Tasty Planet: Three Delicious Ways to Eat for Earth

By Matt Perry

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Happy Earth Day!

We only have one planet, but you wouldn’t guess it from our eating habits. The consequences are serious: illness, obesity, greenhouse gases, and dwindling non-renewable resources. But we like to look on the bright side at North Atlantic; habits can change! To help celebrate this year’s Earth Day, we have three suggestions for more Earth-friendly eating habits that you can use every time you sit down to eat or head out to the grocery store.

#1: Pay attention to where your food comes from. Many foods are transported over incredible distances to get to your local grocery store. Unfortunately, the price of moving all those calories is generally swept under the carpet. Costs stay relatively low at the cost of cheap but nonrenewable resources, while large corporations take advantage of low labor costs in more distant but fertile climates.

It can be hard to find good information on where your food comes from, how it’s grown or raised, and whether it’s done responsibly, but knowing will help you make informed and Earth-friendly decisions. Seafood lovers will find all the information they need in Casson Trenor’s Sustainable Sushi, which is particularly useful given the global fisheries crisis reported by National Geographic.

#2: Look for local options. If you can replace even some of your imported foods with locally grown alternatives, you can help keep Earth healthy. As a bonus, local foods tend to be fresher than foods flown or driven in from other countries, and they support local economies as well. Local options are often grown in season, which means that not all foods are available all the time, but the variety of options at a given time can be startling. You can easily find local farms and farmer’s markets through LocalHarvest, an online informational resource.

#3: Eat more plants. All ethical questions aside, according to Daniele Fanelli in NewScientist, A kilogram of beef is responsible for more pollution than driving for three hours while leaving all the lights on back home. Over the course of a year, that can add up to a lot of pollution for carnivors. Eating more plants will reduce that amount and improve almost anyone’s health.

Many people think eating green things means eating dull or flavorless salads and relying on less-than-healthy dressings, but Victoria Boutenko’s Green Smoothie Revolution provides a long list of easy, flavorful, and environmentally healthy options.

We’re looking forward to Earth Day this year as a way to show our appreciation for our amazing planet, and we hope you’ll join us in these little efforts or others.

How do you celebrate Earth Day?

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