Three strategies to slash your carbon foodprint

Shrink That Footprint

The search for solutions to climate change is understandably focused on energy.  But sometimes it’s a bit myopic, particularly in relentlessly looking at the power sector.  Let me illustrate.

Dredging through the data from EDGAR I can see that power generation resulted in 11.4 Gt CO2e in 2010.  This is about a third of global CO2 emissions, or just under a quarter of total greenhouse gas emissions.

By contrast emissions from the food system are estimated to be 12.6 Gt CO2e, greater than from electricity.  Granted these emissions are much more complicated as they involve multiple gases, hard to estimate deforestation emissions and intricate pre and post production calculations.  Nonetheless they deserve more attention.

With that in mind, here a quick graphic highlighting three things an individual can do to tackle their own foodprint.

There is loads that can happen in industry to cut food emissions, but for an individuals it is about what you eat, your food wastage and to a lesser extent food miles.

Personally I think the best place to start is consider what you are wasting, because this is not just unnecessary emissions it is money in the bin.  In the US the average family spends $900 a year on food they waste, in the UK it’s £700 and in Australia it’s over $1,000.

Check out our how to save money on food by wasting less video series for some inspiration.