Simple but not easy

How do you fight climate change? Simple. By reducing your carbon footprint. We all know that by now, right?

But how do you lower our carbon footprint? Again, simple. You look at the things you buy that are responsible for a big part of your footprint and try to buy different things, with a lower footprint.

Which things are we talking about? Again, simple. A large part of our carbon footprint comes from our food. One-quarter to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from our food systems. Emissions from food alone could use up all of our ‘carbon budget’ for 1.5°C or 2°C!

So the food we buy has a major impact on climate change. How to change our food buying behavior? Once again, it’s quite simple. According to Our World In Data, as consumers we can do three things (in order of impact):

• Buy less meat and dairy (especially beef and lamb) and buy more plants
• Don’t buy what your body doesn’t need (calories you don’t consume don’t have to be produced)
• And what you do buy: actually eat it, don’t throw it away (food waste is responsible for 6% of global greenhouse gases)

Pretty simple, right? Except that do actually do these things, is of course incredibly hard. Because it means:

• Less steaks and burgers, more cauliflower and veggie burgers
• Less chips and coke, more nuts and water
• Less stuffing the fridge and pantry, more calculated grocery shopping

Doesn’t sound like fun, does it? But then again, neither do droughts and floods. So as consumers we have a responsibility to our future generations to try and change our buying behavior. It’s not easy, but often the hardest things in life are the most meaningful.