Lesson 1: Chapter 2: The Environmental Impacts of Food
Growing, processing, and transporting food uses significant resources. It’s important to consider all that it takes to put food on the table. If food is wasted, these resources are wasted too.
Food is a powerful and insightful lens to view a wide range of phenomena. We are all part of the food system because all of us eat and food waste is a symptom of our broken food system. In order to understand food waste, it is important to consider the food system. Food, and the food system, is a significant part of both the national and global economy, so what happens internationally impacts us and the food we eat.
While recent (in a relative sense, fifty years) changes in agricultural production have provided unprecedented levels of production and cheap food. The flipside is that these modes of production have also created issues around pesticide residues, herbicides, threats to wildlife, rivers and lakes, antibiotic resistance, the rise of noncommunicable diseases and infectious diseases.
CLICK HERE to see examples of environmental challenges going on in our world.
Biodiversity loss
Water use, pollution and quality
Air Pollution
Deforestation
Pressures on Soil
Over consumption of resources
Population Increase
The Environmental Impact of Food
Land (soil, land use and landscapes)
Human activities such as agriculture, forestry and the built environment interact and shape our environment, landscape and biodiversity. Our soils are a living ecosystem and habitat for approximately one-quarter of all living species. Extractive processes that contribute to soil degradation include afforestation, overgrazing, burning, drainage and reclamation.
The diagram below provides information on how much land is used to produce different foodstuffs. Try to identify your favourite foods and their land use requirement.
Biodiversity Loss
A mass extinction starts: 68% of global wildlife populations have been wiped out in the last fifty years by humanity according to the World Wildlife Fund. A mass extinction is when species vanish much faster than they are replaced. The earth has gone through 5 since the beginning of its time and now it is going through its 6th.
Climate Impacts
Agriculture represents about 23% of total human-made greenhouse gas emissions (our climate change emissions) and, if all of the different parts of the food system are included (transport, storage, waste etc), this goes up to 37% (Arneth et al. 2019).
“We’re not just losing nice things to look at,
we are losing critical parts of the earth’s system.
And it’s threatening our food, our water, our climate.”
David Attenborough
Cebalos et al, 2017, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
This diagram shows the GHG emissions associated with the production of different foods. It clearly shows that the production of plant-based proteins produces far less greenhouse gases than animal proteins.
BBC Food carbon footprint calculator
Use this carbon footprint calculator to estimate the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your diet.
Water Quality
67% of total land use in Ireland is agricultural, of which 92% is grassland or rough grazing. Agriculture is present as a threat in 70% of Irish protected ecosystems of which in 35% it is classified as a high-pressure threat. At the same time, 53% of water pollution cases are identified as resulting from agricultural practices (EPA, 2016).
Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland’s Environment – An Assessment 2016.
Public health
Ammonia (NH3) emissions are associated with acid deposition leading to toxicity of soils and waters, and the formation of secondary particulate matter which impacts air quality and thus, human health. The agriculture sector accounts for virtually all (99 per cent) of ammonia emissions in Ireland (EPA, 2022).
Complete the reflection to continue...
As highlighted, the food system is complex and food production has various environmental impacts. Consider the following questions:
Were you aware of all of the environmental impacts of food? Were some new to you?
Having looked at the carbon footprint calculator, give an example of one food with a high carbon footprint and one food with a low carbon footprint.
Please write down your answers on a piece of paper. There’s no need to show this to anyone – it’s just for your own consideration.