Environment & Sustainability

"How is the environment affected by the food industry?"

"How can I make my food habits more sustainable?"

3

The world today faces the ever-increasing threat of climate change, and the first steps to combating it lie in people's ability to recognize its origins, and how they have played a part in it. Humans require resources and energy for everything; to fuel our vehicles, to heat our homes during the cold, and to supply electricity to our houses. Without energy, we wouldn’t be able to use our ovens, microwaves, and many other kitchen appliances used to prepare food. Out of the United States’ energy sources, 81% consist of fossil fuels, including oil and coal. Fossil fuels are non-renewable resources, and when burned, release vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 75% of global greenhouse gas emissions and over 90% of carbon dioxide emissions are derived from fossil fuels. Fossil fuels, like carbon dioxide, work to trap heat inside of Earth’s atmosphere in the same way that a greenhouse traps light within itself. As harmless as this process seems, the sheer abundance of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphere each year due to human activity has been enough to claim disastrous consequences on ecosystems around the world and is only predicted to worsen⎯if we don’t implement actions to hinder it.

The Rise in Temperatures by Global Warming (Taken ResearchGate)

The largest industrial polluters⎯inducing transportation, fashion, and agriculture⎯are what lead to greenhouse gases being emitted, and cause the aforementioned phenomenon, called global warming. One of the major factors of global warming is that our oceans tend to absorb a lot of the excess heat that gets trapped into the atmosphere. When this occurs, and increases ocean temperatures by even a few degrees, it makes certain environments entirely uninhabitable for many aquatic species. Another negative impact is coral reef bleaching, which is when changing ocean temperatures cause coral to turn white. This bleaching causes corals to stop growing, stop reproducing and makes them susceptible to disease. These factors cause shifts and declines in fish populations, directly affecting fishers, and impacting food supply, as well as the economy.

Moreover, the consequences of human activity reach beyond global warming. Microplastics have quickly littered the globe, as they are overused in all kinds of manmade products, and take several hundreds of years to fully decompose. Once again, the ocean is filled with microplastics, which are often consumed by fish, and later on by humans. In fact, a scientific study estimates that the average person consumes a credit card’s weight of microplastics each week. These microplastics are abundant in seafood, but also present in other kinds of meat and produce.

These concerns are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues that humans have created in the environment. However, there are several practical solutions that one can make at home concerning their consumption habits that can make a lasting impact in preserving the earth for the future. Specifically, we can all help the environment by making small changes in our food.

The History

Our world of mass production did not always operate at such a large scale, and it’s important to recognize how food production has evolved using new technology to match society’s needs. Humans originated as hunter-gatherers: nomadic people who followed their sources of meat as populations of animals moved, as well as fertile, prosperous lands with plentiful plants to find. These tasks were tedious, time-consuming, dangerous, and heavily reliant on the teamwork of its people.

Then, during the dawn of agriculture, people began settling down in communities. This marked the beginning of the human cultivation of food crops, and the practice of raising livestock for milk, eggs, and meat. As technology developed further, humans began to develop international trading routes to exchange different foods and spices around the world through ocean voyages.

Then, in Europe, urbanization began rapidly changing the former system of small-scale agriculture. Suddenly, large populations of people began migrating to cities to work non-agricultural jobs. This created a higher demand for food in a concentrated area, while the number of people working on farms in rural areas was decreasing. For farms to adapt to these demands, they utilized newer technologies like wind and water-powered mills to create large amounts of flour to sustain their populations. Using these new methods, farmers were able to produce more than double the amount of food as before.

Agricultural Productivity Growth in the US (Taken from USDA)

As agriculture developed further, so did the impact of new technologies on its production. Tractors, electric milking machines, and other mechanical machines began being used in agriculture to speed up the process of agricultural production using less manual labor, especially when global populations began increasing at a rapid rate due to wider food production and medicines that increased lifespan and decreased child mortality. 19th century advancements in agriculture allowed for an excess of cheap foods for people to buy. Later on, the convention of fertilizers and pesticides greatly aided farmers, and food preservation methods improved. This included inventions such as the fridge, freezer, and canned meat.

Decreased Dependence on Manual Labor in Farms (Taken from JaysonLusk)

After these developments, one historical event that transformed the way that food was produced, especially in America, was World War II. During the war, the government became concerned with its method of transporting large quantities of food overseas to soldiers. This gave way to dehydration, flash freezing, lightweight packaging, and overall portability for high-calorie foods. After the war, the U.S. government was left with an excess of ammonium nitrate and poison gases, later used as fertilizers and pesticides, causing large-scale agriculture to explode. Following this period, a worldwide program called the Green Revolution was kickstarted to subsidize high-calorie foods like wheat and rice to meet the demands of population growth. The production of cheap corn was particularly successful and became the perfect meal for animal livestock to fatten them up quickly, which also drove down the price of meat. Today, corn is an ingredient in around 75% of processed foods.

The Prevalence of Corn (Taken from ResearchGate)

On a planet of 8 billion people that only continues to grow each year, the agricultural industry is being led down the path of increased supply and demand. Its practices have already negatively impacted the environment in many ways, and it is necessary to begin implementing strategies right now to conserve our planet’s resources and direct ourselves toward a more sustainable future.

Although it is natural for people in urbanized areas to be disconnected from their food sources, nearly 40% of the land surface on earth is actually used for agriculture, as the large population requires it. To begin exploring the agricultural impact on the environment, it is helpful to be familiar with the different agricultural tools and practices used commonly around the world, and how they interact with natural processes. 

Pesticides

Pesticides are defined as a substance which is created to prevent, destroy, or repel pests that commonly feed on, and damage food crops. These mixtures also prevent mosquitos, ticks, and mice from spreading disease to crops, which they commonly carry. They are also useful in controlling weed growth. Although pesticide use is effective in the short term, many insect populations can develop resistance towards these chemicals through natural selection, rendering those pesticides useless later on, and pressuring farmers to develop stronger chemicals each time. There are several adverse health effects that pesticides risk causing, including leukemia, lymphoma, different cancers, and even reproductive damage to babies. 

Fertilizers

These substances, either natural or artificial, contribute to the growth and productiveness of plants by enhancing the soil’s natural fertility. Fertilizers can also serve to replace nutrients that have been stripped from the soil from previous plants that were grown there, or simply provide the desired nutrients to a soil that doesn’t naturally carry enough of them to support bountiful crop growth. Over time, however, prolonged fertilizer use may run of risk of soil compaction, or hardened soil.

Both fertilizers and pesticides pose similar threats to the environment and ecosystems around them. Notably, they may contaminate groundwater supplies if those nutrients travel past the soil during rain. Similarly, excess pesticides and fertilizers often runoff into nearby lakes and rivers, creating toxic algal blooms in the water, and disrupting aquatic ecosystems. This often leads to “dead zones” among coastal areas.

Irrigation & Pollution

Irrigation is, simply put, how crops are watered. By watering crops using sprinklers, and other watering methods, farmers can ensure that production is not interrupted but changing weather conditions throughout the season. However, when crops are over-watered, it may promote erosion of soil and agricultural chemicals being channeled into nearby water bodies, causing pollution. By these means, the largest contaminator of pollution caused by nutrients and sediments in coastal areas is agriculture.

Luckily, these issues have a few simple and effective solutions. Forest buffers are when trees, shrubs, and grasses are planted on the edge of agricultural fields, or along the banks of rivers and streams to reduce and essentially “buffer” excess nutrients from entering the water. As water moves down into these areas, the forest buffers filter their nutrients and potential soil erosion from affecting those ecosystems. These buffers also carry the secondary function as an extra habitat for species living there.

Tillage

Tillage is the practice of turning over the soil in a field using a plow to prepare a field before planting, which makes the topsoil loose and allows crops to grow more easily. The heavy machines that are used to do this often damage the soil structure, and compact the soil underneath it, preventing rainfall from reaching and replenishing groundwater resources. The loosened soil that is left on the surface is often heavily susceptible to erosion, and polluting nearby water bodies after being carried away by water.

Cover crops have been found to combat this problem. Small legumes such as clover and cowpeas, or cereal grains like wheat and barley are planted to cover the soil and prevent potential erosion in a single or mixed stand. These crops may fill in the soil spaces and be interplanted with the main crop, or be planted after the crop’s harvest, and during the off-growing season. Their multifaceted purposes include protection from soil erosion, providing ground cover, preventing weed growth, reducing the presence of pests, and absorbing excess fertilizer that may pollute nearby waters or groundwater supplies. Cover crops also replenish the soil with additional organic matter, and reduces the likelihood of nutrient leaching.

Monocropping

Monocropping is a practice seen commonly in large, mass-scale agricultural production systems. The practice entails one plant being singularity and continuously planted throughout the area and is designed similarly to the streamlined production that occurs in a factory. This allows for the process of farming and harvesting to be highly mechanized and standardized. These structures serve to increase a farm’s efficiency and capital by decreasing labor costs and relying on large machinery. Whereas farming multiple crops in one area requires different machines, techniques, and forms of labor, monocropping allows farmers to increase productivity with decreased costs. It also increases the efficiency of that plot of land, as the entire plot is actively used and maximized for harvesting crops. In many small ways, this reduces the area of land used for agriculture, and allows other lands to remain untouched by human activity, and for them to support existing ecosystems.

Alternatively, long-term monocropping cannot preserve the land and soil it's founded on and therefore drives farmers to plots in different areas every time this occurs. It is important to understand how monocropping destroys its land through the lenses of what those natural environments were intended to develop as. Natural environments hold several varieties of plants and organisms, which enrich their soil when those plants eventually die and decompose. These plants are neither uniform nor singular in species. Monocropping lacks biodiversity entirely for the sake of efficient production, and this process disrupts the microbe relationships that plants have with their soil provides the soil with nutrients for generations to come. When monocropping is practiced on large, million-acre fields for mass production, the soil requires extra chemicals supplements, and fertilizers, to provide it the adequate nutrients to support plant life. The more monocropping occurs, the more fertilizers are required during production, and there are many adverse effects of fertilizer overuse. 

Over the last few generations of widespread monocropping use around the world, the overall biodiversity of the food we eat has been greatly reduced. Not only this, but the genetic diversity of crops has also declined, which has many consequences. Genetic diversity allows plants to adapt to environmental changes through natural variations in their genetics. When a group of the same species of plant carry different genetic traits, some of them are more likely to survive should environmental change occur. When these desired traits are passed on to the next generation, the overall species is more likely to survive. However, due to monocropping practices, our crops have lost their diversity, and are more likely to be completely wiped out, should for example, a drought occur.

Slash and Burn

Slash and burn agriculture⎯otherwise known as shifting cultivation, swidden, or fire-fallow cultivation⎯involves burning areas of agriculture and vegetation with the intent to clear the area, which allows the soil to be naturally fertilized with nutrients after a food crop strips them from the soil. This process continues to be utilized today by more than 300 million farmers globally, who rely on its soil replenishing abilities to survive. During its process, small areas within forests are cleared out(hence the slashing), and the naturally occurring vegetation is burned. Valuable nutrients such as carbon are then transferred from the plants to the soil.

Traditionally, this nutrient-rich soil is utilized until exhaustion; a period which typically lasts for two years. The following process called the fallow period, allows for the regeneration of plant life in that area before restarting the process from the beginning. During this period, farmers will begin cultivating new land, allowing for the previous soil to bear vegetation again.

There are many issues associated with this albeit outdated method, one of which is deforestation. Habitat loss occurs, as well as a decline in populations of animals when trees are cut down in these areas. Not to mention, trees are what supply the atmosphere with oxygen, and when chopped down, release a lot of carbon dioxide that they have absorbed over the years by the process of photosynthesis. Deforestation leads to the increased pollution of air and contributes to global warming. Aside from this, slash-and-burn methods hold a high risk of accidentally starting forest fires, which devastate their ecosystems when created.

Fortunately, recent research into sustainable agriculture has proposed a sustainable solution to be used alternatively: Inga alley-cropping. This involves using pruned green leaves and a deep mulching system to create hedgerows where a farmer wants to grow their crop, and allows the soil to maintain its nutrients in the long term. This system is particularly beneficial for small-scale farmers and families, who do not need to be concerned about weed control and are also supplied with firewood for their homes. 

The Modern Uses of Plastic

Every year, the majority of plastic is disposed of in large landfills, while millions of tons of new plastic is produced. Plastic, which takes several hundreds of years to decompose, and is broken down into microplastics that pollute environments to a more complex degree, is a nonbiodegradable substance that is harmful to both the environment and human health. Since these plastics are built to be flexible and durable, their often “single-use” purpose stands in contradiction, as they don’t fully decompose even after 500 years.

It is no secret that the modern world has an unhealthy dependence on single-use, disposable plastics. Plastic proliferates nearly every sector of food consumption, save from fine dining and home-cooked meals. However, in a society that prioritizes expedience and convenience at every turn, our dependence on these plastics only increases as the years go by, which will only harm the earth and our health in the long run.

There’s a seemingly endless supply of plastic in our everyday lives, but nobody questions how much waste it must amount to. Our grocery stores are lined with plastic packaging: the bags we put our produce in, the containers of our yogurt cups, and the bags of our potato chips. Straw wrappers, candy wrappers, and drinking cups are often thrown out minutes, or even seconds after purchase. Plastics infiltrate nearly every step in the production process of food as well. Some farmworkers have been known to notoriously feed their animals plastic-wrapped bread loaves that are ground up without removing the packaging. These animals then ingest the plastic, and later become meat for human consumption.

Synthetic plastic was invented in the early 1900s and is now manufactured at a rate of 400 million tons per year. A million plastic bottles are bought around the world every single minute, and this rate is only accelerating. The use of synthetic plastics is undeniably convenient and attractive, but its danger poses a much greater threat than the level of temporary satisfaction gained from purchasing it.

The Rise in Plastic Production (Taken from Our World in Data)

80 million tons of plastic waste are created by the United States alone each year. This amount of plastic waste has numerous environmental consequences. Landfills are often filled up with these synthetic plastic substances, which create hazardous chemicals over time after interacting with water. When these chemicals infiltrate into groundwater supplies and aquifers, the possibility of these waters reaching manmade reservoirs and water supplies is dangerous.

Furthermore, groundwater isn’t the only water source polluted by plastic waste. Several coastlines around the world are littered with plastic containers and trash, which also often break down into smaller particles and mix into the sand. These small particles, called microplastics, end up being consumed by birds, fish, and other marine species, which are often fished and consumed by humans later on. Marine organisms often get entangled in plastic litter, and their plastic consumption often blocks their digestive tracts or cuts through their stomachs, leading to their death. When fish populations decline due to human waste, this creates a chain reaction in the marine food chains and causes a decline in all sorts of populations. In the end, this also leads back to less fish for human consumption, and the economy being affected, especially in countries whose economies rely on their fish markets. The trash pollution in oceans is so severe, that it has formed a large floating landfill called the Pacific trash vortex, which lies in the Pacific Ocean. This only serves to degrade marine life and the cleanliness of our oceans. The clean-up of polluted beaches around the world, never mind a plastic island such as this, is an expensive venture. Therefore, the best human action lies in prevention.

Moving forward, does the extent of plastic pollution end with its water and land? Unfortunately, no. Even the air in the atmosphere is affected by the poisonous chemicals released into the air when plastics are burned. When inhaled, those toxins create respiratory issues in both humans and animals. Unsurprisingly, manufacturing plastic also requires oil production, which contributes to global warming via greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.

The primary preventative measure that one can take in reducing plastic pollution, is to reduce their use of it. Here are some ways to reduce your plastic consumption concerning food:

1. Bring reusable grocery bags when grocery shopping to avoid buying new plastic bags each time you go

2. Choose against single-serving packaged food like yogurt cups and chip bags, and alternatively buy larger sizes to portion out yourself

3. Buy reusable cutlery and utensils at home, and have reusable Tupperware and a stainless steel water bottle for when you leave the house

4. For people who like buying coffee often, and frequent places like Dunking and Starbucks: buy one of their reusable cups that you can bring to refill instead of buying single-use plastic cups each time

5. When grocery shopping, avoid produce that is pre-cut and packaged or wrapped in plastic. The fresh, whole produce is often cheaper anyway.

Food Waste

Safe, high-quality food is thrown away every day from homes, stores, restaurants, and farms. Everybody wastes some amount of food every day, but some are more conscious of these behaviors than others. Many parents teach their children to finish their plates and not waste food, as it not only prioritizes their growth and strength, but instills the value that food is an important resource, and that many people go without it, so one should be grateful to have it. In restaurants, when a meal is prepared incorrectly and sent back, it is likely thrown away. When foods end up forgotten in the back of the fridge and are found much later rotten, they must be thrown away. When there is overproduction of a crop, or absurdly low prices to be sold at, that food is often thrown out. 

These small actions amount to a level of waste that few expect. 30-40 percent of the United States food supply is wasted, and in 2010, 133 billion pounds of food, or 161 billion dollars worth of food were wasted just at the retail and consumer level. 80 million tons of food are wasted in the United States each year, which is roughly equivalent to 149 billion meals. When food is wasted, it also wastes the energy and resources that were used to grow, harvest, transport, and package it, including water, energy, and labor.

Food waste globally represents around 8% of greenhouse gases released by human activities. When food is left to rot in landfills, the decomposing matter releases copious amounts of methane into the atmosphere, which is a more dangerous greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Households are the most responsible for wasting their food, which indicates that solutions need to be implemented by individual people, and on a consumer-level basis.

A lot of this waste is influenced by a surplus in food production, with the US producing 91 million excess tons of food in 2021. On a personal scale, this equates to producing 548 pounds of surplus food per person. Simultaneously, however, 33.8 million people in the United States live in food-insecure households and have difficulty affording enough food for themselves daily. 36% of our surplus food gets sent to landfills, while only 2% of it is donated. It appears counterproductive to send large amounts of food waste to landfills that only harm the environment when the United States has no shortage of food.

A Guide To…

Reducing waste, being more sustainable, and saving money:

1. Composting - This practice allows many people to handle their organic food waste (ex. scraps of produce and coffee grounds) in an eco-friendly way by promoting their natural decomposition into organic matter over time. The process involves taking food scraps and putting them in a bin, allowing them to turn into compost after a year with minimal effort. Many people repurpose this compost for gardening purposes. Alternatively, several commercial composting services involve getting your food scraps picked up by a composting company, and receiving nutrient-rich compost for yourself if desired.

2. Making a menu - Whether you cook your family’s meals on the regular, or live by yourself, making a menu before the start of each week, and before you even go grocery shopping is really helpful. Making a menu allows you to plan out meals that everyone in your household will be satisfied with, and will allow you to look at what produce you might have leftover at home, and see how to utilize that in the upcoming week. That way, foods that spoil quickly will get used and not thrown out. Then, based on the menu you make, you know exactly what you need to buy when grocery shopping, and do not overconsume things that you don’t need. This simple organizational tool will create less pressure to plan out meals every day, will make everyone in your household happier, will reduce your food waste both actionably and preventatively, and will save you money when grocery shopping.

3. Freezing food - Freezing your fresh foods is a great way to prevent food waste by allowing it to last much longer. While most consumers are not aware of this, a lot of the seafood in supermarkets is frozen and thawed before it is put on display, making it a wiser choice to just buy frozen seafood which lasts longer.

4. Leftovers - I’m sure we have all experienced making a nice meal, and then forgetting about the leftovers in the back of the fridge until a few weeks later you find it and have to throw it out. Try to keep your leftover food at the front of the fridge, and eat it within a few days after making it. Similarly, with leftover ingredients in your fridge, try to experiment with the remaining foods at the end of each week using websites like Big Oven, MyFridgeFood, and Supercook to try new recipes while reducing your waste and saving money.

5. Seasonal Produce - A lot of people who love buying different kinds of vegetables and fruits forget to value seasonal produce. Seasonal produce, which is produce that naturally grows in your area at that time of year, tends to be fresher, as it was grown in the area and wasn’t transported from hundreds of miles away, and is also cheaper to buy. Environmentally, it is better to buy foods grown locally, as they aren’t using airplanes to get transported to your local grocery stores.

6. Shopping Locally - Similarly to the last one, supporting local businesses and farms is a great way to take away power from those huge food factories that supply most of our supermarket chains. Visiting farmer's markets for locally grown produce is typically more sustainable, and helps your local economy. However, they can be a bit more pricey.

7. Gardening - Having a small garden at home, or a few plants in your home can be a low-cost, low-effort way to grow your food, which doubles to naturally improve the indoor air quality, and triples as a nice decoration at home. You can often take the leftover seeds from store-bought produce and simply replant them at home.

8. Spread these tips to the people around you!

Changing your lifestyle to be more sustainable may seem like a daunting task to begin, and you may question whether you have the time or resources for it. The best way to start living more sustainably is to pick one thing off of this list and create a habit out of it in the coming months. After fully incorporating that habit into your lifestyle, it will feel effortless, and you can challenge yourself to begin another. Take these pieces of advice step by step, and soon you will transform your habits to reach a more sustainable future!