Eating more sustainably without driving you crazy

taketonews

Is it better for the planet to eat organic or not? Peanut butter with or without palm oil? In recent years, consumers have given spending more and more money on sustainable food, the Wageningen University calculated. But it is not so easy to say exactly what the term ‘sustainable’ entails.

The definition of the Dutch government sounds simple: food that is produced and consumed with respect for people, animals and the environment. But that can be about anything: animal welfare, nature, biodiversity, climate, fair trade, even health.

And you’re not there yet. Because what exactly do you pay attention to? CO2emissions are important when you look at climate change. But water scarcity or land use are a bigger problem for some products. And what do you weigh more heavily if there are opposing interests: preserving biodiversity or a good income for farmers? Nature or animal welfare? And do you look at the footprint per product or per hectare? How do you find all that information at all if producers are not transparent about it? All this can lead to the paralyzed feeling that it all makes no sense.

But it does make sense, says Corné van Dooren, sustainability expert at the World Wildlife Fund and previously at the Nutrition Center.

Van Dooren has reached the point where he is trying to drink less coffee, and he is looking for the Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance quality mark. Because coffee cultivation is associated with deforestation, loss of biodiversity and poverty among farmers. But he knows that not everyone makes the same choices. And he doesn’t think everyone should stop drinking coffee either.

If he still has to give advice: “Start eating less meat for a day. Once you get used to that, take a look at your groceries and see if you can waste less. If you succeed, you will drink a little less coffee.” Or you buy Dutch apples instead of mandarins. Or less dairy. Preferably locally produced and not overly processed food. “Every step is good.”

When 5 percent of people do something, companies get moving

The strategy of small steps helps against the feeling that you never do enough or keep making the wrong choices.

But the simplest way to eat more sustainably without going crazy consists of three basic rules: “Eat less meat, don’t eat too much of it and waste less.” Rule one is the biggest hit: in the Dutch diet, meat causes more than a third of greenhouse gas emissions. Without waste, the environmental impact of Dutch food consumption would 14 percent lower to be.

With those three rules, says Van Dooren, you’ve got the low-hanging fruit. Then you don’t have to know that it is better to eat European walnuts than California almonds or that aged cheese has more emissions than mozzarella. “If you follow the basic rules, you can often halve your footprint.”

Less meat, not too much of anything and less waste. If you keep that in mind, you don’t have to worry so much about constantly new insights. “We don’t know the impact of many products yet, and what we do know today may be different tomorrow. But there has long been a worldwide consensus on the basics.” The general rules do not change if one type of cheese appears to have slightly more impact than the other.

As a consumer you will inevitably run into dilemmas. For example, floppy chicken has a smaller footprint than Beter Leven chicken, but the chicken is worse off. “Then you will have to make a trade-off between animal welfare and climate.” But, says Van Dooren, you don’t have to feel guilty as a consumer about choices that have to be made by the government or the supermarkets. “Cage eggs are no longer for sale. Then you as a consumer are no longer faced with that dilemma.”

The behavior of one consumer seems like a drop in the ocean, but Van Dooren disputes that. “You vote with your fork. It doesn’t seem to matter much, but if 5 percent of consumers do something, supermarkets, suppliers and caterers start moving. And one day all restaurants will offer fair trade coffee and plant-based dishes will be on the menu everywhere. That’s called transition.”

Dutch steak or chicken from Poland

Transport makes a relatively small contribution to the food footprint. Most greenhouse gas emissions come from land use and what happens on the farm. Beef has by far the largest footprint of all food and drink, although Dutch meat from milked cows has a much smaller impact than South American beef.

Dutch meat burger or veggie burgers from imported soy

We consume most of the soy in our diet without realizing it. 94 percent we eat indirectly through meat, dairy and eggs: it was feed for cows, pigs and chickens. The soy in soy burgers and soy milk usually comes from Canada and Europe and no forest is cut for it. On the list of raw materials imported by the EU that cause the most deforestation, soy is number 1: this is mainly due to animal feed from South America.

Free range or free-range egg

For animal welfare: free range. For the environment: free-range. Harmful substances can be captured from free-range chickens that are kept indoors. And a large part of the environmental impact of chickens comes from feed – the less space, the less feed they need. Incidentally, free-range chickens become free-range chickens during a coop obligation.

Palm oil or rapeseed oil

You can look at vegetable oil in many ways: deforestation, biodiversity loss, CO2emissions, land use, living conditions of farmers, etc. This makes it impossible to identify the best oil type. Less land is needed for a liter of palm oil than for all other types of oil. But because so much is produced, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia, palm oil is responsible for more deforestation than, for example, rapeseed.

vegetable garden lettuce or supermarket lettuce

Growing your own food is great, but not necessarily more sustainable than supermarket lettuce. Large growers work more efficiently than the vegetable gardener who has to buy seeds and garden tools, has a lower yield, sees part of the harvest fail and perhaps also drives to the vegetable garden by car.

Fresh spinach or from the freezer

If the spinach in the Netherlands comes from the open ground and you eat everything, nothing beats fresh. Being out of season pot and frozen vegetables a good alternative. Prepared food from the freezer also prevents waste. Nutritionally, it doesn’t matter. Freezer spinach can also be seen as local and out of season.

soy milk or oat milk

There are studies that prove that oat milk has slightly less CO2emissions, but ultimately the environmental impact depends on where and how it is grown. That varies by brand. But whichever vegetable ‘drink’ you choose, the footprint of cow’s milk is always many times larger.

Organic or common tomato

In a general sense it is impossible to say whether organic is more sustainable than usual. Organic farmers do not use fertilizers and chemical pesticides. Organic is better for the soil, but on average more land is needed for a kilo of food. Whether organic is better than conventional depends, among other things, on the farmer, the location and the product. In terms of health, organic food does not contain chemical pesticides while it contains more antioxidants – to name two benefits – but there is too little research done to conclude that organic food is healthier.

meadow milk or Better Life milk

Meadow milk promises that cows graze outside for at least 120 days a year; that’s less than the 180 days of three-star Beter Leven milk. Meadow milk does not set any environmental requirements. The Beter Leven quality mark does. Better Life three stars also makes higher demands than Albert Heijn’s ‘Better for Cow, Nature and Farmer’. The latter is a company logo, no quality mark. Milieu Centraal lists six top quality labels for dairy; Meadow Milk and Better for Cows, Nature and Farmers are not among them.

Fresh orange juice or coke

Coke has a lower CO2-emissions than fresh juice from oranges. It also requires less water and land. Orange juice contains about as much sugar as cola. Fruit juice is therefore no longer in the Wheel of Five. It contains only water, coffee and tea.

Fairtrade coffee or coffee without quality mark

Fairtrade was founded to offer farmers a better life. The environment does not come first. There are also coffee brands without a quality mark that still offer farmers a better income or focus on less CO2emissions. This is often more expensive single origin coffee: coffee from one area whose origin is known. More expensive coffee without a quality mark can therefore be at least as good for farmers as Fairtrade, but in the supermarket a quality label is the best guarantee.

Eggplant with or without plastic

Packaging is a relatively small part of the environmental impact of food. Waste is a bigger problem. Plastic extends the shelf life of many fruits and vegetables. It seems crooked that the organic eggplant is in plastic, but you have to be able to tell them apart. And if the usual aubergines are in plastic, much more packaging is needed because more of these aubergines are sold.

Avocado or chicken fillet as a spread

Water consumption differs considerably per country, yet on average less water is needed for a kilo of avocado than for a kilo of chicken fillet. But in view of water scarcity in the areas where they come from, avocado usually scores worse. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions and land use, avocado is significantly better than chicken. From a climate change point of view (CO2emissions), all animal products are worse than avocado.

Green beans from Spain or from Kenya

The question is what is important to you. The United Nations’ sustainability goals also include health goals and fair work. So what do you do as pickers of beans from Kenya have a better life than the one in Spain? Sustainability is more than CO2emissions.

Strawberries from the Netherlands or pineapple from South America

Strawberries have on average a higher CO2emissions than pineapple. A relatively large amount of pineapple is thrown away. Bananas do it in terms of CO2emissions better than is often thought. Banana also scores better than kiwi, mandarin and orange. But the Dutch apple has the smallest footprint of all fruit.

farmed salmon or wild salmon

Wild catches are associated with overfishing and unwanted bycatch. With farmed salmon, water pollution, spread of diseases and parasites and crosses between wild and escaped farmed salmon are some of the problems. It’s comparing apples to oranges anyway, but the fish guidea website that assesses fish for sustainability, can help you choose.

walnuts or banana

Per kilo banana scores much better on greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use. But converted to calories bananas produce more than twice as many emissions as walnuts. A small banana (100 grams) provides 92 kcal, a handful of nuts (25 grams) is good for 177 kcal. What this example says: how much of something you eat also counts.

microwave meal or Cook yourself

The general advice is: eat as little processed food as possible. But a ready meal can also consist of barely processed healthy ingredients. You may be wasting less food because you buy a measured portion and the microwave uses less energy than gas stove or oven.

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