Like many of us, I expect, I’m trying to be a ‘good consumer’, if indeed that’s possible. As you will see from this post (and others), I’m not sure how feasible that is.
Now, I don’t put that much effort into it but stick to the obvious things ‘you’re supposed to do’. For instance, I’ve transferred my pension into the ethical fund option. This is actually the one action I would shout out on the roof tops as something that everyone should do). I try to cycle or walk instead of drive, keep the heating off or turned low, buy second hand or borrow (I was SO happy when libraries opened again) etc.
But the one area I’m struggling to get to the clear simple rule is in food. The only one I’ve got is not to not waste food, which I’m ok at. But after that, it all gets really complicated….
We’re told to eat less red meat, fine, so we barely ever eat beef. However, when it comes to lamb, the evidence seems to be contradictory from the perspective of a non-expert like me. This graphic suggest that ‘lamb/mutton’ is better than chicken in terms of associated GHG emissions, whereas this one (for ‘lamb’) isn’t so good.
Going for grass fed or organic meat seemed like a potential ‘least worst’ option, but it turns out that animals raised in this way take longer to grow and therefore produce more methane over the course of their lifetimes. All in all, when you take that into account, this option ends up being a less than positive climate-aware choice.
Given this, it seemed simpler to cut back on meat altogether and do the whole ‘plant-based’ diet thing, but wait for it – here comes the next ‘complication’. I was listening to a talk by James Rebanks and he hinted that opting for lots of plants might not be all good either. He highlighted a new ‘bug bear’ for me to have on my radar. It seems that chicken pellets are often used as an organic fertiliser and research suggests they are not a good thing. ‘Our findings indicate that direct land application of chicken litter could be harming animal, human, and environmental health. Chicken litter is also contaminated with a vast array of antibiotics and heavy metals. There are no standards set specifically for chicken litter for most of its known contaminants.’
And how could I fail to mention palm oil, that old chestnut? Actually, there’s some surprisingly thoughtful material out there from those in the thick of it which talks about the dilemmas involved.
Or maybe the much-anticipated shortages in everything will take away my middle class challenge of choice overwhelm and I’ll just have to get whatever is available. Hope chocolate’s still an option. Now there’s no negotiation on that.
