What You Can Do
Become Climate-Change Literate
Recommended resources:
Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences
Rewriting the Menu: Climate Change and the Global Food Supply (eCornell Keynote Address)
For climate-change updates:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Build the Community
Communicate with others and build a community around climate-change solutions. Listen more than you speak and take other people’s feelings seriously. Make it a conversation rather than an argument. Avoid overwhelming others with facts; talk about successes in your workplace and at home.
Photo Credit: Jason Koski, courtesy of Cornell CALS
Adopt a More Plant-Based Diet
The greatest impact we can have with our food choices is to transition to meals that are more plant-based. In the US, where protein and nutrients are available, treating red meat as a delicacy rather than a staple would help enormously. Also consider plant-based meats, which have a much lower carbon footprint than beef.
Photo by Lindsay France, courtesy of Cornell CALS
Reduce Food Waste
Getting food to the table—producing, transporting, processing, and storing it—releases greenhouse gases, and when food decays in a landfill it emits more gases. About one-third of the global food supply is never eaten. The FAO reported in 2013 that if food waste were a country it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, globally. If we saved only one-fourth of this waste, it would feed 870 million people annually.
In North America, about 40% of food wastage occurs at the consumption stage mainly due to somewhat subjective “sell-by date” labeling and because consumers like produce without blemishes. Do we need to be so fussy? Food with blemishes is just as healthy and flavorful.
To make progress globally, waste in the entire food supply chain needs attention, including consumer awareness and consideration for recycling waste back into the system. It may also require creativity, like the Brits making beer from some of the 24 million slices of bread discarded every day. Please see the EPA’s “Too Good to Waste Toolkit” to determine how much food you waste at home and how to waste less.
Photo by Robert Barker, courtesy of Cornell CALS
Consider Your Entire Carbon Footprint
This website focuses on food production, but let’s keep things in perspective. In the US, the agricultural sector is responsible for about 9% of the country’s greenhouse gases, but that means 91% comes from somewhere other than agriculture—transportation, electricity production, industry, and the residential and commercial sectors. To solve the climate change crisis we need to reduce emissions across all sectors—now. Fly, drive, light, heat, and cool less, and consume less stuff. You can assess your carbon footprint with a calculator like the one the Global Footprint Network provides. You can also review Drawdown, which prioritizes options to reduce greenhouse gases at a global scale. Make the environmentally-friendly option the default, not the exception.
Appreciate and Support the People Who Supply the Menu
Consider pausing before your next meal to appreciate where your food comes from. Thank the people who make it possible, whether it’s a family harvesting cacao in Western Africa, a boat captain catching cod in the Bering Sea, or a vegetable farmer 30 miles away. They all need our respect and support, directly or indirectly.
Photo by RJ Anderson, courtesy of Cornell CALS
Get Involved
Engage elected officials on the topic of food and climate change. Challenge policy-makers to support programs that help people who produce our food to stay in business as well as minimize their impacts. These programs should extend globally because food insecurity is likely to lead to increasing conflict and social unrest with worldwide implications. Ask elected officials to support the science that is needed now more than ever. And above all, be courageous.
What You Can Do
Become Climate-Change Literate
Recommended resources:
Climate Literacy: The Essential Principles of Climate Sciences
Rewriting the Menu: Climate Change and the Global Food Supply (eCornell Keynote Address)
For climate-change updates:
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Build the Community
Communicate with others and build a community around climate-change solutions. Listen more than you speak and take other people’s feelings seriously. Make it a conversation rather than an argument. Avoid overwhelming others with facts; talk about successes in your workplace and at home.
Photo Credit: Jason Koski, courtesy of Cornell CALS
Adopt a More Plant-Based Diet
The greatest impact we can have with our food choices is to transition to meals that are more plant-based. In the US, where protein and nutrients are available, treating red meat as a delicacy rather than a staple would help enormously. Also consider plant-based meats, which have a much lower carbon footprint than beef.
Photo by Lindsay France, courtesy of Cornell CALS
Consider Your Entire Carbon Footprint
This website focuses on food production, but let’s keep things in perspective. In the US, the agricultural sector is responsible for about 9% of the country’s greenhouse gases, but that means 91% comes from somewhere other than agriculture—transportation, electricity production, industry, and the residential and commercial sectors. To solve the climate change crisis we need to reduce emissions across all sectors—now. Fly, drive, light, heat, and cool less, and consume less stuff. You can assess your carbon footprint with a calculator like the one the Global Footprint Network provides. You can also review Drawdown, which prioritizes options to reduce greenhouse gases at a global scale. Make the environmentally-friendly option the default, not the exception.
Be An Activist
Engage elected officials on the topic of food and climate change. Challenge policy-makers to support programs that help people who produce our food to stay in business as well as minimize their impacts. These programs should extend globally because food insecurity is likely to lead to increasing conflict and social unrest with worldwide implications. Ask elected officials to support the science that is needed now more than ever. And above all, be courageous.