My Food Choice...relatively good for the enviornment?

When I make food choices, I do not have particular environmental considerations. However, I believe I make environmentally friendly food choices unconsciously because I seldom eat junk food, such as hamburger and pizza, and have soft drinks, such as coke. To be honest, I sometimes eat McDonald’s but it happens only approximately three times a year! I believe that food which is bad for health is bad for the environment as well. My view is that eating locally grown organic food is healthy and helps saving the environment. Thus, I try to eat organic food as much as possible.

I ate pasta with Japanese (kind of teriyaki) sauce last night and I had Japanese rice with miso soup for today’s lunch. I rarely eat meat because I was a vegetarian when I lived in Switzerland. Later, I quit being a vegetarian because it was hard to live as a vegetarian in Japan. However, I still hesitate to eat meat because I feel so sad when I think about how animals are slaughtered. Thus, I basically eat carbohydrate and vegetables. I chose cheese and milk for consuming protein. I drink at least two litters of water using Brita and a tumbler, which helps saving the environment rather than using plastic bottles and paper cups.

I do not think my choice of food and beverage has had the greatest environmental impact because I do not eat meat frequently. Eating beef is bad for the environment and I just found out an interesting fact about it. The article “How Our Food Choices can Help Save the Environment” by Steve Boyan, PhD (http://www.earthsave.org/environment/foodchoices.htm) says that people can save 3,000 to 5,000 gallons of water for every pound of beef they avoid to eat. This article talks about how much fossil fuel is used and carbon dioxide and wastes are exhausted when people consume beef. According to the article, it seems my food choice is not bad for the environment.

However, one bad thing for the environment regarding my food choices is consumption of coffee. I drink coffee at least four times a week. It is bad for the environment because coffee is shipped thousands of miles and contains huge amounts of embodied energy and pollution. I should find another source of caffeine to keep me awake then.

In sum, it is interesting to analyze my food choices because now I am conscious about what kind of food I eat everyday. Eating is a daily activity that people can never stop; therefore, it is important to make wise food choices for the environment.