Eat Well to Live Well, Why Alimentation can Save us and Save the World

By Igor & Mario P (Portugal)() Write the World

We are concerned about climate change, specially the lack of resources we might face in the future, and, in order to tackle this problem, we carried out a research on over-consumption in Portugal and its consequences.

According to the Overshoot Day Organization, if all people live like the Portuguese, we will deplete all the planet’s resources by 25th May 2020. To determine the date of Earth Overshoot Day for each year, Global Footprint Network calculates the number of days of that year that

Earth’s bio-capacity suffices to provide for humanity’s Ecological Footprint. The remainder of the year corresponds to global overshoot. This issue is related to the Sustainable Development Goals 2 (No Hunger), 3 (Good health and well-being), 6 (Clean water and sanitation), 13 (Climate action), 14 (Life below water) and 15 (life on land).

Data from the Global Footprint Network, from 2015, show that Portugal is the Mediterranean country with the biggest footprint per capita in alimentation and that these results are caused by an excessive consumption of meat and fish, which make up more than 50% of our diet, on average. This huge consumption has had a considerable impact on soil degradation and water contamination. For example, in order to make a hamburger it requires 2500 litres of water, and a similar amount of food to feed the cow. That can only be obtained by intensive agriculture, which uses a lot of phyto-pharmaceuticals, contaminates water by eutrophication, and degradates the soil. For example, the region of Alentejo is now considered a desert due to the intensive agriculture it supports.

To tackle this problem, people started to change their dietary habits. In 2014, in Portugal, it was estimated that 200,000 people were vegetarian. However, that is a radical change and might not be so healthy, because it is really difficult to get complete proteins from vegetables, while we can easily find them in animal products. The World Health Organization recommends eating less meat and more fish, since a study by the International Agency for Research on Cancer reports that high levels of consumption of red and processed meat are associated with a higher risk of colo-rectal cancer. But we think that it isn’t enough, so we would like to create an app that will help everyone have a better diet, thus promoting their health, well-being and the environment.

We started searching for some apps that already try to do something like this, and we found “Love Food Hate Waste”, which helps people to decide their menu for the day according to what they have in their fridge, attempting to reduce the waste created by alimentation. We also found “Carbon Footprint Calculator”, which calculates the footprint of a given person according to the data they supply.

We decided to take these applications into consideration, because they are both heavily related to our topic, over-consumption of resources in alimentation, and we decided to have these ideas implemented on our own, as well as add our own ideas. We believe it is important to have an app that just like “Love Food Hate Waste” tells their users what to do with the resources they already have, instead of going shopping for products they might not even use. However, we believe it should contain a Carbon Footprint Calculator, for all of those interested in their evolution since they adopted a new lifestyle.

This would also help them, when shopping, choose local products, from trusted origins and that do not have such an impact on the environment. This is our way of making people help the environment, while being healthier themselves.

Marné, P. (10/11/18). Portugal é o país mediterrâneo com maior Pegada Ecológica per

capita da alimentação, Wattson. Accessed on 9th March 2020, from

“https://www.wattson.pt/2018/11/10/portugal-pais-do-mediterraneo-com-maior-pegada-

ecologica-per-capita-da-alimentacao/”.

World Health Organization(ND), Eat less meat, more fish!, WHO Site. Accessed on 9th

March 2020, “https://www.who.int/cancer/media/news/lessmeatmorefish/en/”.

Overshoot Day Organization Webpage (2020), Accessed on 9th March 2020 at

“https://www.overshootday.org/”.

Global Footprint Network Webpage (2020), Accessed on 9th March 2020, at

“https://www.footprintnetwork.org”.

Love Food Hate Waste Webpage (2020), Accessed on 15th March 2020, at

“https://lovefoodhatewaste.com/”

Carbon Footprint Calculator Webpage(2020), Accessed on 15th March 2020, at

“https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx”.