Forget Veganism – Is This New Diet The Answer To Climate-Friendly Eating?
While there are plenty of fad trends like Paleo, Keto, Raw Food diets etc, these all are focused primarily on improving health, wellness, and for some people, appearance. However, in recent years, there’s been a growing trend towards climate-conscious diets.
There is a good reason behind this - as our planet heats up year by year, we’re still facing a deadline of 2030 to slow down the continuous warming of the planet and people are being encouraged to make whichever changes they can to minimise their personal carbon footprint.
Climate-Friendly Diets: A Quick Breakdown
According to Our World in Data, 26% of greenhouse gas emissions come from food and climate-conscious diets are looking to tackle that and reduce further impact on the environment. These diets range from simply reducing meat intake to consciously only choosing to consume foods that promote regeneration and healing of Earth.
The mildest and simplest climate-conscious diet is Flexitarianism. Not vegetarian but close, flexitarians don’t entirely cut meat from their diets but instead make conscious decisions to consume less meat. Similarly,
Reductarians tend to eat more meat than flexitarians but still commit to a diet with less meat, dairy and egg products.
Climatarian dieters have a similar diet overall but a Climatarian diet is more considered and precise. As well as considering the demand for meat and dairy products, this diet also considers how far food had to travel to get to them, the amount of water required to grow the crops and the overall emissions of their foods. Climatarians are more likely to eat seasonally and get their foods from local sources.
Finally, there is the newest and potentially most innovative of climate-friendly diets: the Regenivore diet. Followers of this diet consider everything that Flexitarians, Reductarians and Climatarians do but with an additional focus on the ethics behind their food: both for the planet and for the people involved in the production.
Regenivores care about soil health, workers’ rights, the impact of chemicals on the humans that rely on them for food production and the treatment of animals on the supply chain. Their approach to climate-conscious diets is to consider the harm of both the past and present and to attempt to help the earth recover from the harm that has already been done due to food supply.
Looking to Start Eating More Climate-Consciously?
You don’t need to jump straight to becoming a Regenivore to start eating and consuming more mindfully. In fact, according to a survey by sustainability experts McKinsey & Co, 73-93% of Flexitarians plan to further reduce their meat consumption proving that once you start being more eco-friendly, it’s easier to continue!
There are also apps such as Kuri which helps you to reduce your food’s climate footprint, Olio which helps to reduce food waste from your home and TooGoodToGo which reduces food waste from businesses! Every step towards reducing your carbon footprint really makes you a difference.
