Eat green, save the planet? Research reveals the truth

By Stephen Beech via SWNS

Swapping family dinner favorites for a more environmentally friendly version could slash greenhouse gas emissions from household groceries by a quarter, claims a new study.

The 26 percent reduction would be the equivalent of taking more than 1.9 million cars off the road, according to the findings.

And making even bigger changes - such as replacing a frozen meat lasagne with a vegetarian option - could push the reduction to as much as 71 percent, say scientists.

But to make that happen will require on-pack labeling of greenhouse gas emissions for every packaged food product so that shoppers make informed choices.

The Australian study, by The George Institute for Global Health and Imperial College London, suggests that switching normal food and drink buys to very similar but more environmentally friendly alternatives could reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from household groceries by 26 percent.

The research, published in the journal Nature Food, is the most detailed analysis ever conducted on the environmental impacts of a country’s food buying behavior.

It involved analysis of data on greenhouse gas emissions and sales for tens of thousands of supermarket products, typical of the Western diet of many countries globally.

Lead author Dr. Allison Gaines said: “Dietary habits need to change significantly if we are to meet global emissions targets, particularly in high-income countries like Australia, the UK, and the US.

“But while consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of the food system and willing to make more sustainable food choices, they lack reliable information to identify the more environmentally friendly options.”

The research team calculated the projected emissions of annual grocery purchases from 7,000 Australian households using information on ingredients, weights and production life cycles in The George Institute’s FoodSwitch database and global environmental impact datasets.

More than 22,000 products were assigned to major, minor and sub-categories of foods - such as ‘bread and bakery’, ‘bread’ and ‘white bread’, respectively - to calculate emissions saved by switching both within and between groups.

Making switches within the same sub-categories of foods could lead to emission reductions of 26 percent in Australia - equivalent to taking over 1.9 million cars off the road, according to the findings.

Dr Gaines said: “The results of our study show the potential to significantly reduce our environmental impact by switching like-for-like products.

"This is also something consumers in the UK could, and would probably like, to do if we put emissions information onto product labels."

Dr. Gaines says that the switches would not "compromise" food healthiness overall.

She added: “We showed that you can switch to lower emissions products while still enjoying nutritious foods.

"In fact, we found it would lead to a slight reduction in the proportion of ultra-processed foods purchased, which is a positive outcome because they’re generally less healthy."

The analysis also showed that meat products contributed almost half (49 percent) of all greenhouse gas emissions, but made up just 11 percent of total purchases.

While fruit, vegetables, nuts and legumes represented 25 percent of all purchases, they were responsible for just five percent of emissions.

It is estimated that around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to the food and agriculture sector.

More than 12 million deaths per year could be prevented if the system transitioned to deliver healthy, low-emission diets, according to a report published in The Lancet last year.

Professor Bruce Neal, Executive Director at The George Institute Australia and Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Imperial College London, believes that as a global community, we are taking "too long" to improve the sustainability of the food system

He said: "There is currently no standardized framework for regulating the climate or planetary health parameters of our food supply, and voluntary measures have not been widely adopted by most countries.

"This research shows how innovative ways of approaching the problem could enable consumers to make a real impact.

“With this in mind, we have developed a free app called ecoSwitch, currently available in Australia, which is based on this research.

"Shoppers can use their device to scan a product barcode and check its ‘Planetary Health Rating’, a measure of its emissions shown as a score between half a star - high emissions - to five stars, low emissions.”

The George Institute plans to extend the ecoSwitch algorithm to integrate other environmental indicators such as land and water use, and biodiversity, and to introduce the tool to other countries.

Neal added: “While ecoSwitch is a much-needed first step in providing environmental transparency for grocery shoppers, the vision is for a mandatory display of a single, standardized sustainability rating system on all supermarket products."