What Is Your "Food Print"?

Following on the heels of a new study by Cornell University researchers, a new buzz word has emerged in the English language ... "food print."

A "food print" is measured by calculating the amount of land that it takes to produce the food that you eat.

In the Cornell study, researchers discovered that a low-fat vegetarian diet needed the least amount of land. This diet only used 0.5 acres per person whereas a diet high in meats and fats used over two acres per person. Yet, these same researchers argued that the most "efficient" diet was one that incorporated small amounts of meat and dairy as these diets used low quality pasture lands more productively. A diet with a little meat and dairy, approximately 63 grams per day, would only require 0.6 acres of land per person.

Now, perhaps that doesn't seem like a big difference to you, but, taking the state of New York as an example, the switch to a low-fat vegetarian diet by all New Yorkers would allow the state's agriculture to support 50% more of the population. Additionally, this would mean that 32% of New York's food needs could be met with harvests produced within the state, as opposed to the current amount of 22%.

Jennifer Wilkins, one of the co-authors of the Cornell study, stated their conclusion quite succinctly, "The key to conserving land and other resources with our diets is to limit the amount of meat we eat and for farmers to rely more on grazing and forages to feed their livestock."

Yet, a true conservation ethic includes more than just tabulating how much land is needed to produce your food. It is also crucial to understand how your food was grown, where it was grown, and how it was processed, packaged and transported. Wilkins emphasized this point, "Consumers need to be aware that foods differ not only in their nutrient content but in the amount of resources required to produce, process, package and transport them."

So, a true "food print" should consider the total impact that your diet has on the environment. This total impact would not only include how much land is required to the produce the food, but also how many petrochemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides may have been applied, how much energy was required to raise those crops and create those chemicals, and how much energy was expended in processing, packaging, and transporting the food.

These are only a few of the factors that must be considered in calculating your "food print."

I know that this seems quite overwhelming. In the United States, the majority of our food supply is dependent on industrial agriculture, which creates a tremendously negative impact on the environment and is extremely inefficient in its production. It is difficult to opt out of this system that has taken over our country's food supply thanks to corporate lobbyists and years of misguided agricultural policy.

Yet, I hope that this discussion gets you thinking when you next visit your grocery store or farmer's market. Do not turn off your brain and follow that shopping list blindly. Begin to question your food. Sure, you might get some strange look from folks as you interrogate that apple, "Where did you come from? Chile?," but isn't it important to know more about the items that you are putting into your body? It is your body and it is your right to know.

You can make a great difference not only to your health, but also the health of the planet, if you educate yourself about the food chain, buy local products whenever possible, and really think about what you eat.

The fate of the planet is on your fork!

(Cross-posted at Life has taught us ...)

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