Sustainability myth buster: Food miles, meat and plastic packaging
Making changes to eat and live more sustainably can feel like a minefield, so we’re highlighting common misconceptions to guide you through
Making changes to eat and live more sustainably can feel like a minefield, so we’re highlighting common misconceptions to guide you through.
While there are other ways of looking at how our choices affect the planet, we’re talking about carbon emissions here and we acknowledge that this is a complex and nuanced subject. We always consult experts on sustainability and used the Reewild app for this feature to measure how much CO2 certain recipes produce. Our guide to food carbon footprints and what a carbon calorie is, can be found here.
Myth
Food miles are the most important thing to consider
Reality
Most food carbon emissions come from the farm stage (fuels, fertilisers, feed, seasonality), with transport only making up a small percentage of the overall footprint – an average of five per cent. Some modes of transport do affect a product’s footprint more (air-freighted food produces the highest emissions) and shipping, while the most common mode, produces the least. Eating local and seasonal food has many benefits, including supporting local farmers and better agricultural practices, and it's seasonality that has a more substantial influence on an item’s carbon footprint than transport itself. Food grown out of season usually requires more energy to produce, such as tomatoes.
Seasonal eating beats locality
A tomato grown in season in an open field in Spain has a lower carbon footprint than a tomato grown out of season in an industrial greenhouse in Britain, despite the added transport from Spain. In short, what you eat, and when you eat it, is generally more significant than where it was grown, provided it wasn’t transported by air.
Myth
Sustainable diets are more expensive
Reality
Eating more sustainably can simply mean fewer animal-based ingredients and more plants, which are cheaper and healthier (eating 30 different types of plants a week is also recommended for gut health). Legumes, beans, potatoes, vegetables and fruits are low-impact and generally more affordable. In fact, a recent study found that plant-based diets actually reduce food costs by up to one third. We have hundreds of plant-based recipes on our website, goodfood.com. Stick to what’s seasonally available and they’ll be even better value.
What counts as a plant
Fruit and vegetables (even potatoes – particularly if you eat the skin), wholegrains, pulses, seeds, nuts, mushrooms, beans, herbs and spices. (If you’re trying to eat 30 plants a week, then juice and oils don’t count as they don’t contain plant fibre.)
Myth
Plastic packaging should always be avoided
Reality
Plastic significantly increases the shelf life of food and can help to reduce food waste. For example, the packaging of a plastic-wrapped cucumber is only one per cent of its total footprint, but can prolong its shelf life from a few days by up to two weeks, thereby potentially halving wastage. Nevertheless, despite the storage benefits, plastic pollution and improper recycling do have significant ecological impacts so, given the choice, opt for loose, plastic-free produce, if you can.
Myth
Everyone should go meat and dairy-free immediately
Reality
It is widely agreed that avoiding meat and dairy is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet. Researchers from Oxford University say if everyone swapped just one red meat meal for a plant-based dinner each week, this could cut the UK’s carbon footprint by 50 million tonnes. If everyone occasionally shifted to lower-impact food, the broader impact would be more significant than a few people managing a complete shift.
Myth
UK supermarkets produce a lot of waste and throw away wonky fruit and vegetables
Reality
Food waste makes up 10 per cent of food emissions globally, but 70 per cent of UK food waste comes from households, compared to only two per cent from the retail sector. Most fruits and vegetables have a use by the food processing industry to make soups, stews, pies, juices, etc. Up to 20 million slices of bread are discarded daily by UK households. To help reduce food waste and minimise global emissions, plan your meals, buy only what you need, store items correctly, and take advantage of your freezer.
To discover the carbon footprint of thousands of products and ingredients download the free Reewild app.
Disclaimer: The carbon footprint scores provided for recipes use open-source data from Agribalyse and Poore and Nemecek (2018), the latter being the largest meta-analysis of food systems to date. These scores are for information purposes only. Readers should be aware of potential inaccuracies due to data limitations and variations in food systems. These carbon scores should be used cautiously, as individual factors may not be fully accounted for, and different branded products may produce differing emissions.
Read more of our sustainability-focused content
8 ways to be a better recycler
A guide to green and ethical labels
How to reduce food packaging waste
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