It is surprising to think that so much environmental harm is caused by what we choose to put on our plates every day. So what can be done to counter this? Avleen Masawan explores sustainable eating.

54-year-old mother of two forever hungry teenage boys, Susan O’Reilly stares at the endless rows of white shelves in the noodles aisle at Strathfield Plaza Woolworths. Her eyebrows furrow in forced concentration as her mind clumsily grapples the question: was it Maggi or Mi Goreng that were the only noodles her boys agreed to eat these days? She can’t remember. But she does remember a time when this wouldn’t pose a problem, because there would only be two brands of noodles, milk or bread to choose from, and all brands were local.

Today there’s so much choice at your local supermarket it’s enough to confuse the most iron-willed and efficient shoppers. There’s ethical, organic, exotic, local, free range, soy- and let’s not forget the low-fat, sugar-free, triple chocolate, low-in-carbs variety. But our freedom of choice in the foods we eat could be the very thing to save the planet.

2010 United Nations report Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production revealed that a fundamental way to address the looming impacts of climate change is to eat sustainably. The report concluded that a worldwide change in diet is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as food production is the single largest emitter of greenhouse gases for households, contributing nearly a fifth of total greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of global freshwater consumption.

So how does the Big Mac Meal you ate for lunch have anything to do with global warming? As it turns out, the two have much in common. Many harmful greenhouse gases contributing to climate change such as carbon, methane, nitrous oxide and hydrofluorocarbons, are released in high levels during the growing, production, storage, distribution and consumption of the foods we eat.

Take for example a burger and milkshake, the perfect lunch-to-go on a busy day. It may be easy on the wallet, but the ecological cost is much higher, as animal agriculture is one of the highest causes of greenhouse gas emissions. A report by Compassion in World Farming found that in 2009 the livestock sector contributed to 37% of total methane emissions, 65% of nitrous oxide emissions, and 9% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. In 2007, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that agriculture as a whole is responsible for nearly half of total methane emissions, and 58% of total emissions of nitrous oxide.

If livestock numbers continue to multiply to meet demand, the IPCC predicts that methane emissions will increase by a staggering 60% until 2030. The greater demand for meat is influenced by cultural factors that are hard to control. Food choices often reflect income levels, with the UN report finding that environmental impacts rise by about 80% as income doubles. Rising affluence in developing countries with strong economic growth such as India and China has been linked to shifts to a more meat based diet.

Sustainable eating
It is surprising to think that so much environmental harm is happening because of what we choose to put on our plates every day. So what can be done to counter this? According to UN, scientists, environmental groups, and dieticians alike, sustainable eating is the best solution.

The World Commission on Environment and Development defines sustainability as “meet[ing] the needs of the current generation without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their economic needs.”

At the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute of Sustainable Futures, Jane Daly is conducting research on the barriers to reducing meat and dairy consumption as part of the Food, Diet and Sustainability Unit. She claims that thinking about the foods we eat can help reduce our environmental footprint.

“It is a really good opportunity for people who are concerned about climate change and the environment when they’ve done everything else they can do. For people with jobs that are far away who rely on cars to drive to work and are thinking, ‘How else can I change my environmental footprint?’ diet is a really good way. On the other side, if you’ve switched to green power or cycling and you’re off public transport, you’re going really well and next is to look at diet.”

Nicole Senior, National Convener of Dieticians Association Australia (DAA), believes that sustainable eating is not just an option, but a necessity.

“We are in a crisis. The way we’ve been producing food until now has done untold damage to the environment and hasn’t done the human race any favours. There are billions of hungry people and the way we’re producing food is reaching crisis levels,” she says.

“We’ve got population growth, we’ve got climate change, we’ve got peak everything- peak oil, peak water, peak phosphorous, peak soil. Those things are running out quite rapidly. We’ve got more people to feed, so something’s gotta give. If we look at food production in a more sustainable way we’ll avert the crisis.”

The trend towards overconsumption in developed countries like Australia means that non-renewable resources are running out, and human ability to produce food is being threatened. Australia faces this challenge with phosphate rock, a resource that Australian soil depends on due to its naturally phosphorous deficient state. But this essential resource is running out due to overuse and may soon put an end to Australian agriculture altogether. The Australian government’s 2008 Garnault Report predicted that by mid-century, “irrigated agriculture in the Murray-Darling Basin would be likely to lose half of its annual output.” Besides the devastating environmental impacts, Australian food exports would be limited, putting a strain on economic growth.

What does eating sustainably involve?
Ms Senior, who is also a dietician, says, “Eating to meet physical needs is important, focusing on mostly a plant food diet and animal foods in condiments rather than the main event. We’ll be eating nutritional foods, less extra foods. Much of our fresh foods will be organic or a combination of traditional or organic. We’ll be eating more locally produced foods and food we grow ourselves, like veggie patches in the backyard.”

The recent UN report confirms that a sustainable diet should include less meat and dairy consumption, as meat and dairy produce more emissions than plants. Ms Daly agrees.

“One of the best ways that people can reduce the carbon footprint from their diet is to add more plant based meals. It could mean one meal, like lunch, then you gradually broaden and increase it,” she says.

“It’s easy to do, especially in Australia. We have access to so many great markets and fresh fruits and veg, and nuts and seeds and gorgeous produce, making shifting to a plant based diet really easy and accessible.”

But there are barriers to trying to eat less meat, and the Aussie culture of chucking some snags on the barbie is just one practical reality that Ms Daly recognises must be dealt with.

“There’s so much cultural importance around meat and meat is really every part of our world. Eating symbolises different things in different cultures. Meat has become a status symbol in some cultures and is linked with celebrations and Christmas, weddings and the family roast. Meat has a lot of symbolic meaning and is seen as an important thing for family.”

Eating sustainably doesn’t mean everyone has to turn vegetarian though; a mere moderate shift away from excessive meat consumption is enough. “For those that eat meat every meal, why don’t you have one meal plant-based, like breakfast?” suggests Ms Daly.

A study published in The Lancet Medical Journal in 2007 supports this, saying average global consumption of meat at 100 grams a day should be reduced by just 10 grams to 90 grams per day. This way by 2050 countries should be able to meet emissions targets, which will be below 2005 levels.

Food miles
There is more to sustainable eating than how much meat and dairy we eat. There’s also the goal of reducing “food miles,” or the distance that food travels to get to our plates. By eating more locally produced food, rather than imported food, we can reduce carbon fuel cycle emissions released from transporting food around Australia or the world using trucks, planes or ships. What is often missing when calculating food miles is the distance we as consumers travel to buy food. A 2008 UK study published in Food Policy revealed that driving to the shops for food was 40% of all shopping trips, 5% of all car trips and 16 million kilometres worth of travel each year. Solutions offered in other countries include home delivery from major suppliers, but that option is yet to take off in Australia.

A friend of food mile reduction is local farmers’ markets. Consumers buy their fruits and veggies direct from a neighbouring producer. Farmers’ markets are becoming more popular, with markets cropping up in several Sydney suburbs including Auburn, Chatswood, Frenchs Forest, Gladesville, Hornsby, Leichhardt and Marrickville. In reality, though, Australia is quite a multicultural society and it’s hard to always eat locally. Embracing cultural diversity means letting people eat the food they grew up with. For Aussies with overseas heritage, this means lots of trips to the Korean, Persian or Indian store to get our fill. In these stores, all the foods are imported and the intention to buy locally is often thwarted by nostalgia and convenience.

It is the same convenience factor that taunts other sustainable goals like eating seasonal and less processed foods. By eating seasonal foods, we would be reducing emissions from leaked refrigerants in cold storage facilities over months. By eating less junk food, we would be reducing energy from inputs like the electricity and machinery it takes to make them, and limit the waste from their packaging. The busy lifestyle of the 21st century is perhaps the biggest deterrent from sustainable eating. Ms Senior recognises that some of the goals of sustainable eating are, for most people, easier said than done.

“Our lifestyles make it difficult to eat sustainably. We eat on the run, and what we grab on the run is not the best for us and the best for the environment. Extra foods have such strong social symbols, like eating cake at birthdays and drinking soft drinks when out and about. It’s highly complicated. Dietary change is difficult and long term.”

Government action
Consumers shouldn’t feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders; governments need to take more responsibility and provide better incentives for the goal of eating sustainably to become a reality. Things like carbon labelling of food items, which has been rolled out in Sweden and the UK, would help push consumers in the right direction and at least make people aware of how diet choices are affecting the environment. In Sweden, fast food restaurants are required to reveal how much carbon is released per kilogram for all fries and burgers.

The Australian government has taken its first baby steps towards sustainable eating. It is currently reviewing the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, which provides national dietary guidelines, to include sustainability. It has also set up local campaigns like Love Food Hate Waste that strongly encourage Australians not to waste any food. NSW residents alone send about 800 000 tonnes of wasted food to landfill a year, and when this breaks down it releases copious amounts of methane into the atmosphere.

Ms Daly says the government itself needs to take a step back and see how their own actions are contributing to climate change.
“A lot of the livestock industry is highly subsidised. The meat association gets funding from the Australian government which they put into their meat campaigns. The government is subsidising something that is highly polluting. It’s a perverse solution.”

Fairytale ending?
For sustainable eating to transform from a promising fairy tale to everyday reality, it is necessary for government, industry and consumers to all work together. While the big decisions may be out of our hands, for the average Joe it means being more mindful of how our everyday choices are affecting something bigger.

It would seem that poor Susan O’Reilly, our Aussie Mum shopping at Woollies, has yet another thing to worry about when wondering what to pluck off the shelves. But if thinking about the environmental impact of what she puts in her trolley improves her sons’ opportunities of a promising future- one with a thriving economy and enough food to eat -this might just be more important than whether they end up eating Maggi or Mi Goreng noodles tonight.