Food
Eat seasonal
What
Add some seasonal variety to your diet, enjoy the fresh taste of local food and dramatically cut down your carbon footprint.
By eating seasonal, locally produced food, you can reduce your carbon emissions by almost a tonne a year - equivalent to a return flight from London to Boston.1
Why
Powering hothouses and flying fresh fruit and veg around the world uses a lot of energy. For example, 250g pack of asparagus air-freighted from Peru uses 3.5kg of carbon (or CO2e) whereas the same amount of asparagus grown in the UK is responsible for just 125g carbon (or CO2e).2
It’s important to consider seasonality as well as locality as local doesn’t always mean lower carbon. For example, in winter it’s more efficient to import tomatoes from Spain than grow them in a British hot house, but in summer British grown is the outright winner.
Bear in mind how things are imported - foods like berries, asparagus, and salads that have a short shelf life have to be flown in, giving them a far higher carbon footprint than things like bananas, kiwis and sweet potatoes that are shipped.
How
Buying only local, seasonal food can be a challenge at first, but once you've got it cracked it'll be super rewarding.
Here are some tips to help you on your way:
- Sign up to a veg box, so you can be sure to always have seasonal veggies delivered right to your door. Both Riverford and Abel & Cole provide organic veg boxes which can come in a variety of different sizes depending on your household.
- BBC Good Food has a handy chart showing when each type of fruit and veg is at its best.
- Get yourself a good seasonal cookbook; like Margaret Costa's classic Four Seasons, AVeg Box Companion, or Nigel Slater’s seasonal Greenfeast books.
- Find your local food producers, using Big Barn's interactive map.
Why not pledge to put your Green fingers to the test and grow your own - it doesn't get more local than that!
References
- MIT climate
- How Bad Are Bananas? Mike Berners-Lee
- The Grocer UK
- Gut, Guilia Enders
- Harvard Health Publishing