Vegetarian/Vegan and Climate Change

by Shannon Turner
November 5, 2010

In the fight against global climate change, many solutions have been offered: the familiar Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (the first two Rs so often forgotten); energy conservation - from turning down the thermostat in the winter, weatherizing homes, turning off unnecessary and unused appliances; switching to Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs; using public transportation, walking, biking, or carpooling over driving; switching to a more fuel-efficient vehicle; to name just a few.

In recent years, new fronts have opened. Local foods have sparked a movement, growing in popularity among the eco-conscious and foodies alike - and what's not to like? Local food, by the very nature of being grown and sold nearby, is picked at the peak of ripeness, tastes better, has fewer miles to travel from field to plate (which reduces the overall pollutants put into our air from transportation), and benefits local farmers.

Knowing where our food comes from is important. From 2000-2005, 32 percent of fruits and nuts consumed in the US and 13 percent of vegetables were imported from other countries. And much of the food grown in the US isn't grown near our homes, it's trucked in from hundreds or thousands of miles away. Transportation is a large part of the price of our food and is especially vulnerable to oil price volatility. It's worth stating again: every mile that our food has to travel adds to its cost and adds pollution into the air we breathe.

Not only that, but many fruits need to ripen on the vine - but once ripened, they don't last very long and can't survive the shipping process. As a result, many fruits, especially ones that must travel great distances (bananas, for instance) are picked long before it has had a chance to ripen. Once shipped, they are artificially ripened with a ripening agent, usually ethylene gas. The difference is mostly taste. Fruits left to ripen naturally simply taste better than fruits ripened chemically. Don't take my word for it; try it yourself. Enjoy fresh fruit from a farmer's market near your home. Grow fruits and vegetables in a garden.

Switching to local food is a great step toward lowering the amount of pollutants going into the air, but it's not the only way, nor is it necessarily the most important. Before moving further, one point I'd like to make is I think we need an "all of the above" approach to combating global climate change. It's important to conserve energy and recycle, eat locally when possible and drive less often. There isn't one single step we need to take, there are many. And just as I think that there isn't one single magic bullet to combating this problem, I don't think people should take an all-or-nothing approach toward taking action, either. Like most people, you would probably find it difficult to eat all of your meals from local food sources. But that doesn't mean that you can't have one a week. And you might not be able to take public transportation to work, but that doesn't mean you can't carpool. Rather than being overwhelmed into inaction, it's better to take small, incremental steps toward a better future.

Continued Next week: Fighting Global Climate Change - Every day, at the dinner table (Part Two), where I'll be tying up the loose ends and explaining how a meat-based diet is responsible for between 18-51% of human-caused greenhouse gases, or, put another way, going vegan removes more pollutants from the air we breathe than switching from an SUV to a hybrid-electric car.

Read Part Two: A Vegan Diet is Kind to our Planet