A nice dinner can be one of the things one looks forward to the most after a long day at university or when a fancy dinner is in the calendar for Christmas celebrations. Food is more than just an experience; it is needed for our body to function properly and to let us carry out our day-to-day life. However, our cooking, eating, and harvesting habits leave behind an impactful carbon footprint, as according to Deloitte, 28 per cent of environmental pollution in Switzerland stems from the food system[1]. Through the production and the consumption of food, biodiversity is harmed, and water is extracted, polluted, and contaminated[2]. Moreover, to produce food, 40% of land is used, 70% of the fresh water supply is necessary and fish stocks are mostly fully fished or even overfished on earth[3]. Unfortunately, our food system poses more than just environmental challenges. Currently, 820 million people are starving due to food shortages whilst others eat plentiful and excessively, both enforcing serious health issues[4]. Causing more issues, in the future more people will have to be fed due to our rapidly growing population[5]. This will prove to be even more complicated as due to the environmental damage and weather shifts, mass food production is inevitably becoming more unforeseeable[6].
However, production and consumption of food is essential. Thus, we, as individuals, cannot transform our whole food system at once. Here at oikos, we tackle the individual level and the impact on the environment: Oismak at oikos is motivated to take the first couple of steps in resolving this crisis. They post recipes on their website and give you the amount of carbon emissions this recipe will cost the planet. They post according to seasons and categories, for example, for the winter season, try out their creative dishes such as pumpkin gnocchi or Mapo Tofu! What we learn through Oismak is that the first and most obvious solution against climate change would be a more plant-based diet. Many people are already doing this by being vegetarian or even vegan[7]. Furthermore, eating locally produced bio vegetables could be a great effort in reducing the carbon footprint[8]. Lastly, everyone must work on not producing such high amounts of food waste, by for instance not throwing away leftovers and keeping it for the next day[9]. Check out Oismak’s website or their Instagram page to recreate some of their dishes.
[1] (Deloitte, 2021) [2] (Garnett, 2013, p. 29) [3] (Harvard – School of Public Health, 2022) [4] (Garnett, 2013, p. 29), (Schmidt & Mouritsen, 2020, p. 2) [5] (Aiking & Boer, 2004, p. 360) [6] (Garnett, 2013, p. 29) [7] (Schmidt & Mouritsen, 2020, p. 1) [8] (Harvard – School of Public Health, 2017) [9](Schmidt & Mouritsen, 2020, p. 1)
Sources :
Aiking, H. & de Boer, J. (2004). « Food sustainability: Diverging interpretations”. British Food
Journal, Vol. 106 No. 5, pp. 359–365. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070700410531589
Garnett, T. (2013). Food sustainability: Problems, perspectives and solutions. Proceedings of
the Nutrition Society, 72(1), 29-39. doi:10.1017/S0029665112002947
Harvard – School of Public Health. (2022, 28. April). Sustainability. The Nutrition Source. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/sustainability/
Harvard – School of Public Health. (2017, 20. November). 5 tips for sustainable eating. The Nutrition Source. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/2015/06/17/5-tips-for-sustainable-eating/
Schmidt, C. V., & Mouritsen, O. G. (2020). The Solution to Sustainable Eating Is Not a One-Way
Street. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 531. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00531
Sustainable food. (2021, 8. November). Deloitte Switzerland. https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/sustainable-food.html