Counting Consumer Emissions

During the dead of winter break, huddled under my cocoon blanket, I slowly walk my way to the
kitchen to make myself lunch. I grab all the ingredients to make myself a fig jelly and grilled
cheese sandwich from around the kitchen and wobble to the island with my arms full. With one
distinct bang, all the ingredients topple on the counter. I readjust the old fuzzy blanket as I squat
below the black barstools on the opposite side of the island to find the panini press. I stand,
staring into space, waiting for the panini press to smoke when I see faint black words on the
side of the Bonne Maman jam jar “made in France.” Fancy, I sarcastically laugh to myself. How
refined we are to have fig jelly from France. Intrigued, I flip over the block of white cheddar
within arms reach of me and read “made in Oregon.” Next, I flip over the butter container with
one swift movement only to read “from St. Paul Minnesota”. Again and again, I flip to the back
panels of my ingredients only to find they are all produced in foreign lands, abroad from the Bay
Area. It is not until I stumble upon the sourdough bread that says: “made in Oakland, California”
that I realize how much had to be done for these products to end up on my kitchen counter. It
had never occurred to me that the figs in the jelly had to be grown, watered, picked, sorted,
mashed, mixed, cooked, packaged, and shipped before they even left France, let alone trekked
to California or my house. “What about the cheese?” I thought. Not only would the cheese have
to be cultured, mixed, chilled, packaged and shipped, but the dairy cows had to be cared for
daily, requiring water and feed. I continue to think while unraveling the plastic bag that contains
my sourdough bread about the resources, time, energy, people, and emissions that went into
getting the cheese from Minnesota and jelly from France to my house, versus the bread from
Oakland. Laying my fig grilled cheese on the panini press, still wrapped in my blanket, I come
up with a question: How can consumers’ food choices affect the environmental sustainability of
the world?
Modern consumers demand food in a capacity and speed our planet has never handled before.
Food is whisked around the world in ships, planes, trains, and automobiles to fulfill the
consumer's demand. However, is this sustainable? Sustainability is the ability to endure, or as
defined by Jacenda Davis, the community engagement coordinator for Sustainable Contra
Costa, is the ability that something can be maintained. With respect to environmental
sustainability, the definition focuses more on creating systems of consumption which respect the
finite nature of natural resources and maintaining changes in a balanced environment. How has
society's demands for enormous food quantities, excessive meat, and exotic foods affected the
world's environment?
The first grocery store in America, Piggly Wiggly, came to be on September 11, 1916. This store
changed the way people shopped as it offered consumers a variety of foods at lower costs than
specialty stores ever could. From the first grocery store, America has streamlined the idea of
shopping in order to save money, leading to today’s method of shopping, bulk. Bulk is the most
cost-effective way to shop as it allows one to get more value for the money spent resulting in the
cost per serving to decrease and the number of servings purchased to increase. However, the
“food waste caused by such bulk purchases accounts for 40 percent of the grown food in
America and exhausts 35 percent of the nation’s fresh water supply and 300 million gallons of
oil each year”( Holthaus). Consumers’ choice to buy food in bulk leads to multitudes of natural
resources to be consumed in the process, most of which ends up as food waste. When such
waste goes to the landfill, it decomposes anaerobically opposed to aerobically. According to the
Texas A&M Agriculture department:
Aerobic decomposition requires small organisms to utilize oxygen in order to break down
organic material on the ground's surface. The off product of aerobic decomposition is consists of
nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon dioxide. Anaerobic decomposition does not use oxygen to
break down matter far beneath the ground's surface. Anaerobic decomposition requires
organisms that live in high degrees to break such matter. Anaerobic decomposition main off
product is methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than any other. (Texas A&M)
Food naturally decomposes aerobically on the top of the soil. However, when food is sent to the
landfill, it is buried by heaps of other garbage out in the burning sun, resulting in a stifling
squished environment for matter to decompose anaerobically. This mass anaerobic
decomposition forms methane, which is released into the air, heating the global atmosphere.
Heating of the global atmosphere occurs when methane combines with oxygen, creating water
vapor and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, traps UV rays from the sun within
the atmosphere warming the planet. These rising temperatures affect the weather, pH of
oceans, and the sea level (Goldstein and Qvist 23). While food waste decomposition creates a
tremendous amount of methane, it lacks in comparison to the methane emissions created from
the agricultural and livestock sector.
In the past decades, meat consumption has been on the rise throughout America, the European
Union, and the rest of the developed world. This large population of “[l]ivestock, especially
ruminants such as cattle, produce methane (CH4) as part of their normal digestive routine. This
process is called enteric fermentation, and it represents almost one third [or 193.7 million metric
tons of CO2] emissions from the Agriculture economic sector "(EPA). Methane, as stated before,
produces carbon dioxide, a gas that warms the atmosphere. The large population of livestock
equates to a massive quantity of carbon emissions being released into the atmosphere. Further,
it has been found that the “[Agricultural and livestock sector] have cleared 70% of forests in the
amazon and elsewhere for cattle grazing and cattle feed”(Georgetown). Cattle production is at
such a magnitude that cattle now dominate well over half of earth’s rainforest. The rainforests
are the ‘lungs’ of earth. The dense population of trees absorbs vast amounts of carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere in addition to keeping waterways and the climate as a whole in a state of
homeostasis. Moreover, the rainforest is home to nearly half of the world’s flora and fauna
(Caltech). Leveling the rainforest for cattle grazing requires trees to be cut down, that would
otherwise absorb the carbon dioxide the livestock produces while grazing. Also, the removal of
the trees leaves half the world’s flora and fauna without a habitat. Consumers choice to
purchase meat, especially beef, affects the Amazon’s important ecosystem and the speed at
which the planet warms. Moreover, consumers' choice to buy exotic food affects the ocean and
planet’s temperature as well.
How the modern world eats is quite foreign to the timeline of history. It has only been a handful
of decades that the idea of mass shipped food is the routine way for food to be transported.
Currently, it is the norm “...for a Norwegian fish company to catch Cod off the shore of Norway,
send the fish to China for filleting, then ship the fillets back to Norway for packing and selling”
simply because it is cheaper (Rosenthal). The modern world’s daily demand for cheap exotic
foods has forced many companies to ship their product to various lands in order to save on
costs wherever they can. This constant merry-go-round of product transportation is
predominantly done with cargo ships. According to The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, the oil leaked daily from the cargo ships destroys the water wicking properties of
bird feathers and otter fur, resulting in animals dying from hypothermia. Moreover, oil can cause
reduced growth in adult fish, enlarged livers, change heart and respiration rates, fin erosion, and
reproduction impairment (NOAA). The oil and fuel leaked into the oceans cause umpteen
congenital disabilities and kills numerous aquatic species, resulting in an unbalanced
ecosystem. Additionally, cargo ships emit greenhouse gasses into the air, “[i]t has been
estimated that just one of these container ships, the length of around six [soccer fields], can
produce the same amount of pollution as 50 million cars. The emissions from 15 of these mega-
ships match those from all the cars in the world” (Piesing). The quantity of carbon emissions
escaping into the atmosphere from food cargo ships is so immense that it can replace all cars in
the world multiple times over. The specific cargo ships that carry society’s food, wrapped in a
plethora of different packaging, do contribute a large part of the world’s carbon emission output.
Moreover, the packaging itself contributes to numerous environmental issues, including global
warming.
What is better paper of plastic? Plastic food packaging emits 70% less pollution, 80% fewer
carbon emissions, consumes three times less water, utilizes 91% less energy to recycle, and
produces 80% less waste than paper (McGrath). Plastic packaging, requires minimal resources,
energy, and contributes fewer pollutants compared to paper products. This said, “[p]lastic bags
are difficult and costly to recycle and most end up on landfill sites where they take around 300
years to photodegrade. They break down into tiny toxic particles that contaminate the soil and
waterways and enter the food chain when animals accidentally ingest them.” (Jacobsen). Plastic
does not leave the earth’s surface for hundreds to thousands of years. Within that period,
animals are more prone to ingesting plastic, which humans then ingest when eating the animal.
Not to mention, it is challenging to efficiently and adequately recycle plastic as there are so
many different types of plastic, and every county has different regulations on what types of
material they accept. This sorting headache often results in the plastic simply becoming
garbage. Moreover, plastic can only be recycled an average of three times before it degrades
and becomes trash ( Huffington Post). On the other hand, paper is a biodegradable resource
that does not contribute to the same magnitude of pollution plastic does. Additionally, paper can
be recycled four to six times before it has to be remixed with a virgin formula. (Ray) While paper
consumes more energy and carbon emissions to produce, it does not contribute to pollution in
the same way plastic does. Paper can also be recycled more times than plastic products,
avoiding the landfill longer. In addition to paper and plastic, there are other materials in which
food is packaged including glass and aluminum. According to OI New Zealand, a glass
manufacturing company, it takes .422 Kg of carbon dioxide to produce one 335mL can, and .153
Kg of carbon dioxide to produce the same size container in glass (OI). Both of these materials
do have a large carbon footprint. However, unlike paper and plastic have an unending lifespan,
“Aluminum is one of the most valuable recyclable materials because there is no limit to how
many times it can be recycled...Like aluminum, glass can [also] be recycled over and over again
without degrading,...”(Sinai). These materials have the most extended lifespan as they never
break down. Once the material is produced, it will never become garbage, as it can be recycled
till the end of time. There will always be a give and a take when discussing food packaging. One
has to choose what effect they want to have on the earth, a carbon footprint, or contribute to
pollution.
How do consumers’ food choices affect the environmental sustainability of our world?
Negatively. The sheer amount of greenhouse gasses, volume of animal endangerment, and
garbage the modern food industry produces all negatively affect the earth. This is because the
food industry and its consumers only care to benefit themselves. Consumers are in charge of
how environmentally sustainable they want their society to be. Their demand dictates what
foods are produced daily, which animals are born and killed, how much food goes to landfill,
where their food comes from, and how it will be packaged. There are many ways in which the
consumer can be more sustainable. Firstly, a consumer can reduce their food waste by meal
planning and shopping consciously (Jean-Hard 7). By meal planning and shopping consciously,
one will be held accountable to buy only the food they genuinely need for the meals they are
preparing in the upcoming week. Additionally, consumers should start to compost. Composting
allows food scraps to decompose aerobically–their natural form of decomposition–creating little
to no methane, contrary to the food waste sent to the landfills. Next, society should adopt a
plant-based diet. The Mediterranean diet, a nice diet to start, primarily focuses on vegetables,
fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains supplementing with seafood, limiting
dairy, poultry, and eggs to only a few times a week, and red meat and sweets to only a few
times a month. Once comfortable with a plant-based diet society could move towards a
vegetarian or vegan diet. If these diets were adopted, the demand for meat would decrease,
resulting in lower, livestock birth and methane rates. Additionally, society would save on energy
costs, as it takes the same amount of energy to produce 16,000 pounds of pork and beef, as it
does to produce 55,000 pounds of vegetables (Garza). If modern society moves towards a
plant-based diet, it would be able to save on energy costs because of the decrease in the
amount of meat produced, lowering livestock's energy use.
Apart from food consumers should become conscious of food packaging. Firstly, consumers
should look for recyclable or compostable food packaging. Consumers will need to learn which
materials their individual county’s recycling plant can process, to be able to recycle it properly.
These instructions can be found on the county’s waste management website, or even right on
top of the big blue bin. Secondly, when a consumer goes to the store, they should buy products
in for glass, aluminum, plastic, or paper that can be recycled where they live. By doing this
many pounds of trash will be kept from landfills as most of the county’s food packing will be
recycled and reused instead of tossed in the trash. The most important thing consumers should
learn regarding recycling is that it is a last resort. The saying “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” puts
recycle last for a reason. One should always reduce their waste first. Buy fresh produce without
a cellophane produce bag, or bring an old jar to the bulk section. Reuse, instead of buying a
new reusable grocery bag, make one out of an old tee shirt. Lastly, recycle what you cannot
reduce or reuse. Finally, to combat the carbon emissions from exotically shipped foods,
consumers should shop locally and learn about sustainable farming practices. When
interviewed, Marian Woodward a Master Gardener, Master Composter, Permaculturalist, Co-
founder and Co-director of Rodgers Ranch Urban Farm (2012 – present) said, “The easiest way
for the average consumer to make more sustainable choices is to buy all groceries from local
farmers at farmer markets. Eat in season. Eat what is local. Ask the farmers about their growing
practices. Yes, organic is swell, but my question now is, “Tell me about your growing practices.
Do you practice crop rotation? Do you make and use your own compost? Where do you grade
yourself on the sustainability scale?” Shopping locally will reduce the demand for mass shipped
food, lower the need for cargo ships and their emissions. Instead, the average consumer's
money and resources will be going to local farmers whose carbon footprint is minimal on the
earth, compared to the colossal ships. Moreover, one will be able to connect with their
neighbors and learn from each other. In sum, whether one is talking about meat, carbon miles,
or plastic packing there will always be a trade-off in the environmental impact one has on the
earth, and it is up to each consumer what trade they want to be a part of to affect the
environment positively.
It is crucial for consumers to make these changes when it comes to food as they do affect the
environmental sustainability of the world. We always hear on the news that polar ice caps are
melting, that this past year has been the hottest on record, sea turtles have straws up their
noses, or walruses are plunging to their deaths atop rocky conglomerates because their beloved
home, the ice, has melted away. There are 7.6 billion humans on this earth and everyone should
do their part to create a sustainable world because we are the only species capable and
responsible for what our world is today. It is our job to fix what we are destroying and create a
society that flourishes with longevity for all species: animal, plant, and human alike.
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