As you may have heard, the city of Seattle, my hometown, has adopted new waste management policies that require food scraps to be disposed of in separate containers, instead of mixing them in with regular garbage.
The ordinance, which was approved last September, has gone into effect on Jan. 1.
The purpose of the new law is to prevent rotting food waste from ending up in dumps and landfills where it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes significantly more to the risk of climate change than carbon dioxide (CO2), according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Other government agencies, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), are also beginning to pay greater attention to the environmental impact of food production and consumption.
As reported in the press, an advisory panel to the USDA is scheduled to submit new recommendations that not only address healthier diet choices but also concerns about costs to the environment. According to these reports, an early draft of the recommendations suggested that reducing animal-based food intake in favor of greater plant-based food consumption would not only be healthier for consumers but also the environment and would be more sustainable than currently prevailing diet patterns.
One study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that especially raising livestock for food takes a heavy toll on the environment.
“There may be no other human activity that has a bigger impact on he planet than raising livestock,” a Time magazine report stated in reference to the PNAS study.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that livestock is responsible for about a fifth of all greenhouse gases caused by human activity worldwide, a number some critics say is in reality more than twice as high.
Livestock-related greenhouse gas emission is a global problem. Most of what we are currently seeing stems from developing countries, according to the PNAS study. An ever-greater demand for land to raise cattle in particular leads to further deforestation, which is dramatically noticeable in South America and parts of Asia. Increasing appetite for meat in countries with rapid economical growth only adds to the equation.
Some of the steps now considered or taken on local or regional levels may seem insignificant and insufficient in the face of such immense challenges, but they are helpful in raising greater awareness that much of our food production as well as consumption is reaching its limits and won’t be sustainable forever. This is not only a political or economical issue but foremost a matter of personal responsibility. Granted that changing behavior is always a complicated and uncertain undertaking, it is still the only way we can hope to succeed.
Timi Gustafson R.D. is a registered dietitian, newspaper columnist, blogger and author of the book “The Healthy Diner – How to Eat Right and Still Have Fun”®, which is available on her blog and at amazon.com. For more articles on nutrition, health and lifestyle, visit her blog, “Food and Health with Timi Gustafson R.D.” (www.timigustafson.com). You can follow Timi on Twitter, on Facebook, and Google+.
