We love these little seafood staples; the WWF says we eat about 2lb of prawns per individual, worldwide, yearly. To sustain with demand, there’s been an explosion in tiger prawn and king prawn farms in international locations like Thailand, Indonesia, India and Vietnam.
The Marine Conservation Society says these farms usually use unlawful chemical substances, together with antibiotics, which pollute the native water; destroy mangroves that assist many important ecosystems and depend on fish pellets created from wild fish which are, in flip, depleting native fish shares.
Many of the boats catching the ‘trash fish’ used for these pellets have additionally been accused of human rights abuses, including slavery and human trafficking.
If your prawns haven’t come from a fish farm, they could have been caught by a trawler. This is when an enormous internet is dragged throughout the seabed to catch prawns and langoustines for scampi – and anything in its means, generally known as ‘by-catch’.
The follow causes incredible harm to the marine ecosystem, and campaigners are presently calling on UK supermarkets to take higher accountability for the way and the place the scampi they promote is caught.
What’s the choice?
If you’ll eat prawns, the MCS says small Northern or coldwater prawns are essentially the most sustainable possibility. Farmed prawns with an EU natural or Soil Association label are additionally a great guess. For scampi, search for creel-caught langoustine or Dublin Bay prawns – a creel is a kind of pot or wicker basket.
Seafood with a ‘blue tick’ from the Marine Stewardship Council was seen because the gold normal, but it surely has not too long ago come below suspicion. Conservationists and campaigners say the MSC is certifying fisheries with unsustainable practices – like excessive ranges of by-catch – whereas certifiers are additionally paid by the fisheries they assess.
For a really sustainable various, purchase mussels as a substitute. They’re wealthy in protein, assist clear up the ocean, don’t want any additional feed and are sometimes cheaper than prawns. And in the event that they’re native and seasonal, that’s miles higher to your carbon footprint, too.
The hassle with rice
What’s the impression on the setting?
A report from Oxfam discovered greater than half the world’s inhabitants depend on rice as their main supply of energy, however rising rice makes use of round a 3rd of the planet’s freshwater yearly. The WWF says it takes between 3,000 and 5,000 litres of water to provide 1kg of rice, giving it a major water footprint.
The methodology used to provide rice – flooding paddy fields to forestall weeds rising – permits methane-producing microbes to flourish too. Rice cultivation really creates 12% of all global methane emissionsso some farmers have adopted a special methodology that switches between flooding fields and letting them dry out.
Unfortunately, scientists now imagine intermittently flooded farms can launch as much as 45 times extra nitrous oxide than constantly flooded fields; nitrous oxide is one other dangerous greenhouse gas (GHG) that may keep within the environment for over 100 years.
Rice can also be a mono-crop: rising the identical crop species in the identical discipline 12 months after 12 months. This has an impression on soil healthdepleting pure vitamins, and will increase the danger of illness and pest outbreaks. Farmers then have to make use of extra fertiliser and pesticides on their crops, which isn’t good for us or the setting.
What’s the choice?
Rice has an enormous cultural (and caloric) significance for billions of individuals, so not consuming it merely isn’t an possibility. So, the announcement {that a} new rice variant can slash methane emissions by 70% is absolutely excellent news. The scientists behind the brand new crop are now testing it in several types of soil to see how sustainable it truly is.
A new farming method has additionally been created meaning farmers can produce as much as 50% extra rice with much less water. The System of Rice Intensification makes use of much less fertiliser, much less human labour and moist soil (fairly than alternating between flooding and drying), to scale back its environmental impression.
If you wish to purchase sustainably farmed rice, search for merchandise verified by the Sustainable Rice Platform. These embody manufacturers comparable to Nice Rice, Riso Gallo and a few of Lidl’s personal varieties. Or go for substitutes like sushi rice grown in Spain or Italy that can have a decrease carbon footprint than rice flown in from international locations in Asia.
Rather not depend on rice? You can combine up your weight-reduction plan – and keep away from consuming a mono-crop – by selecting alternate options like freekeh, teff, spelt and farro. Or go for lentils and pulses, like kidney beans and chickpeas, to broaden your nutrient consumption.
Ecological points with asparagus
What’s the impression on the setting?
Peru is the biggest asparagus producer on the earth, exporting 75% of their crop across the globe. In 2023, the UK imported roughly 6 million kilograms of recent and chilled asparagus from Peru, value round £23.3million, making us their third largest importer behind the US and Spain.
Research discovered asparagus has the greatest environmental impact of any of the fruit or greens we import. This is basically as a result of meals miles – asparagus is principally air freighted to the UK – and its water footprint.
In 2010 it was revealed industrial asparagus farms within the Ica Valley in Peru had been depleting native water assets. Nearby villages discovered their wells drying up, whereas the water desk within the valley was dropping by eight metres a 12 months in some locations. But issues haven’t improved over a decade later.
Studies present the Ica Valley continues to be going through severe water shortages because of the ‘agro-export boom’, and native water assets are nonetheless being exported as ‘virtual water’ in the asparagus. Plus, climate change will put even more pressure on Peru’s water provides as their glaciers soften quicker and the danger of drought will increase.
What’s the choice?
The easy reply is don’t purchase asparagus from Peru. We don’t must eat it year-round and slicing it out of your weight-reduction plan is likely one of the best methods to chop down your carbon footprint – importing 1kg of asparagus from Peru creates 11kgs of carbon dioxide, however Uk Arsapagus solely produces 2.1kgs of CO2 per kg.
Buy domestically produced when it’s in season – from April to June within the UK – to benefit from the style and the sensation you’re serving to to scale back digital water exports. Agricultural exporters usually say their product is pushed by shopper demand, so let’s attempt to scale back that demand.
Unethical chocolate
What’s the impression on the setting?
The chocolate trade shall be value over $106 billion by 2027, however our love of the candy stuff is having an enormous destructive impression on the planet. Scientists say cocoa farming is driving deforestation on the Ivory Coast and Ghana, the place a lot of the world’s cocoa is produced – and 70% of that is unlawful deforestation.
Some of the opposite components utilized in chocolate even have giant carbon footprints. Dairy milk makes use of a number of land and freshwater, and produces GHGs – primarily methane from cow burps – whereas palm oil is chargeable for the lack of enormous areas of rainforest in Southeast Asia.
Cocoa cultivation is each inflicting and is a sufferer of local weather change. Deforestation releases extra carbon dioxide into the environment however because the planet warms, an absence of rainfall and better temperatures damages cocoa timber, which forces farmers to find new areas to develop cocoa. And the cycle continues.
Apart from environmental harm, cocoa manufacturing is thought for a number of human rights abuses. Most cocoa farmers earn simply 6% of the final value of a chocolate bar, whereas youngster labour, human trafficking and even slavery are common practices.
What’s the choice?
Look for Fairtrade chocolate, which focuses on enhancing residing and dealing requirements for cocoa farmers, and select moral producers that solely purchase cocoa from sustainable sources. Organic chocolate and people which are palm-oil free are additionally good to your conscience and your tastebuds.
Not positive the place to start out? We’ve performed the exhausting be just right for you; learn our round-up of the 10 most planet-friendly chocolate manufacturers.
Sticking to dark chocolate will scale back the environmental impression from dairy milk and it could possibly be good to your well being, too. Dark chocolate is wealthy in active plant compounds known as flavanols that will assist defend your coronary heart, enhance mind operate and reduce your risk of continual situations like diabetes.
Climate-changing espresso
What’s the impression on the setting?
Research reveals producing simply 1kg of espresso creates about 15kg of carbon dioxide, placing it second solely to beef when it comes to its carbon footprint – or about the identical as Denmark’s annual emissions! Coffee’s GHG emissions primarily come from deforestation, farming – significantly using fertilisers – and transportation.
Over the previous 20 years, roughly 130,000 hectares of forest has been misplaced yearly to espresso cultivation. A report by the WWF discovered land-use change (i.e. deforestation) contributed nearly half a cup of espresso’s complete GHGs.
Fertilisers utilized by espresso farmers launch giant quantities of nitrous oxide, whereas processing espresso cherries utilizing the ‘wet’ methodology makes use of considerably extra water than merely drying them within the solar. The inexperienced beans are then transported to a different vacation spot; transport makes up round 15% of the GHGs in espresso’s lifecycle.
When you add in roasting, packaging and remaining transportation to retailers and houses, it’s no shock that espresso has such an infinite impression on the setting. And that’s earlier than we even take into account the price on human lives, comparable to slavery, child labour or espresso farmers not earning enough to elevate them out of poverty.
What’s the choice?
Good information – you don’t have to surrender your morning brew. Experts from University College London discovered sustainable espresso has a 77% lower carbon footprint than conventionally produced beans. Most of this discount comes from utilizing cargo ships fairly than air freight, so learn how your espresso is transported.
Buying natural espresso ensures it doesn’t use chemical fertilisers or pesticides, however examine to see if it’s additionally shade-grown. This agroforestry system crops espresso amongst taller timber that shade the espresso crops, assist scale back temperatures – tackling international warming – and enhance biodiversity.
Some shade-grown UK espresso manufacturers embody Bird & Wild, Cafédirect, Easy Jose Coffee, Coromandel Coast and Owens Coffee. Buying espresso from producers who deal straight with the growers, or Fairtrade licensed manufacturers, means farmers additionally obtain significantly better costs for his or her espresso crop.
If you actually wish to make your espresso greener, swap to consuming tea – a scientific analysis evaluating tea and occasional manufacturing discovered espresso produces 2.5 instances the GHGs of tea, and tea solely wants 25% of the water utilized in espresso cultivation. But that is perhaps a step too far for even essentially the most ethically minded espresso drinker.
