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From the farm to your plate

By Amanda Thompson

Thursday, May 7, 2009

As the smell of dinner wafts through students’ apartments, the environment might be the last thing on their minds. But the food decisions they make every day can have big environmental effects.

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University found that the average meal eaten in America travels 1,500 miles from the farm to the dinner plate. This distance is often referred to as food miles, and it is one of the ways in which the food people eat can affect the environment. The growing methods and types of food grown can also have an effect.

If a student drove a midsized car 1,500 miles to pick up a meal, that would emit more than three tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to Carbonfund.org’s carbon calculator.

Simran Sethi, Lacy C. Haynes visiting professional chair in the School of Journalism, said fertilizers, pesticides and the amount of water used to produce food were also important.

“The amount of packing is also something to consider,” Sethi said. “One-third of all landfill waste comes from food packaging.”

Sethi said she kept the environment in mind when making daily food choices. She said she tried to buy only locally grown and in-season food to reduce food miles, and that choosing food produced in the U.S. was important. Sethi said her food choices used to be simpler.

“I used to think, ‘Hey, I put something in my body and it might be making me fat,’ or ‘This tastes good,’” Sethi said.

But after reading an article about world hunger in The Sun in 2002, Sethi said she came to realize that her food choices affected more people than she previously thought.

“I just realized that this wasn’t about eating something that would keep me feeling and looking good,” Sethi said, “but this is about people, the environment and environmental justice.”

Mary Beth Woodson, second-year doctoral student in film studies, has been a vegan since 2005. She eats no animal-derived products, which she said could wind up in the most unexpected places, including white sugar, wines and other alcohol.

“There are an amazing number of products that use it, seemingly for no reason,” Woodson said.

Woodson said she mainly went vegan for animal rights but has found that environmental reasons have supported her decision in living a vegan lifestyle. She said reading about the environmental effects of large factory farms especially surprised her.

“I was shocked when I learned just how much land was used to grow feed crops, which produced such a small amount in the end, and how many more people could be fed if instead it was used for a human feeding crop,” Woodson said.

According to the Sierra Club Web site, nearly 80 percent of corn and other grains grown in the U.S. go toward feeding animals for human consumption rather than to feeding people directly.

For some students, the environment doesn’t enter into their food equation.

Austin Hartman, Hays sophomore, said that for him and his three roommates, the environment wasn’t a consideration when making food choices.

“We’re all big, and we all consume a lot of calories and we’re really active,” Hartman said. “We buy the cheapest, most calorie-dense food we can find. We really don’t take into account the environment whatsoever.”

Hartman said he and his roommates each spent about $200 per week on food, and that it was important for them to buy the cheapest food possible. For Hartman, this usually means shopping at Wal-Mart.

Though Hartman said his budget limits his food choices, he said if he had more money he thought his diet would be different.

“I wish I could — if I had the funding to buy organically and support local farming, I would,” Hartman said.

— — Edited by Carly Halvorson

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