by Kindra Lundie
It is very common for shoppers to get to the register with their groceries and get caught up on deciding whether they would like paper or plastic when in fact, neither is really worse for the environment than the other. By the end of a year of saving up plastic bags from every grocery trip, one would probably end up with about eight pounds of grocery bags. This decision has the least significant environmental impact above all other decisions you make while at the grocery store though.
On average, an American uses 582 pounds of dairy products, 65 pounds of beef, 51 pounds of chicken, 281 pounds of fruits and various other amounts of vegetables, grains and such (Is Our Food Safe?). The environmental impact of growing, processing and shipping this food is what consumers should be considering.
Pollution, distressed land, and deforestation are just a few products of making many of the foods that we ingest daily. Pesticides used on crops can easily, and often do, make their way into our water supply and pollute it. It also takes a great deal of transportation to distribute food, which leads to pollution even more.
Planting fields and maintaining them has a big impact on the land. Even if the field is on a crop rotation, the land gets worn out after a great deal of being planted and loses its fertility.
Your beef needs a place to be raised. Thousands of acres of land are devoted to raising cattle for food every year. Many times this land becomes overgrazed and worn down from being walked upon by cattle daily.
There isn't always room for cattle to be raised and for plants to be grown in some areas, which leads to farmers cutting down trees to start anew. Farming is one of the biggest causes of deforestation.
So next time you are at the grocery store, instead of being concerned whether you should have your groceries bagged in plastic or paper, think more about the foods you are purchasing, where they are from, and how they have impacted the environment you live in.
There isn't always room for cattle to be raised and for plants to be grown in some areas, which leads to farmers cutting down trees to start anew. Farming is one of the biggest causes of deforestation.
So next time you are at the grocery store, instead of being concerned whether you should have your groceries bagged in plastic or paper, think more about the foods you are purchasing, where they are from, and how they have impacted the environment you live in.
