Swapping out red meat & creamy pasta sauce

Well, I knew about the red meat. But creamy pasta sauce? 

From The Guardian

Simple grocery hacks – including swapping out red meat for chicken or plant-based alternatives, opting for dairy-free milk and yoghurt and choosing fruit toast instead of muffins – could substantially cut household greenhouse gas emissions, new research has found.

A report by the George Institute for Global Health found switches could reduce a household’s climate pollution by six tonnes a year [i.e., roughly 2.4 tonnes per capita in Australia, compared with total emissions of 15 tonnes per capita per year], which it said was roughly equivalent to the emissions from an average household’s grid-based electricity use.

Researchers estimated the emissions for more than 25,000 everyday grocery items available at supermarkets including Aldi, Coles, Woolworths, Harris Farm and IGA.

They found replacing 1kg of beef mince with chicken each week could cut more than two tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, while switching to a meat alternative would save 2.5 tonnes.

Switching one creamy pasta sauce to a tomato-based option each week could remove 270kg CO2 over a year.

Prof Simone Pettigrew, the George Institute’s head of health promotion and a professor at UNSW Sydney, said food was a necessity that contributed to about 30% of global emissions [but that includes land clearing to farm beef and mutton].

“Australians are deeply concerned about the climate, and many people want to do the right thing. But it’s hard to know which products are more sustainable when that information is not available on pack.”

While researchers had known for some time that meat was worse in terms of emissions, and that vegetables were better, Pettigrew said there was a “mountain of products that sit in the middle, and they tend to be the types of packaged foods that sit on our supermarket shelves”.

To make it easier for consumers, the institute has translated its findings into a “planetary health rating” ranging from 0 (worse for the planet) to 5 stars (better). Individual product ratings are available via a free ecoSwitch app, which also suggests alternatives with lower emissions.

If consumers found some swaps too challenging – such as cutting coffee or chocolate – there were plenty of options across other categories such as snack bars, pasta sauce or salad dressing, Pettigrew said.

“There are quite substantial amounts of difference that people can make through relatively minor switches as part of their grocery shopping.”

 

We are not helpless in our struggle to slash emissions.  Yes, much can only be done by governments and companies.  However, we can cut the emissions we are directly responsible for, by making the right choices.    Becoming vegetarian, having an electric car, getting solar panels if you can afford them, stopping flying, replacing your gas/oil heating with a heat pump--taking all these steps could cut the emissions you are directly responsible for by 50 to 80%.

Source: Our World in Data