• CO2 footprint
• How does our diet affect the environment?

Our ecological awareness is growing day by day. We pay attention to proper waste separation, we increasingly avoid plastic bags in favor of reusable ones, and we have a growing selection of natural and organic cosmetics in drugstores. We know that adverse climate change and environmental pollution caused by transportation and smoking factory chimneys are influenced. It's worth recognizing that we also have an influence on the extent of environmental pollution. Every person in the world leaves their own individual carbon footprint.

CO2 footprint

The carbon footprint is the sum of carbon dioxide emissions resulting from our activities, particularly our lifestyle, purchases, and services. Statistically, each pole produces about 8 tons of carbon dioxide per year. By comparison, residents of the USA or Canada, for example, produce much more pollutants, namely about 18 tons per person per year.

It turns out that the food industry and food production today have a huge impact on the environment and climate change. So, it's not just exhaust fumes that are responsible for the destruction of nature. What we eat every day also matters. Animal husbandry is significantly more harmful to the environment than crop production and requires more water and energy. It contributes to deforestation, air pollution, soil erosion, the extinction of animal species, and the destruction of their natural habitats. Therefore, more and more people, especially young people, are giving up meat consumption and switching to a vegetarian or vegan diet.

How does our diet affect the environment?

It turns out that producing just 1 kg of meat requires about 20,000 liters of water. Livestock accounts for more than 90% of mammalian biomass (humans and livestock account for 96% of biomass), while wild animals account for only 4%. Of the 28,000 threatened animal species, agriculture threatens up to 24,000. This breakdown of biomass affects:

• Water pollution (a significant portion of animal excrement from farms ends up in rivers and then in seas and oceans),
• Greenhouse gas emissions (these are influenced by electricity consumption on farms, the transport of meat to shops, warehouses and households, as well as the transport of animal feed and the machinery required to grow this feed, as well as the emission of methane during the production of feed fertilizer),
• Increase in waste (meat and dairy products are packaged in plastic trays, foils, cups),
• Changes in spatial development (forests are cleared to make room for livestock farming and fodder production).

By limiting meat consumption, we can therefore reduce the demand for meat and thus help reduce the demand for its production. How else can we contribute to reducing pollution and lowering our carbon footprint through our diets?

• Let us not pack fruit and vegetables in plastic bags and buy them in large quantities, let us not choose lettuce , peppers or tomatoes that are packed in plastic,
• Let us buy local and seasonal products at local markets - the import and transport of products from the other side of the world to the supermarkets causes an enormous amount of exhaust fumes and pollution,
• Let’s not waste or throw away food – it’s worth learning how to buy as much as you can actually eat,
• Let us buy more organic products from organic farming – organic farming is not only safer for the environment, but also for ourselves,
• If we cannot do without meat, we buy meat and sausage by weight, not packaged in plastic and foil trays – this way we avoid excessive amounts of plastic waste.