The hamburger hummer
By Joseph Zanotti
Lance Writer
March 18, 2009
 Let’s talk about vegetables! Now that I’ve got your attention we can talk green. Most people live day-to-day making choices that impact the world in ways they are unaware of.
When you pick up a burger to inhale between classes do you ever think that meat has produced as much carbon dioxide as a car (getting 27 miles-per-gallon) driving 10 miles or 16 kilometres? It’s true—the journey of the burger patty from manger to bun costs as much carbon as driving to school and back for some students.
Beef is the biggest perpetrator, but all foods have an invisible carbon price associated with them. Pork gets eight kilometres to the pound while stuffing a bag of potatoes into your gas tank will get you a measly half a kilometre down the road.
These carbon prices should be encouraging consumers to by locally and consume less of the greenhouse gas burgers that are a staple of a North American diet. However, this is not the case because not too many people are aware of this information.
It’s hard to believe that anyone would want to make a negative impact on the environment knowingly.
By marking a little greenhouse gas information right on the packaging of foods consumers could see what kind of impact their weekly trip to the grocery store was having.
People make lists when going to the supermarket as to not overspend, so why couldn’t that be extended to encompass over-polluting.
Armed with readily available knowledge, consumerism could play a large role in reducing our carbon footprint when we buy the necessities. There are many reasons to eat your greens and knowing your food’s carbon price is a pretty important one.
|
