Step 3: Sustainable Food
Sustainable labels such as Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, and MSC (Marine Stewardship Council) provide consumers with reassurances that their food is produced in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. These certifications follow strict standards that ensure sustainable practices are implemented throughout the supply chain. Fairtrade promotes fair wages and ethical working conditions for farmers and workers, and the Rainforest Alliance focuses on conserving biodiversity and promoting sustainable land use. These labels help consumers make informed choices that support sustainability and protect ecosystems.
There are also projects such as the UN’s flagship restoration projects which helps small farmers improve the environment and their incomes. One example is Thanh’s tea farm which had been growing tea for more than 25 years, but decades of poor soil management had caused her tea bushes to turn into ragged stumps with thin, red leaves that failed international trading standards. It’s a pattern seen throughout the tea-growing highlands of Vietnam, a nation where more than 30% of all land is either already degraded or at risk of degradation – much of it due to unsustainable farming practices like the overuse of chemical fertilisers, exacerbated by more extreme weather. Thanh’s farm now produces thick, green leaves across her two-hectare plantation, demonstrating that sustainable agriculture can be a win for farmers and a win for the environment.
Here are 3 steps you can take as an individual:
- Cut back on food waste. Food waste has a double impact on carbon emissions. Not only is all the carbon from making the food and getting it to the shops wasted but food in landfill also releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
- Eat the seasons. In season produce allows nature to do most of the hard work heating and watering the food you eat. Seasonal produce is often grown closer to where it’s eaten meaning less carbon emissions from transport.
- More plants. Switching to a more plant-based diet saves on the amount of land needed for your food and can reduce demand for some of the high-risk ingredients, like soya for animal feed, that lead to deforestation.