Hi Everyone! Welcome back to Pollutive Food, where I share updates and discussions around the pollution arising from food production. Since this is one of the first posts, I would be sharing some statistics and existing research on the topic.

From beef steaks, lobster rolls and even white rice, there is an entire trail of environmental pollution behind it’s production and eventual distribution. Food production which involves the use of fertilisers, management of animal manure and even electricity, produces a vast amount of pollutants.

Past studies have found that the Agriculture sector produces 30% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, 2.5 times more than global transport (Smetana et. al., 2015).  Apart from greenhouse gases, manure from livestock rearing also produces a large amount of phosphorus and nitrogen pollutants (Michel, Hartmann & Siegrist, 2021).

Worse of all, global food production is expected to increase by 70% in 2050, worsening the already enormous amount of pollution from food production (Smetana et. al., 2015). Therefore, there have been urgent calls for the transition towards less pollutive methods of food production. But are those alternative food production methods better? Stay tuned for future discussions.

References:

Smetana, S., Mathys, A., Knoch, A., & Heinz, V. (2015). Meat alternatives: Life cycle assessment of most known meat substitutes. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 20(9), 1254-1267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-015-0931-6

Michel, F., Hartmann, C., & Siegrist, M. (2021). Consumers’ associations, perceptions and acceptance of meat and plant-based meat alternatives. Food Quality and Preference, 87, 104063. doi:10.1016/j.foodqual.2020.104063

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