“Going Green” or “Living Sustainably” involves changing a large aspect of one’s life to a more environmentally-friendly alternative. There are many aspects that can be changed, but what could be as life-impacting as the food you eat?
When it comes to sustainable living in the way of food, there are so many options: buying organic produce, free-range meat, locally grown crops, milk from cows not treated with rBST or other growth hormones, eating food that is only in season or even growing it on your own! There are so many options, that it can be easy to become overwhelmed and give up, or even just to forget about the options entirely. For this reason, I will dedicate this Civic Issues blog post to two pretty different ways to eat sustainably. First, eating locally-grown crops has a wide-range of benefits for you and the environment. Second, making an effort to consume meat or animal by-products that are derived from animals not treated with hormones is good for both you and the animal. The general theme? Going green is good for everyone! (Except maybe profit-driven, money-hungry big business producers).
First and foremost, buying local produce can lead to a healthier lifestyle for both you and the earth! On average, fresh food items travel about 1,500 miles to get to our local supermarkets. This makes sense – think of how many banana trees or broccoli plants you see in State College. This transport distance is a big deal for two reasons: it causes a huge amount of fossil fuel usage and it requires foods be picked before their prime. A Rutgers University study estimated that bringing in enough out-of-state tomatoes for one year in the state of New Jersey used enough fossil fuel to drive an 18-wheeler 249 times around the earth. That’s just one crop, in one state, in one country of the world. Furthermore, these driving times require produce be picked before it is ready. The produce inevitably “ripens” on its way to your grocery store, but it doesn’t get any more nutritious. A plant gets it nutrients from its stem, and once picked, the fruit is as nutritious as its ever going to get. Sometimes, fruits are picked way too soon, and they don’t even ripen on their own. In this case, they are sprayed with with ethylene or acetylene gas or calcium carbide, which reacts with moisture to form acetylene, which is similar to a fruit’s natural ethylene emitted for ripening. All in all, it’s just more natural to buy locally, where farmers don’t have to pick food before it’s ripe or ship long distances. Plus, the reduced transport cost means local farmers get to keep a larger percentage of their total sales, and more money is funneled into your local economy!
Another practice that currently occurs in our food production system is the utilization of growth hormones, specifically in dairy cows. A growth hormone similar to those naturally occurring in dairy cows, called rBST, is used in dairy cows as a means of increasing milk production. However, rBST usage has been linked to cow lameness and mastitis, a painful disease that involves swollen udders. The increased disease leads to increased antibiotic use in cows, and these antibiotics can ultimately be secreted into the milk that we drink, causing antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria in our bodies. Additionally, there have been studies that link rBST usage in dairy cows to breast cancer in humans, mainly because of the increased levels of IGF-1, which are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, that accompany rBST usage.
I think these are just two examples where going natural is just better. It’s better the environment, its better for the animals, and its better for you! Proponents of both transporting food and utilizing growth hormones often cite the world’s dramatic need for food, but what do you think? Is it worth it?