Eating Greener Without Becoming Vegetarian: Start by Asking Where Dinner Came From
Eating Greener Without Becoming Vegetarian: Start by Asking Where Dinner Came From
Hook: “Before asking whether your dinner is green, perhaps ask how far it travelled to reach your plate.”
There is a problem with some conversations about environmentally responsible eating: they become an argument about labels.
Are you vegetarian? Vegan? Flexitarian? Organic? Locavore?
For many people, that immediately makes the subject feel more difficult than it needs to be. Eating more sustainably does not have to begin with announcing that you will never eat another bacon sandwich or Sunday roast.
It can begin with something much simpler.
Turn over the packet. Read the label. Look at the country of origin. Ask where your dinner actually came from.
Then ask a few more questions.
How was it produced? Is it in season? How much packaging surrounds it? Has it been heavily processed? Are we going to eat all of it? And, perhaps most importantly, is there an alternative that costs less as well as having a smaller environmental impact?
That turns greener eating from an ideology into an investigation.
And it might change our shopping habits far more effectively.
We Have Become Disconnected From Our Food
Walk around a modern supermarket and almost anything seems available at almost any time of year.
Strawberries in winter.
Asparagus when British asparagus is nowhere near its natural season.
Apples from the other side of the world when British apples may also be available.
Beans from Africa, blueberries from South America, tomatoes from southern Europe, grapes from countries thousands of miles away.
There is something extraordinary about this. Our food supply chains are a remarkable engineering achievement.
But they can also make us forget that food originally came from somewhere.
Potatoes grew in soil. Milk came from a cow. Apples grew on trees. Fish came out of a sea, river or fish farm. Wheat occupied fields before it occupied a cereal packet.
Perhaps one of the simplest steps towards eating more sustainably is simply to reconnect the food on our plate with the place and process that produced it.
But Food Miles Aren't the Whole Story
This is where the subject becomes more interesting.
The obvious assumption is:
Local = green.
Far away = environmentally bad.
Unfortunately, life is rarely quite that simple.
Globally, transport accounts for only around 5-6% of greenhouse-gas emissions associated with food. Production and land use are generally much bigger factors. Food carried thousands of miles efficiently by ship can sometimes have a smaller environmental impact than something grown much nearer to us using a highly energy-intensive production system.
Air freight is different. Flying food is extremely carbon-intensive compared with shipping it, although only a very small proportion of global food transport is by air. Highly perishable produce is more likely to be flown.
So perhaps we need to improve the original question.
Instead of simply asking:
“How far has my dinner travelled?”
ask:
“Where did it come from, how did it get here, how was it produced and what am I eating?”
That is a much more useful definition of food awareness.
Start With the Seasons Again
There was a time when the seasons determined much more strongly what people ate.
You didn't expect every vegetable and every fruit to be permanently available.
We have gained enormous convenience by changing that, but there is something worth rediscovering in seasonal eating.
British produce changes throughout the year.
Late summer and early autumn can bring wonderful supplies of apples, plums, beans, courgettes, beetroot, carrots, potatoes and many other crops. Later we move towards squashes, brassicas, leeks and root vegetables.
The interesting challenge is not necessarily to buy only British food.
It is to notice what is naturally plentiful.
When strawberries are appearing everywhere in British summer, eat strawberries.
When local apples are abundant, perhaps make apples the default fruit rather than automatically reaching for something imported from thousands of miles away.
When root vegetables are cheap and plentiful, build meals around them.
That can benefit both the environment and the shopping budget because abundant seasonal produce can also be good value.
Try Letting the Season Choose Dinner
This requires a small change in the way we shop.
Many of us decide what we want to cook and then go to the supermarket looking for the ingredients.
Try reversing that occasionally.
Walk into the greengrocer, farm shop or supermarket fruit-and-vegetable section and ask:
What looks good, plentiful and reasonably priced today?
Perhaps courgettes are everywhere.
That could become pasta with courgettes, garlic and herbs.
Perhaps British potatoes and carrots are particularly good value.
That might become a tray of roasted vegetables alongside a smaller portion of meat.
Perhaps apples are plentiful.
Instead of buying individually packaged desserts, those apples might become a crumble.
It is a subtle shift from:
“I need these ingredients.”
to:
“What can I make with what is available?”
Our grandparents would probably find nothing revolutionary about that whatsoever.
Eating Less Meat Doesn't Mean Giving Up Meat
Then we arrive at the subject which frequently turns sensible environmental conversations into arguments.
Meat.
There are strong environmental reasons for looking at how much meat we consume, particularly beef and lamb. The environmental footprint varies enormously between foods, but production and land-use emissions from ruminant livestock can be particularly significant.
That does not mean this article needs to end with everybody becoming vegetarian.
Suppose a family currently eats meat seven evenings a week.
Could that become five?
Or could the amount of meat within some meals simply become smaller?
A chilli doesn't necessarily need quite as much minced beef if beans, lentils, peppers and vegetables make up more of it.
A curry can contain plenty of vegetables alongside a smaller amount of chicken.
A pasta sauce can contain more tomatoes, mushrooms, onions and lentils and less meat.
Even the traditional roast presents opportunities. Perhaps the meat becomes the centrepiece but no longer occupies half the plate, while seasonal vegetables play a much larger role.
These changes are unlikely to feel revolutionary.
That may be precisely why people might actually keep doing them.
The £5 Steak You Throw Away Is Worse Than the £5 Steak You Eat
There is another element of green eating that receives surprisingly little attention.
Waste.
The UK Food Security Report estimated that 10.7 million tonnes of food were wasted across the UK food system in 2021, with households responsible for around 6.4 million tonnes. Around 71% of the measured waste, excluding on-farm waste, consisted of edible parts.
WRAP has estimated that a typical UK household of four can throw away around £1,000 worth of food a year.
That is an environmental problem.
But during a period when households are watching every pound, it is also a spectacularly unnecessary financial problem.
We grew the food.
Harvested it.
Processed some of it.
Refrigerated it.
Transported it.
Put it on a supermarket shelf.
Drove it home.
Put it in our fridge.
And then paid to dispose of it.
That is about as inefficient a system as one could design.
Your Fridge May Tell You More Than Your Recycling Bin
Before concentrating too much on whether yoghurt pots are recyclable, perhaps look at what is being thrown away inside them.
A forgotten packet of ham.
Half a bag of salad.
Three carrots that have gone soft.
A mouldy loaf.
Half a saucepan of pasta.
An unopened yoghurt two weeks beyond its date.
Food waste is remarkably easy not to notice because it disappears gradually.
A little today.
A little tomorrow.
A scrape from a plate.
Something from the back of the fridge.
Something else from the vegetable drawer.
Individually it appears insignificant.
Over a year, it becomes substantial.
One of the most environmentally useful habits we could adopt might therefore be extremely mundane:
Look in the fridge before going shopping.
Packaging Is Another Complicated Story
It is tempting to assume that unpackaged food must always be greener.
Again, reality is a little more complicated.
Excessive packaging is clearly wasteful. A tiny quantity of food surrounded by layers of plastic, cardboard and decorative wrapping should make us ask questions.
Buying loose fruit and vegetables can allow us to buy exactly the quantity we need.
A household needing three carrots can buy three carrots rather than a kilogram bag.
That may reduce both packaging and food waste.
But packaging also has a purpose.
It protects food, increases shelf life, prevents damage and can reduce spoilage.
A cucumber wrapped in plastic may look environmentally absurd, but if that wrapping substantially extends its usable life and prevents large quantities being discarded, the calculation becomes less obvious.
Once again, green living works better when we replace simple slogans with sensible questions.
Is this packaging necessary?
Can it be recycled?
Does it prevent waste?
Could I buy the same product with less of it?
Highly Processed Doesn't Automatically Mean Environmentally Bad Either
Processing deserves the same caution.
There are good reasons for eating plenty of fresh, minimally processed food from a health perspective.
But from an environmental perspective, we shouldn't automatically assume that every processed product is disastrous.
Frozen peas are processed.
Tinned tomatoes are processed.
Frozen vegetables may remain usable for months and allow us to take exactly the portion we need.
Canning can preserve seasonal produce without requiring continuous refrigeration.
Processing becomes more questionable when we have long production chains, large numbers of ingredients, individual portions, extensive packaging and products whose manufacture consumes substantial resources.
So instead of declaring:
“Processed food is bad.”
perhaps ask:
“What has been done to this food, why was it necessary and what resources did it require?”
That is a more intelligent conversation.
Local Food Can Offer Something Carbon Calculations Don't Measure
There is also another reason to buy locally which has nothing to do with pretending that every local product has the lowest carbon footprint.
Local food can connect us with the people producing it.
Farm shops.
Markets.
Community orchards.
Pick-your-own farms.
Local bakeries.
Independent butchers.
Small vegetable growers.
You begin seeing food as something produced by someone rather than something manufactured by a supermarket shelf.
You may discover where the eggs actually come from.
You may find out which varieties of apples grow locally.
You may learn why one crop did badly because the spring was too wet while another thrived.
There is environmental value in understanding the countryside around us.
There can also be economic value in supporting local producers and keeping more spending within local communities.
That is a perfectly valid reason for buying local even when the carbon calculation is not quite as straightforward as "fewer miles = greener".
Try the One-Week Dinner Detective Challenge
Rather than radically changing your diet tomorrow, investigate it.
For seven days, examine some of the food entering your home.
Keep the exercise simple:
- Pick perhaps ten or fifteen commonly purchased foods and record their country of origin.
- Notice which British products are currently in season.
- Look for foods that appear to have travelled unusually long distances.
- Identify where you could replace one meat-heavy meal with a lower-meat or meat-free alternative.
- Look at the amount of packaging coming home with you.
- Record which foods you actually throw away.
- At the end of the week, identify just three changes worth keeping.
You could even create a simple table.
| Food | Origin | Seasonal? | Packaging | Did we eat it all? | Could I choose differently? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apples | UK | Yes | Loose | Yes | Keep buying |
| Green beans | Kenya | Check | Plastic bag | Half wasted | Buy smaller quantity |
| Beef mince | UK | — | Plastic tray | Yes | Use slightly less |
| Strawberries | Imported | Out of UK season | Plastic punnet | Some wasted | Wait for season |
| Frozen peas | UK/Europe | Frozen bag | Yes | Yes | Good practical option |
The point isn't to award yourself an environmental score.
It is to notice things you previously didn't notice.
The Greenest Shopping List May Also Be the Cheapest
This is one of the recurring themes of Going Green.
Environmental improvements become much more attractive when they don't require people to spend thousands of pounds.
You don't need an electric car to investigate your dinner.
You don't need solar panels to stop throwing potatoes away.
You don't need a heat pump to cook one additional meat-free meal each week.
And you certainly don't need expensive food carrying an "eco" label.
Buying seasonal vegetables, using leftovers, freezing food before it spoils, reducing portion sizes, eating slightly less meat and planning meals around food already in the cupboard can all potentially reduce expenditure.
The first rule of economical green eating might be:
Before buying environmentally friendly food, eat the food you've already bought.
Don't Aim for the Perfect Green Diet
Perfection is probably the enemy here.
Someone will point out that your avocado came from Peru.
Someone else will object to your cheese.
Another person will tell you that your locally grown tomatoes came from a heated greenhouse.
Someone will question the plastic surrounding your vegetables.
If environmental eating requires a degree in agricultural supply-chain analysis before making a sandwich, most people will understandably give up.
So perhaps we need a much simpler objective.
Better, not perfect.
Choose seasonal British food more often when it makes sense.
Eat a little less meat if you currently eat a lot.
Try more vegetables, pulses and grains.
Notice excessive packaging.
Don't assume imported automatically means bad.
Don't assume local automatically means good.
And make wasting food slightly embarrassing.
That collection of modest decisions, repeated across millions of meals, matters far more than a handful of people achieving environmental dietary perfection.
Conclusion: Your Dinner Has a Story
Tonight, before eating dinner, spend thirty seconds looking at it differently.
Where did the potatoes grow?
Where did the meat come from?
Were those vegetables in season?
How far did the ingredients travel?
How much packaging did they arrive in?
What will happen to the leftovers?
You don't have to become vegetarian.
You don't have to abandon imported food.
You don't have to transform your kitchen overnight.
You simply need to become a little more curious about what you eat.
Because once we begin understanding the story behind our food, changing some of our choices becomes surprisingly easy.
And perhaps the most useful question isn't:
“Is my dinner green?”
It is:
“Could tomorrow's dinner be just a little greener than today's?”
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