The Intertwining of Environmental & Human Health
How our diet can make or break the environment — and us
For most of my brief career in sustainability, I cared primarily about energy and its resulting carbon emissions. Yes, I knew that agriculture and livestock produced 30% and 18% of our greenhouse gas emissions, respectively. But fixing that issue did not seem like my problem.
That cannot be further from the truth, and shirking my responsibility stemmed from a deep fear of changing my own consumption. Luckily, this mindset slowly began to change. My work with City Fruit, a Seattle-based food-security nonprofit, exposed me to the intersection of food production and sustainability.
My involvement with City Fruit grew, and I became more and more invested in their mission. I began researching the future of urban agriculture, food security, and nutrition, and eventually, I stumbled upon the importance of the Mediterranean diet.
The Mediterranean Diet
The Mediterranean diet has grown in popularity over the past few decades. Researchers noticed Mediterranean societies’ lower rates of cardiovascular and health-related diseases and drew connections to their consumption of whole grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables and a lower consumption of meat.
The Mediterranean diet captures people’s attention for another reason: its environmental benefits. The diet prioritizes food at the bottom of the food chain, meaning that consumption relies on less energy- and land-intensive practices. The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition created an Environmental Pyramid — similar to the Food Pyramid — that shows the environmental cost of certain foods.
Juxtaposing these pyramids establishes an important relationship between human health and environmental health. The healthiest food for us appears to be some of the healthier foods for the planet.
This realization helps further solidify the importance of a broad approach to sustainability. To establish an environmentally-friendly future for coming generations, we need to think about how all industries, not just energy, contribute to carbon dioxide emissions and land use.
Luckily, we live in a reality where healthy eating means a healthy planet.
That’s a sustainable future we can all get behind.
