Eat Together, Go Green
Jun 8, 2009
Here’s yet another reason to enjoy family meals: you’ll use less energy.
That’s the word from the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology, which measured the carbon footprint of a meal from farm to fork.
When we cook for a group, instead of for one, we make fewer trips to the store. Also, cooking for several people uses less energy than cooking individual servings.
However, the real energy costs in food preparation come from the farm – running diesel tractors, producing and applying fertilizer. Which means that one of the biggest culprits is sheer food waste. Any food we throw away is food that was wasted more than once – on the farm, in any manufacturing process, and in the home.
A related study found that households threw out twice as much dairy as they ate. They also threw out the same amount of produce that they consumed.
So here’s what you can do today to save the planet: Cook family meals using the appropriate amount of energy (use the toaster oven for a small amount of food instead of heating up the whole oven.) Don’t overbuy. Use those leftovers.
Mealtimes Matter Video
from Miriam Weinstein
About Miriam
Miriam Weinstein is an award-winning documentary filmmaker. As a journalist, she has won several awards from the New England Press Association. Her work has appeared in Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe magazine, Hope, and ParentSource. A former staff member for North Shore Weeklies and freelancer for Essex County Newspapers, she writes restaurant reviews and food columns as well as features on a wide variety of subjects. She lives in Gloucester, Massachusetts, with her husband and has two grown children.
The Surprising Power of Family Meals
In her book, The Surprising Power of Family Meals, Miriam Weinstein shows how this basic human institution helps nourish and strengthen our families today. You can buy this book from our friends at Smucker's® Online Store.
