Not everything you put on your plate leaves the same carbon footprint
Surely you have read that when you consume palm oil, you are contributing to deforestation and the killing of orangutans , who are left without a place to live due to the land that is dedicated to palm crops. It would seem that the solution is to boycott this food, which half of humanity uses for cooking, and yet the matter is much more complex. Because, let's stop to think: if palm oil were not used -which is even part of many cosmetics- what would be used instead?
The answer lies in ingredients such as rapeseed or soybeans, which, comparatively, require much more land to grow -we talk, potentially, of more land taken from the apes and the jungle-.
Thus, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), palm oil crops produce four to ten times more oil per unit of land, as well as requiring far fewer pesticides and fertilizers to grow . In fact, palm oil makes up 35% of all plant-based oils, even though it only occupies 10% of the land allocated to oil crops.
Without going further, soybean cultivation for livestock feed is guilty of more than twice as much global deforestation as palm oil , to the point that he is considered one of the architects of the tragic ** Amazon fires **. And that without taking into account that the cattle and meat industries five times the level of deforestation of palm oil, as reported, in an alarming study, by the organization ** Mighty Earth **. In fact, this happens with all foods: they do not all need the same space and energy to be produced.
SOME ACCOUNTS
Two eggs have about 26 proteins, the same as 100 grams of beef. Suppose you eat meat of this type three to five times a week; that means your annual consumption of this dish adds 1,611 kilos to your annual greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of driving a gasoline car for 6,618 kilometers... or taking three one-way flights from London to New York - and we all know how much it pollutes flying -. Your consumption of beef, by the way, also uses 4,625 m² of land, which is the same as 17 tennis courts.
Do you know what kind of oil your cookies have?
On the other hand, when you eat two eggs the same times a week, your annual consumption adds only 115 kilos to your greenhouse gas emissions -the equivalent of driving a car 476 kilometers-.
What if you want your 26-protein intake to come from pork? So, you should know that your annual consumption of this animal adds 375 kilos your greenhouse gas emissions - the equivalent of driving a gasoline car for 1,540 kilometers - and occupies 529 m² of land, which is the same as two tennis courts.
Seen this way, it is easy to understand that, for the sustainability of the environment -that is, so that you can continue eating for many more years- the most convenient thing is to reduce the intake of beef and change it to that of eggs.
Or, better yet, following the examples provided by the calculator, by the nut calculator : 100 grams of a mixture of them provide 20 grams of protein, with which you would add only two kilograms! your annual greenhouse gas emissions… The equivalent of driving a gasoline car for 12 kilometers.
Beef is one of the most polluting foods in the world
THE CARBON FOOTPRINT OF OUR FOOD
Dizzy reading so many figures? Then do the math yourself, using the calculator that tells you how what you eat and drink impacts the environment published by the BBC and compiled by Joseph Poore of the University of Oxford; and Thomas Nemecek of the Agroecology and Environment Research Division in Zurich, who used data from prestigious studies and publications to compute the proportion of greenhouse gas emissions from food.
Did you know, for example, that 25% of global emissions come from what we eat ? And that more than half of that percentage are responsible animal products especially beef and lamb?
It is also essential to know how and where food has been produced, since the environmental impact they generate depends on it. In the case, for example, of palm oil that we mentioned before: the solution is not to stop taking it, but make sure it's sustainable , that is, that no land has been deforested for its cultivation.
TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE DIET
Taking all of the above into account, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) advises that let's eat less meat, milk, cheese and butter, and more seasonal and locally sourced foods -whose carbon footprint until it reaches our table is smaller-.
It also urges us to let's avoid food waste , since it is estimated that between 25 and 30% of the food produced on the planet is wasted.
Better eat sustainable food
The UN has also joined this proposal, recommending promote plant-based diet , such as large grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. And, when it comes to consuming food of animal origin, it should be associated with productive systems "resilient, sustainable and low in greenhouse gas emissions".
“Obtaining protein of animal origin is much less profitable and efficient in terms of investment of resources than obtaining vegetable protein. . In fact, it is estimated that it costs ten times more to obtain the first than the second”, explains to Traveler.es the nutritionist Aitor Sánchez, co-director of the Center Aleris Nutrition .
“Think of the fact that you have to feed an animal for several years on plant products so that it grows, then kill it and then eat it. In all that process there is a huge loss of resource efficiency” , he asserts.
Thus, The most sustainable thing to do would be to minimize, if not avoid, our intake of animal products. But it is possible? Let's go back to the example obtained with the calculator: Is eating 100 grams of beef the same as eating nuts? We asked Sánchez.
More green on your plate please
"Though Nuts have a good quality protein and in good quantity , we dieticians and nutritionists do not consider it a priority source of protein due to its high fat content -which, yes, in the case of nuts, are healthy, not harmful-. That is, to get that amount of protein, you first get a lot of fat; those proteins are not ‘clean’ like when you take tofu or textured soy”, he explains to us.
The interesting thing is that tofu, soy or legumes, which are much more valuable sources of protein, are also more sustainable for the environment . Thus, if we ate tofu three to five times a week, we would add 33 kilos of greenhouse gases -compared to 1,611 kilos of emissions from beef-, and if we did the same with beans, only 20 .
And, believe it or not, eating beans, your protein intake would not be in danger. "It is a myth that legumes do not have complete protein : many, such as chickpeas, beans or soybeans, have it, in addition to being a very healthy food, "says the expert.
In addition to reducing meat consumption, Sánchez also advises us decrease the amount of food we eat , feeding ourselves only what we need, avoiding excesses. He also recommends on his blog #nutricionrtve, in line with the UN, that we choose fresh, local and seasonal products , and that we do not throw food.
If we followed all these guidelines between now and 2050, we would save the equivalent of all the gases emitted by Spain during the last 20 years, leaving several million square kilometers of land free and we would avoid an increase in the destructive phenomena that are already taking place on our planet, such as droughts, desertification and forest fires.
Because climate change is real, as much as last July was the warmest in history since records exist.