Eat Less Processed Food

The more "processed" a food is the more energy has gone in to producing it.

For example when browsing the supermarket shelves a ready made salads  will have a higher energy footprint than a salad that you make yourself. Some reasons may include:

1 - More Packaging

2 - Refrigerated Storage

3 - Shorter Shelf Life (More Waste)

Most energy is created via the burning of fossil fuels, and so we get a negative environmental impact. One method to make food greener is to lower its carbon footprint.

Consumer are they key here. . that's you!

A report by Science Daily States that:

"changes to methods of food processing, packaging and distribution could also help to reduce fuel consumption"

and that

"the consumer is in the strongest position to contribute to a reduction in energy use"

Examples

The Good

Un processed pork belly, a cut of meat that is underused in the UK. Most consumers plump for roasting joints and chops, and demand for belly meat is low. Buy pork belly to support farmers, and prevent waste. Avoid packaging if possible, buy from a butchers, buy locally sourced produce. Buy British (Higher Welfare), Buy Organic (Lower Impact)

The Bad

Middle Ground, ok so it still looks like meat but look at all of that packaging. Probably sourced from out side the UK, where welfare standards are low. Likely to farmed intensely, resulting in point source emissions in to the environment.

The Ugly

Highly processed, lots of packaging. Not only is this type of food bad for the planet, it is bad for you too. A real mystery why these still exist. Meat probably sourced from outside the EU, chock full of preservatives. One plus point is that food like this uses up all teh last bits of the pig, ears, snout, tails etc. So very efficient I guess.

Ways to Eat Less Processed Food

Make you own Apple Juice: This is a good article from George Monbiot's blog, and explains how make you own apple juice.