Climate Change – Over the past 60 years, globalisation of the food industry has dramatically changed the way we produce, buy and eat our food, which ultimately, will impact future generations. Here, we delve into this topic and share some simple and effective ideas worth considering about the way we shop, consume and store foods.

Industrialisation of agriculture has encouraged farming to become capital and chemically intensive, having an impact on climate change. As consumers we have all benefited enormously by this revolution. Every type of food imaginable is waiting to be bought 24 hours a day, around each corner in one huge superstore. Amazing… or is it?

However, with this so called positive never ending supply, negative concerns have arisen; local shops have been replaced by large supermarkets. We now have generic tasting foods everywhere.  This type of shopping, although convenient and enjoyable, has affected the environment, the local producer and other countries involved in the retail process. It has also had a detrimental effect on our health.

Fair trade has been a topic of heated debate for clothing sweat shops in recent years and we are all very much aware. Food sustainability has been highlighted more and more, and it is clear we can no longer focus solely on food shopping for taste. We now have to consider a whole host of different health and ethical issues.

It seems you almost need a degree to go to the shops if you are going to remain in the know!

Climate change is making food less nutritious

Do you know or check all the artificial ingredients mentioned in the food products labelling? Are you savvy on the amount of fat, sugar and salt you need each day to work out the traffic light system? And then as an extra bonus, you also need to be considerate about; where the product has travelled from. how much did it impact on the environment and if you can afford it! It is easy to see how running around the stores these concerns never feature.

It’s hard to believe that your individual choices will do anything to change the system and it may appear selfish. But it is clear many of us enjoy the lifestyles we now subscribe to and clearly not taking any responsibility for the future.

What about our children? What about the world around and our long term health?

Do you care enough to make some simple changes?

It is ironic that we are becoming increasingly unhealthy. Now eating more processed foods with huge superstores stocked with the freshest, prettiest, largest variety of fabulous foods from all over the world. Transported for us every couple of hours.

Recent television programmes and media have highlighted the fears that our children will die before us with illnesses related to obesity and unhealthy lifestyles. We are learning each day how chemicals in our food that we eat daily have hidden dangers and are contributing to our declining health. We are more than informed of the health changes we need to make: eat more natural unprocessed foods, more fruit and vegetables, fish etc

But what can we do further?

The following are some ideas that are simple and effective and a good place to start as we learn more about the impact we are having on the climate change now and for the future.

• Staying loyal and buying local produce is probably the easiest most logical and sensible option.
• Seek out farm grown produce and local butchers in your neighbourhood or at a local market.
• Eat what is produced locally when it is in season i.e.; Comber Potatoes, Armagh Apples.
• Take pity and buy the ugly fruit and vegetable (Class II). This promotes greater bio-diversity in production rather than the monoculture found in tunnel-cultivated produce.
• Eat less processed food and reduce carbonated drinks, which is beneficial both for your health and the environment, by reducing packaging, transportation, saturated fats, chemicals…
• Learn to cook meals from scratch and freeze leftovers. Healthy eating is often considered to be expensive. On the contrary, fresh basic ingredients cooked correctly have been shown to be cheaper and healthier than weekly intakes of ready-made meals.
• Waste has a detrimental effect around the world and is an easy one for individuals to tackle. When buying from markets and shops bring your own bags and recycle as much as you can.
• Drive less, fly less, walk and cycle more, use public transport, share cars, teleconference, or webcast.
• Consider over time to use less energy; turn off appliances, it’s environmentally worthwhile and puts more money in your pocket.

Rant over! 😉

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