass.
Raising goats, chickens, fish, pigs, etc. is far more efficient than beef.

Also reduce your consumption of overfished species. Fishermen must take their boats out ever further to harvest the same amount as even just 10 years ago. Cod has taken an incredible hit in the fishing industry. Help the environment by eating fish that are either farmed by sustainable methods, or wild fish that are more plentiful and more sensibly harvested.

7) How you cook has a very large impact on the environment.
Cook in quantity. Rather than cooking a single serving for 5 minutes, cook 5 servings for 5 minutes. You use only slightly more fuel to cook all 5 at once than just a single serving.

Use your microwave to start the cooking process. I know no one who likes a full meal cooked in the microwave. Meat has got to be the worst tasting in the world. But by starting your vegetables, your oven-cooked meals and your reheating in the microwave can save 75% in fuel consumption.

If you make pies - use pyrex and start the pie in the microwave. 5 minutes in the microwave saves at least 20 minutes in the oven.

8) Recycle. It sounds foolish, but so many people don't. Compost your vegetable scraps and egg shells. Recycle your plastic, glass and metal containers that your food came in. Reuse your glass containers to store foods in the refrigerator. This helps cut down on the amount of plastics consumed in the way of bags and plastic wrap.

Buy Your Food Locally

The concept of buying local is simply to buy food (or any good or service) produced, grown, or raised as close to your home as possible. With industrialization, our food is now grown and processed in fewer and fewer locations, meaning it has to travel further to reach the average consumer’s refrigerator. Although this method of production is considered efficient and economically profitable for large agribusiness corporations, it is harmful to the environment, consumers and rural communities.

Food Miles, Resources and the Environment
"Food miles" refer to the distance a food item travels from the farm to your home. The food miles for items you buy in the grocery store tend to be 27 times higher than the food miles for goods bought from local sources.i

In the U.S., the average grocery store’s produce travels nearly 1,500 miles between the farm where it was grown and your refrigerator.ii About 40% of our fruit is produced overseas and, even though broccoli is likely grown within 20 miles of the average American’s house, the broccoli we buy at the supermarket travels an average 1,800 miles to get there. Notably, 9% of our red meat comes from foreign countries, including locations as far away as Australia and New Zealand.iii

So how does our food travel from farm field to grocery store? It’s trucked across the country, hauled in freighter ships over oceans, and flown around the world.

A tremendous amount of fossil fuel is used to transport foods such long distances. Combustion of these fuels releases carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter and other pollutants into the atmosphere, contributing to global climate change, acid rain, smog and air pollution. Even the refrigeration required to keep your fruits, vegetables, dairy products and meats from spoiling burns up energy.

Food processors also use a large amount of paper and plastic packaging to keep food fresh (or at least looking fresh) for a longer period of time. This packaging eventually becomes waste that is difficult, if not impossible, to reuse or recycle.

Aside from the environmental harm that can result from processing, packaging and transporting long-distance foods, the industrial farms on which these foods are often produced are major sources of air and water pollution. Small, local farms tend to be run by farmers who live on their land and work hard to preserve it. Buying local means you can talk directly to the farmer growing your food and find out what they do and how they do it. Do they grow their food organically? If they're not certified organic, ask them why. Many small farms, even if they haven't taken the certification step, still utilize sustainable or organic farming methods that help protect the air, soil and water.

Health and Nutrition
Buying food from local farms means getting food when it’s at its prime. Fresh food from local farms is healthier than industrially-farmed products because the food doesn’t spend days in trucks and on store shelves losing nutrients.v

Food transported short distances is fresher (and, therefore, safer) than food that travels long distances. Local food has less of an opportunity to wilt and rot whereas large-scale food manufacturers must go to extreme lengths to extend shelf-life since there is such a delay between harvest and consumption. Preservatives are commonly used to keep foods stable longer, and are potentially hazardous to human health. Industrially-produced foods are also difficult to grow without pesticides, chemical fertilizers, antibiotics and growth hormones, all of which can be damaging to both the environment and human health.

Local foods from small farms usually undergo minimal processing, are produced in relatively small quantities, and are distributed within a few dozen miles of where they originate. Food produced on industrial farms, however, is distributed throughout the country and world, creating the potential for disease-carrying food from a single factory farm to spread rapidly throughout the entire country. The 2006 E coli outbreak is a good example of this, as contaminated spinach from a single region in California managed to sicken people in 26 states.vi

Products such as ground beef, which is pooled from hundreds of different animals, are of particular concern. The meat from a single diseased cow could end up contaminating hundreds of pounds of food distributed to thousands of people. Once such a product is on shelves, it is very difficult to determine where the contaminated meat came from. Preventing or controlling disease outbreaks in such a system is nearly impossible.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the federal agency which inspects meat and poultry, does not have the authority to order a recall of dangerous or mislabled product once it has left a plant. The agency can only urge the company to issue a recall themselves. This often leads to delays in notifying the public, wasting valuable time and increasing the odds that unsafe products get eaten by consumers.

Family Farms and Community
According to the USDA, the U.S. has lost over five million farms since 1935.vii Family farms are going out of business at break-neck speed, causing rural communities to deteriorate. The U.S. loses two acres of farmland each minute as cities and suburbs spread into the surrounding communities.viii By supporting local farms near suburban areas and around cities, you help keep farmers on the land, and, at the same time, preserve open spaces and counteract urban sprawl.

What You Can Do
Join the growing movement of consumers around the world who are making a little extra effort to find food raised nearby.

Check out our Eat Seasonal page to find when foods are in season in your area.
Buy food directly from your local farmer at a farm stand or a farmers market. Or join a CSA group and get a farm share.
Encourage your local grocery store to stock food from local farmers.
Visit our Shopping Guide section for CSAs, farmers markets and other sustainable outlets.
Join the 100-mile diet movement.

Find your 100 mile limit:
http://100milediet.org/map/
http://www.localharvest.org/