Food Choices Have a Large Impact on The Environment and More

You don’t have to be a environmental scientist to know that we are having a huge influence on the state of our planet and people are only starting to take action now. Even as recently as the 90′s, not many people really considered where their nutrition tableware or other products were sourced from. It was a case of what do I want and where do I get it. Nowadays however, we cannot afford to live in the same manner, especially if we want to secure a future for the next generation and beyond. Here are some ideas to help save the planet and local economies when having a simple meal.

Local Suppliers. We take it for granted these days that we can pop down the local shop and buy some fruits from exotic shores and wines from the other side of the world for example. However, a huge amount of these products are flown thousands of miles from other countries and this causes problems. Not only does the transport release vast amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, due to burning fuel and having to use a food and wine fridge to keep the produce chilled all the way, but also local food suppliers struggle to compete with low foreign costs. If you want to see the important businesses in your local area survive for years to come then make sure you use them whenever you can.

Choose Less Packaging. You only have to take a walk down one of the isles to see how much food packaging is wasted making products look pretty. A single cake might be singly wrapped, inside a little box with a plastic place-holder, which is cloaked in cellophane and transported within a cardboard box, with the other cake boxes. More often than not this packaging is unnecessary, so try and avoid those products that go over the top with it.

Ethically Sourced Accessories. It is not only what food you buy than can have an effect on the planet. Everything from the cutlery you use to the little wine gifts you buy others can have an impact and you should think carefully before making a choice. Ask yourself where this ware has come from, is it something that could be made from a more sustainable textile, and is this a disposable product when I could be purchasing a reclaimable one? A good example of this is chopsticks as the disposable kind accounts for acres of lost rain forest every day.

Technorati Tags:: environment, ethics, food, planet, sustainable