Food and sustainability

Sustainable food choices can make a big difference to our local and global environment.

In this article you can learn about:

• What food miles are
• What seasonal eating means
• Why food waste is such a problem and how we can reduce it
• The benefits and challenges of making sustainable food choices

This resource is suitable for sustainability topics for primary school learners.

In this video, learn about making sustainable food choices and how we can reduce food waste.

Did you know that we make a positive impact on the environment through our food choices?

Here are some things we can do:

Food miles describe how far food has travelled to get to you.

The further a piece of food has to travel to be eaten, the worse it is for the environment. This is because it will have to be transported by lorry, boat and/or plane, using fuels that harm the environment.

If we eat food that has been grown locally, it won't have travelled as far to get to us. This means it will have less of an impact on the environment.

Seasonal foods are fruit and vegetables that are ripe and ready in a particular season.

For example, in Scotland we harvest strawberries in summer. If we want to eat fresh strawberries during winter time we need to import them from other countries or grow them in greenhouses that use heating and lighting powered by electricity.

Knowing when food is being grown locally can help us to eat a sustainable, local diet, reducing food miles and helping the environment.

Plant-based foods are fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, grains, seeds and even seaweed!

Growing plants for food needs land and energy but the plants get most of that energy from the sun.

Keeping animals for meat, eggs or dairy needs more energy. The animals get energy from food but just like us, a lot of that energy is used for movement and bodily functions. Much less of the energy goes towards food for people.

Another problem is that cows produce a lot of methane. This is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

Eating more plant-based foods can make our diet more sustainable.

Here are some things you can do:

Around 4.5 million tonnes of food are wasted in the UK each year. That’s like 4.5 million cars in weight! Some of the waste is out of date food from shops and supermarkets, or leftover food from restaurants. We waste lots of food at home too.

This is a big problem for the human race because:

• the more food we waste unnecessarily, the more fish, meat and plants we have taken out of their habitat for no reason.

• we end up with fewer fish in the ocean, more chemical fertilisers in the ground and more land and forests cleared to raise animals, all of which damages local wildlife and ecosystems.

There is an ethical side to food waste as well.

We live in a country where most of us are lucky enough to have as much food as we like. Not everyone in the world is fortunate enough to have so much food available to them.

As a human race, we should be thinking more about how we can reduce our unnecessary food waste and distribute food more evenly around the world (and throughout our own country) so nobody is hungry.

Here are some things you can do to reduce food waste:

Remember!

Although we can compost food in food waste bins, it has still been produced, so has already impacted on the environment.

The best thing we can do is reduce the amount of food we waste.

Benefits of reducing food waste

• By using sustainable food practices like reducing the amount of food we waste and making good decisions about the food we eat, we can preserve the world's food supplies and lessen our impact on the environment.

• By reducing food waste and planning your shopping, you can save money. The less food you buy and waste, the less money you spend.

• Composted food can be used to grow more food, or even generate electricity. Learn more about using food waste to make fuel or generate electricity here: Biomass energy

Challenges of reducing food waste

• People might not know how to plan meals for a shopping list.

• People might be too busy to think about and plan the food they buy. Sometimes this can lead to buying too much and the food then goes to waste because it is past its sell by date.

• Composting and a lot of other recycling methods take time and space, which some people don't have. Others might not know how to get started.

Sustainable – Doing something that will cause little or no damage to the environment and will be able to continue for a long period of time.

Food miles - The distance food travels from the country in which it is grown to where it is bought or eaten by the customer. The more food miles that food requires, the less sustainable and the less environmentally friendly it is.

Eat seasonally – To eat foods that are grown locally and harvested during the current season. For example, eating Scottish strawberries in the summer and not at any other time.

Chemical fertilisers – Substances that are sprayed on crops or put in the soil to help them and other food sources grow. Chemical fertilisers can be bad for the environment and our health, which is why some people choose to eat organic food (food that is grown without the use of chemical fertilisers).

Identify the main source of your food waste.

Is it uneaten food on your plate or food beyond its sell by date?

• Weigh how much food waste your household produces throughout a week.

• Ask if you can help with the food shopping the following week to help reduce the amount of food your household is wasting.

• Weigh the food waste at the end of the second week to see if you were able to reduce the amount of food wasted.

(Remember to compost food waste if you can!)

(As an extra challenge, look at the packaging of the food your household buys. Make a note of where the food is grown and packaged. Can you find something grown locally and in season and something that has been imported? See if you can find the locations and countries on a map.)