Our Food Footprint

Thinking about what to get for lunch today? There may be many food options you can buy, but are packaged in plastic containers, which cannot degrade, or break down into harmful microplastics. (Check out my friend's blog for more on microplastics and plastic waste!) And, did you know that Styrofoam is also plastic? It can stay in the environment for millions of years and be eaten by animals, effectively killing them. Even worse, the chemicals in the plastic can become part of the tissues of the animals. When you eat these animals, these can become part of you!  Food packaged in Styrofoam. Photo by albedo20 . Instead, try cooking something and bringing it in a reusable container! This way, you can cut down on the waste you would produce if you had bought food instead. Plus, it's cheaper to cook. Home made food. Photo by Ella Olsson . If you're already on the go, and you want to buy food, you can still opt for biodegradable packaging, like that shown in the pic...

In a previous post , we looked at the environmental footprint of meat production (mainly cattle). But, after I embarked on my one-day vegan journey on World Food Day , I began to wonder, what does it take to produce plant-based foods? Is veganism feasible here in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) as a mainstream diet?  Well, regardless of the crop, in order to grow it, we need space. Traditional and modern agriculture, both practised in T&T, involve clearing of land. This means that trees will be cut down and animals will lose their habitats. So, I guess it is true to say that it is inevitable for humans to exist without harming the environment in some way.  The production of rice, a staple my family and I eat daily, contributes large amounts of methane (a potent greenhouse gas-GHG) to the atmosphere, due to the swampy conditions in which it is grown. So, we can't say that livestock is the only culprit of large-scale methane production. Photo of rice farming by Niph...

Yesterday was World Food Day ! The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has designated October 16 th as a day to reduce your food wastage and eat healthier and more environmentally friendly foods. A study published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has found that  “impacts of the lowest-impact animal foods typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change” (Poore & Nemecek, 2018).  With the deteriorating state of our environment, I believe that cutting back on meat is a simple way that each of us can make a positive difference to the environment without having to rely on government policy. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago has recently implemented a ban on use of Styrofoam in food packaging by companies, and is encouraging a switch to lower energy LED lightbulbs in the face of immanent environmental degradation. While  I applaud these solutio...

As you might have heard, the state of the environment today is pretty bad. The climate is changing rapidly, not like anything the Earth has ever experienced. The average global temperature has risen by 0.8°C in the last century [1] . This might not sound bad, but it’s having adverse effects on the planet; from raging fires (such as the wildfires that have wreaked havoc in California for 3 consecutive years) and category 5 hurricanes (like Hurricane Dorian, that ravaged Abaco in The Bahamas), to extinctions of species every day ! It’s affecting human health too, with certain infectious diseases on the rise . This is all a result of human-induced climate change and environmental degradation. Can eating differently really make a positive impact? Photo by Markus Spiske temporausch.com from Pexels  Well, the US EPA says that 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) in 2010 were from agriculture, forestry and other land use. That’s a lot considering the transport sector produc...