Purpose
green-food.org.uk is a website that attempts to shed light on decision making around “green food”. Green food is food with a low environmental impact or a high level of sustainability, as of 2025 time has also been taken to describe the chemical quality of the food we are eating. i.e. how badly contaminated it is becoming. . . this later and quite worrying trend stems from the authors plastic pollution charity work, and witnessing and reading about the growing concentration of plastics and other contaminants in food.
Origins
green-food.org.uk was one of the first websites I made, back in about 2005. At the time I was studying environmental sciences and experimenting with getting content listed on Google. It has had various updates since its initial creating, and as of 2025 has had a significant reworking and re-write as the topics constantly need to be refreshed owing to advances in our understanding of the subject matter.
Making Good Choices
Food impact on the health of humans, and animals if well documented. We are told that low fat foods are good, and that processed foods should be avoided . . . . . that steamed fish is good, and fried fish is bad.
But what about the health of good old mother earth, do you every stop to wonder that the big chunk of cod you are eating, although good for you might have an adverse effect on the ocean where it was plucked from?
Choosing green food is not easy there are so many types of food, it comes from different countries, and is manufactured or processed in a mind boggling number of ways.
Example Meals
Ultimately one is more likely to have a lower environmental, ecological and ethical impact if you eat a vegetarian or vegan diet, but someone who eats meat very occasionally, and makes a lot of other good choices, could have a lower impact than an extravagant vegan. You see! It’s just not that simple.
Omnivore
As a Meat Eater you may enjoy a plate of steak and chips, lets think about the ingredients:
Steak could be:
- a – Locally sourced from a cow that lived within 20 miles of where you are eating it, the animal enjoyed good welfare, and may even have been organically reared, or
- b – Sourced from Brazil where rainforest has been cleared (75% due to cattle grazing) to provide grazing land, the animal has not enjoyed good welfare, and may have had antibiotics and or hormones to speed its growth.
Vegetarian / Vegan
Just because you are vegetarian doesn’t mean that your diet doesn’t have an impact on the environment being a vegan will mean that you food impact is almost certainly lower. But vegetarians tend to substitute meat for dairy products and eggs, dairy in particular can have a very high carbon footprint, and the dairy industry can often result in nutrient pollution.
Similarly vegans will generally have a lower impact, but vegetables such as asparagus and fresh haricot beans can often be air freighted when out of season locally. And so can have incredibly high carbon footprints.
So being vegetarian or an omnivore is not the only consideration.
Any Questions?
So the aim of this site is to make people think what they can do to lower the impact of the food they eat, even if you change just one thing it will help out. If you have a question (or a suggestion) then please pop them in comments section and we will do our best to answer.
Where can I buy green food?
Whether you are a busy commuter, or have a heap of time on your hands there are choices to be made. There are green choices to be made everywhere.
When you are grabbing a sandwich, maybe try and avoid tuna or salmon, go for eggs or cheese instead. This is not a vegetarianism issue, its a supply chain issue, when you have a cheese sandwich you can be fairly sure that no dolphins will have died making it, and that it will not further reduce tuna stocks in the oceans, there are some problems with the production of cheese, but if you weigh it up cheese is a better option.
So green food may not be completely green just greener than an alternative!
Why should I buy green food?
When you buy a product that is damaging to the environment, somebody somewhere makes some money, and that person will say. Oh that good I’ll keep selling this product because it is making me money. If you don’t buy it they won’t keep making it.
Example: A lot of people like Mc V’s digestive biscuits, now five years ago if you looked in the ingredients, you would have seen palm oil, but now you don’t. Mc V must have decided that they would start to see sale drop off unless they took palm oil out of the biscuits.
Is green food more expensive?
On average yes, green food is quite expensive. Organic or Sustainably sourced food generally costs more, but that is a reflection of the true cost of food. Maybe eat a bit less food, and save some money that way.
Buying local food can be cheaper, you often pay for “under one roof” convenience at the supermarket, why not do a google search for “veg boxes near me” in you area and compare prices, you might be surprised.
Environmental Consultants Bristol