You are What You Eat: Organic Foods and Carbon Footprints

As I continue to discover how my way of life can have either a positive or negative on the environment, I realize what a learning process reducing my carbon footprint can be. I decided to utilize the carbon footprint calculator to see how my journey was going. Surprisingly, I scored a good 30 below the national average. But a household footprint of 49 carbon tons is nothing to be happy about. The big plus in our favor was our daily consumption of organic foods. So it seemed appropriate to figure out why what we eat can make such a different to the planet.

So after a little research, the connection between carbon footprints and food consumption became obvious. When we purchase the overly packaged, chemically laden, not really sure what we are actually eating food from the mega mart, we support an industry that utilizes chemicals, plastics and transports goods over long distances using innumerable gallons of petrochemicals and releasing toxic fumes into the air which contributes to global warming.

Ah ha. Connection made.

So, why is organic different? Well for one thing, organic farming means naturally grown produce that eliminates pesticides from crops and toxins from soil. Many organic farmers use traditional sustainable farming methods that lower their carbon footprint which in turn lowers their consumer’s carbon footprint. The main similarity between organic farming and commercial farming is the transportation issue. Whether the goods are produced in an environmentally friendly way or not, they still get shipped long distances to get to consumers.

Carbon footprint lowering solution? Shop locally. We hear it all the time but its one small way to make a big difference. Sure, sometimes you may pay a couple of cents more for choosing to shop on your own doorstep but the cost to the planet is enormous, especially if everyone does it. Besides supporting your local community, shopping locally for organically grown produce is good for your health and can force change on the food consumption market as a whole.

The only reason mega marts and commercial food producers transport goods over long distances and put them in wasteful packages and fill them full of toxic chemicals is because they are filling a consumer need. They are only responding to the market. If people stopped buying it, they would stop making it. Its pretty logical when you think about it. We live in a consumer driven economy. We are the consumers. What we eat makes all the difference.

Our choices make changes.

And organic food produced in your own region is one way to get your voice heard while reducing carbon emissions.