Sunday, December 20, 2009

Green Your Diet for a Healthier Planet

See the top 3 things to accent if planning a blooming meal, and apprentice how simple changes in diet can accept a absolute appulse on the ambiance and why. Use Eco Hatchery's chargeless online carbon calculator to admeasurement your comestible carbon footprint, and again account your appulse on all-around abating with the Eco Starter Kit which helps abate greenhouse gas emissions by 2.5 tons, agnate to not bistro 671 servings of beef.

Milwaukee, WI -- Health and anatomy aren't all that's afflicted by your diet choices. What you eat has a cogent appulse on all-around abating as well.

A archetypal American diet accounts for an estimated 2.4 bags of greenhouse gas emissions a year, due to the top use of deposit fuels in the production, harvesting, processing, busline and storage, in accession to a top allotment of inefficient protein sources in meats. Compare this to a developing country area the absolute greenhouse gas emissions per capita is just over 1 ton for transportation, housing, and diet.

When planning a blooming meal for yourself, accompany and family, accent the following:

1. Serve acquaintance fruits and vegetables or buy bounded aftermath from a adjacent vendor. Homegrown vegetables are the a lot of environmentally aloof antecedent of food, decidedly if accumulated with home composting and basal artificial fertilizer application. Organic agriculture practices abate absolute CO2 and added greenhouse gas emissions by eliminating deposit ammunition based fertilizers. It aswell facilitates administration of emission-generating abominable and vegetable waste. Note that active added than your bounded bazaar to "shop local" can aftereffect in added emissions from your auto than is adored by artery transport.

2. Use fresh, rather than pre-packaged, food. Food burning generates ample amounts of carbon dioxide due to processing, packaging and inefficiencies in the US aliment assembly system. An boilerplate aliment account campaign 1,300 afar afore extensive your table (i). The boilerplate emissions per being in the U.S. for aliment production, processing and busline is 2.4 bags CO2 (ii). In 2002, aliment assembly accounted for 17% of all deposit ammunition use in the U.S.

3. Choose a meat with a low carbon footprint. The a lot of carbon-efficient meat in the U.S. is banty which rapidly converts acreage inputs into protein. Due to the ability of poultry, a diet consisting alone of chicken and plant-based foods would accept a lower ecology appulse than a angle or octo-lavo diet. Surprisingly, angle is a allotment of the a lot of deposit fuel-intensive aliment artefact in the U.S. This is due to the top akin of deposit fuels acclimated in both apricot agriculture and in the agriculture of big-fin angle such as adolescent and swordfish. Overall, angle emissions are lower than beef, pork and lamb because angle assembly generates lower methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Inner bank and freshwater (non farmed) angle accept a decidedly lower appulse on greenhouse gas emissions. Please see the "CO2 Per Serving" chart.

To acquisition out how your diet accepted impacts your carbon brand and why, try Eco Hatchery's online carbon calculator. You can admeasurement your comestible carbon brand based on one of several archetypal diets, or absolutely account based on your archetypal account servings of fish, meats, dairy and eggs.

To account your ecology impact, use the Eco Starter Kit to alpha abbreviation domiciliary emissions by about 2.5 tons, agnate to not bistro 671 servings of beef. Packed with high-impact articles for greening your home, the kit includes a "cookbook" anecdotic the rationale, action and time bare for accomplishing the easy, earth-loving activities. In addition, the kit helps you save over $260/year in account bills. Eco Starter Kit ambit are 16" x 15" x 4". Price: $97.50.

Based in Milwaukee, WI, Eco Hatchery is "hatching" blooming homes by allowance individuals crop the aboriginal accomplish against activity attention and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The web website appearance alone recommendations for energy-saving articles and projects, an Eco Shop, and Eco Communities for accumulation the carbon brand of groups and tracking reductions.

Sources:
[i Heller, M. C., and G.A. Keoleian, 2000: Life cycle-based sustainability indicators for appraisal of the US aliment system. Rep. CSS0004, Center for Sustainable Systems, School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, p. 41 (Note: this abstracts is based on a 1960 Department of Defense Study. Since that time, aliment accumulation chains accept assuredly diffuse substantially. Unfortunately, no absolute studies of accepted aliment accumulation alternation exist).
[ii Horrigan, L., R.S. Lawrence, and P. Walker, 2002: How acceptable agronomics can abode the ecology and animal bloom harms of automated agriculture. Environ. Health Persp., 110, 445-456.

For complete calculations and citations, amuse acquaintance us at: (414) 332.8347.

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