Food Choices

I tend think about the environmental impact of my food choices; however, not to the extent that it would prevent me from buying certain foods. My main concern is centered around meat, the treatment of the animals before slaughter, the immense amount of methane produced by the exorbitant number of cattle we now keep, and the energy efficiency of eating meat versus plants. Though, after reading the article, “The Oil We Eat: Following the Food Chain Back to Iraq,” the last of my concerns may not be justified as modern crop production and processing may be just as energy inefficient as meat production. I also consider things such as amount of pesticides applied to produce and the amount of excess packaging in packaged foods. However, these things are merely concerns and do not tend to limit my choices as I believe the real solution to these negative environmental side effects of food production is to stop them at the source, since everyone needs to eat.

Of the food I have eaten over the past few days, the one with the most environmental impact has probably been past with Parma Rosa sauce because it required dairy, grains, and several seasonings and spices to create one meal. This meal could not have been very environmentally friendly due to the number of different ingredients found in it.