Food
What we eat can have quite an impact on the environment.
Have you ever thought of where the food on your dinner plate comes from? ‘The supermarket’ is probably the first thing you think of!
Let’s have a look at a roast dinner in the middle of winter:
Roast leg of lamb served with new potatoes, roasted aubergines and a medley of steamed vegetables (courgette, asparagus, broccoli and cauliflower)
The lamb - this could be UK lamb, but often a lot of the lamb in supermarkets is from New Zealand – the other side of the world
Auberbine – not in season in the UK
Asparagus – this is only grown in the UK between April and June – so if you’re eating asparagus in December then it has been flown in from elsewhere in the world
Courgette – again, not grown in the UK in December…
Purple Sprouting Broccoli – Not in season!
Cauliflower – in season in the UK in December! Hooray!!
Think of all the food in that one meal that has had to come from somewhere other than the UK. Perhaps some of the vegetables have come over from Europe, but if they are not in season during that time, then most likely they are flown in from further away. If we refine our example to the lamb – if this is from New Zealand it has first flown half way around the world, then been transported from the airport via a depot to your local supermarket. Think about how it then gets from the supermarket to your plate? Perhaps your mum has driven a car to do the shopping.
All this transporting costs our planet. That is a huge amount of mileage for a plate of roast dinner!
So what can we do about it?
How about checking where the food you’re buying comes from?
Try to eat locally grown and in season produce.
And the best fun of all – if you have a bit of garden space, why not grow your own vegetables? If you have a bit more space, you could raise some chickens, and before you know it, you might just have your own little farm.
What we do on the boat, we can do at home!
For more information on sustainability, please visit the following site:
www.energysavingtrust.org
