{"id":8915,"date":"2018-08-03T17:08:19","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T17:08:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8915"},"modified":"2018-08-03T17:08:36","modified_gmt":"2018-08-03T17:08:36","slug":"consumer-diets-contribute-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=8915","title":{"rendered":"Consumer Diets Contribute to Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_8913\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8913\" class=\"size-full wp-image-8913\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/gr-63471-2-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/gr-63471-2-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/gr-63471-2-1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/gr-63471-2-1-405x268.jpg 405w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/gr-63471-2-1-60x40.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8913\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Households that spend more of their weekly food budget on beef, chicken, pork and other meats generate more greenhouse-gas emissions than households that opt for plant-based proteins. Photo: Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><em>by Eric Galatas<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><strong>AUSTIN, Texas \u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Researchers say they\u2019ve tapped the most comprehensive estimate of greenhouse gas emissions created by U.S. consumer food purchases, and those emissions are on par with other major contributors to climate change.<\/p>\n<p>Rebecca Boehm, lead author of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.uconnruddcenter.org\/files\/Pdfs\/A%20Comprehensive%20Life%20Cycle%20Assessment%20of%20Greenhouse%20Gas%20Emissions%20from%20U_S_%20Household%20Food%20Choices.pdf\" target=\"parent\">report<\/a>\u00a0from the University of Connecticut, says consumers are in a position to make a big impact each time they go to a restaurant or grocery store.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe easiest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from your diet or your food purchases is to purchase less red meat and animal products,\u201d she points out. \u201cThey are more carbon intensive to produce. Plant based diets generate lower greenhouse gas emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Researchers found that the life cycle of food purchases \u2013 from growing and harvesting crops to marketing, packaging and transportation \u2013 created 16 percent of the nation\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions in 2013.<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, commercial and residential activity accounted for 12 percent, with industrial activities adding 21 percent.<\/p>\n<p>The single largest contributor of CO2 continues to be coal fired power plants.<\/p>\n<p>Boehm says helping reduce climate pollution doesn\u2019t have to mean giving up meat altogether. Poultry and seafood have a lower carbon footprint, and Boehm says opting for plant-based proteins such as beans and lentils more frequently can make a difference.<\/p>\n<p>She notes that because people make decisions about what to eat three times a day, those choices can really add up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know there are plenty of alternatives to the most carbon intensive foods,\u201d she states. \u201cThere\u2019s also potential health benefits to making those changes. So, it\u2019s sort of a win-win for consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Buying fruits and vegetables from local farmers also can help cut emissions created by transporting goods in refrigerated containers cross-country or across oceans.<\/p>\n<p>And while consumers alone can\u2019t re-shape the nation\u2019s food industry, Boehm says they can help support grocery stores and food vendors working to cut their carbon footprint.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Eric Galatas AUSTIN, Texas \u2013\u00a0Researchers say they\u2019ve tapped the most comprehensive estimate of greenhouse gas emissions created by U.S. consumer food purchases, and those emissions are on par with other major contributors to climate change. Rebecca Boehm, lead author of the\u00a0report\u00a0from the University of Connecticut, says consumers are in a position to make a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8916,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8915\/revisions\/8916"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}