Can We Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Our Own Home? Focus on Food

Photo Courtesy of Faith Model

Stephanie Miller on her book Zero Waste Living the 80/20 Way: The Busy Person’s Guide to a Lighter Footprint.

Interview by Faith Model

Part II: Focus on Food

FM: You stated that the single most influential thing we can do to reduce our carbon footprint is to adopt a plant-based diet. But for some people, that’s a tall order. If they don’t want to completely give up meat, are there other action steps they can take?

SM: Yes and there are two action steps I recommend. First: Adopt a more plant-based diet. This does not necessarily mean becoming a vegetarian, it simply means putting more emphasis on plant-based meals.

My goal for our household is to try to eat three to four vegetarian dinners every week. My breakfasts are already plant-based, as are most of my lunches. But dinner has been a tougher nut to crack. I’ve found some great vegetarian meals that are winners in our household and easy to prepare. I’m just now trying recipes from the cookbook, The Zero Waste Chef. I am really enjoying the dishes and the philosophy behind them.

The second thing I recommend is to consider the carbon intensity of food.  Not all animal protein is equal. For example, a kilogram of beef is responsible for 60 kilograms of carbon emissions. But a kilogram of chicken is responsible for six kilograms—or ten times less than beef. And a kilogram of wild-caught fish is responsible for half as much as chicken: Three kilograms of carbon emissions.  Every meal is a choice. The more often we choose the less carbon intensive meal, the better.

FM: What I learned about food waste shocked me. For one thing, I didn’t realize food waste was such an enormous contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (8% of global emissions). What exactly is food waste and how much of the responsibility belongs to the individual households?

SM: This was a shocker for me as well. Food waste occurs along the entire supply chain: At the farm level, in grocery stores, hotels, restaurants and in households. What was so surprising to me is that in the U.S., the largest source of food waste occurs in households. According to a 2019 study by the U.S. non-profit, ReFED, consumers account for nearly 40 percent of food waste (compared to the food service sector, which accounts for less than 16 percent).

What’s empowering about this is that households can do something about the problem. Some food waste is unavoidable: Things like banana peels and chicken bones. But most food waste is the result of bringing more food into our homes than we can consume.  The obvious way to solve the problem is to do meal planning and always grocery shop with a list. But once the food is in your home, you need a strategy. There are a few things that have worked well for us in drastically reducing our food waste:

• We do a daily fridge review. It takes two minutes and really makes a difference. Move forward any food that will go bad in the next day or two. We place these items on a shelf labelled, “Eat Me First.” And we store most food in clear Pyrex containers or glass jars, so everything is visible.

• We use our freezer liberally. I am amazed at how many foods I can successfully freeze: All kinds of dairy, soup stock, fresh herbs, tomato paste, and leftover lemon juice. This is a game changer in reducing food waste and saving trips to the grocery store.

• We have instituted a weekly leftovers night, which ensures we eat the things we have good intentions to finish.

Photo Courtesy of Stephanie Miller

FM: I’ve always considered carbon dioxide to be the bad boy of greenhouse gas emissions. But it sounds like methane deserves that title far more than Co2. Why is this so important to understand?

SM: Yes, methane is one of the bad boys known as “super climate pollutants” or “short-lived climate pollutants.” These do not stay in the atmosphere for long but they are much more damaging in the short term than CO2. 

For more about these pollutants, there’s a great new book out on the subject which lays out the problem but also explains why there’s hope if we stop emitting these super pollutants quickly. The book is called Cut Super Climate Pollutants Now! and I highly recommend it. It’s a short but compelling read. 

FM:  Why is composting so important? 

SM: Aside from ensuring we eat what we buy, composting is one of the best ways to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste. One of the reasons food waste is a climate change problem is that it produces methane when the food decomposes without oxygen in landfills.  Methane is a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. When we compost food waste, oxygen is introduced into the decomposition process so methane emissions are avoided.

While it’s best, of course, to reduce food waste as much as possible, the unavoidable food waste we produce (like egg shells, vegetable peels and even coffee grounds) can be easily combined with leaves and other “browns” to decompose with the help of oxygen, heat and moisture. In time, the result is a wonderful organic soil rich in nutrients and a gardener’s delight.

Photo: Matt Harrington

FM:  The impact of the beef industry on climate change is astonishing—14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. But are all cattle operations created equal? I wonder about buying local grass-finished beef. Is that just as bad as your average feedlot cow?

SM: You’re absolutely right…the greenhouse gas emissions from the beef industry depend a lot on the type of cattle operation. But what I’ve come to understand is that it’s not as straightforward as we might think.

The greenhouse gas emissions from the beef industry depend on several factors, not just whether the cows eat grass versus grain. We associate cows with methane production due to their digestive process, but methane and nitrous oxide—both very potent greenhouse gases—are also produced when the soil is damaged from overgrazing. There’s a movement known as regenerative agriculture that tries to address this by ensuring careful management of livestock grazing, including reduction in pesticides and fertilizers, carbon sequestration, and topsoil restoration.

From a health perspective, grass-fed beef is certainly a healthier option. My own doctor has recommended I choose this option when eating beef. My personal bottom line on this subject: I limit myself to one beef-based meal per month and I choose grass-fed beef for that meal.

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