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Food and sustainability

Sustainable food choices can make a big difference to our local and global environment.

In this article you can learn about:

  • What food miles are
  • What seasonal eating means
  • Why food waste is such a problem and how we can reduce it
  • The benefits and challenges of making sustainable food choices

This resource is suitable for sustainability topics for primary school learners.

Video - Food and sustainability

In this video, learn about making sustainable food choices and how we can reduce food waste.

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How to make a positive impact on the environment

Did you know that we make a positive impact on the environment through our food choices?

Here are some things we can do:

Reduce our food miles

Food miles describe how far food has travelled to get to you.

The further a piece of food has to travel to be eaten, the worse it is for the environment. This is because it will have to be transported by lorry, boat and/or plane, using fuels that harm the environment.

If we eat food that has been grown locally, it won't have travelled as far to get to us. This means it will have less of an impact on the environment.

Food miles. revision-guide

Find out more about food miles in this article

Food miles

Eat seasonal foods

Seasonal foods are fruit and vegetables that are ripe and ready in a particular season.

For example, in Scotland we harvest strawberries in summer. If we want to eat fresh strawberries during winter time we need to them from other countries or grow them in greenhouses that use heating and lighting powered by electricity.

Knowing when food is being grown locally can help us to eat a sustainable, local diet, reducing food miles and helping the environment.

Seasonal food. revision-guide

Find out more about seasonal food in this article

Seasonal food

Plant-based foods

Illustration of a girl watering plants in raised beds
Image caption,
Eating more plant-based foods can make our diet more sustainable.

Plant-based foods are fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, grains, seeds and even seaweed!

Growing plants for food needs land and energy but the plants get most of that energy from the sun.

Keeping animals for meat, eggs or dairy needs more energy. The animals get energy from food but just like us, a lot of that energy is used for movement and bodily functions. Much less of the energy goes towards food for people.

Another problem is that cows produce a lot of methane. This is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

Eating more plant-based foods can make our diet more sustainable.

Illustration of a girl watering plants in raised beds
Image caption,
Eating more plant-based foods can make our diet more sustainable.

Here are some things you can do:

Image gallerySkip image gallerySlide 1 of 3, Label on a punnet of grapes, which shows they are from Egypt , Look at the packaging on your food to find out how far it has travelled to reach you Some companies will grow food in one country, transport it to be packaged somewhere else, and then send it to you. Companies do this to save money but it adds a lot of food miles and is not sustainable. Looking out for this information can help you choose companies that produce food more sustainably. (Radharc Images / Alamy Stock Photo)

Reduce food waste

A fishing boat at sea
Image caption,
The more food we waste, the more fish, meat and plants we take out of the ecosystem for no reason. (Arterra Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo)

Around 4.5 million tonnes of food are wasted in the UK each year. That鈥檚 like 4.5 million cars in weight! Some of the waste is out of date food from shops and supermarkets, or leftover food from restaurants. We waste lots of food at home too.

This is a big problem for the human race because:

  • the more food we waste unnecessarily, the more fish, meat and plants we have taken out of their habitat for no reason.

  • we end up with fewer fish in the ocean, more in the ground and more land and forests cleared to raise animals, all of which damages local wildlife and ecosystems.

A fishing boat at sea
Image caption,
The more food we waste, the more fish, meat and plants we take out of the ecosystem for no reason. (Arterra Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo)
A plate with leftover chips and beans on it
Image caption,
Reducing the amount of food we waste has a positive impact on the environment. (Oramstock / Alamy Stock Photo)

There is an side to food waste as well.

We live in a country where most of us are lucky enough to have as much food as we like. Not everyone in the world is fortunate enough to have so much food available to them.

As a human race, we should be thinking more about how we can reduce our unnecessary food waste and distribute food more evenly around the world (and throughout our own country) so nobody is hungry.

A plate with leftover chips and beans on it
Image caption,
Reducing the amount of food we waste has a positive impact on the environment. (Oramstock / Alamy Stock Photo)

Here are some things you can do to reduce food waste:

Image gallerySkip image gallerySlide 1 of 3, A shopping list written in a lined notebook next to some tomatoes and brocolli , Only buy as much food as you need People often buy too much food and some ends up going to waste. Planning your meals and making a shopping list means you will only buy the ingredients you need. (Elizabeth Crego / Alamy Stock Photo)

Remember!

Although we can compost food in food waste bins, it has still been produced, so has already impacted on the environment.

The best thing we can do is reduce the amount of food we waste.

Food waste. revision-guide

Find out more about food waste in this article

Food waste
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Benefits and challenges of reducing food waste

Benefits of reducing food waste

  • By using sustainable food practices like reducing the amount of food we waste and making good decisions about the food we eat, we can preserve the world's food supplies and lessen our impact on the environment.

  • By reducing food waste and planning your shopping, you can save money. The less food you buy and waste, the less money you spend.

  • Composted food can be used to grow more food, or even generate electricity. Learn more about using food waste to make fuel or generate electricity here: Biomass energy

Challenges of reducing food waste

  • People might not know how to plan meals for a shopping list.

  • People might be too busy to think about and plan the food they buy. Sometimes this can lead to buying too much and the food then goes to waste because it is past its sell by date.

  • Composting and a lot of other recycling methods take time and space, which some people don't have. Others might not know how to get started.

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Key words about food waste

鈥 Doing something that will cause little or no damage to the environment and will be able to continue for a long period of time.

- The distance food travels from the country in which it is grown to where it is bought or eaten by the customer. The more food miles that food requires, the less sustainable and the less environmentally friendly it is.

鈥 To eat foods that are grown locally and harvested during the current season. For example, eating Scottish strawberries in the summer and not at any other time.

鈥 Substances that are sprayed on crops or put in the soil to help them and other food sources grow. Chemical fertilisers can be bad for the environment and our health, which is why some people choose to eat organic food (food that is grown without the use of chemical fertilisers).

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Test your knowledge

Quiz

Challenge

Challenge

Identify the main source of your food waste.

Is it uneaten food on your plate or food beyond its sell by date?

  • Weigh how much food waste your household produces throughout a week.

  • Ask if you can help with the food shopping the following week to help reduce the amount of food your household is wasting.

  • Weigh the food waste at the end of the second week to see if you were able to reduce the amount of food wasted.

(Remember to compost food waste if you can!)

(As an extra challenge, look at the packaging of the food your household buys. Make a note of where the food is grown and packaged. Can you find something grown locally and in season and something that has been ? See if you can find the locations and countries on a map.)

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