We love these little seafood staples; the WWF says we eat about 2lb of prawns per person, worldwide, every year. To keep up with demand, there’s been an explosion in tiger prawn and king prawn farms in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, India and Vietnam.
The Marine Conservation Society says these farms often use illegal chemicals, including antibiotics, which pollute the local water; destroy mangroves that support many essential ecosystems and rely on fish pellets made from wild fish that are, in turn, depleting local fish stocks.
Many of the boats catching the ‘trash fish’ used for these pellets have also been accused of human rights abuses, including slavery and human trafficking.
If your prawns haven’t come from a fish farm, they may have been caught by a trawler. This is when a giant net is dragged across the seabed to catch prawns and langoustines for scampi – and anything else in its way, known as ‘by-catch’.
The practice causes incredible harm to the marine ecosystem, and campaigners are currently calling on UK supermarkets to take greater responsibility for how and where the scampi they sell is caught.
What’s the alternative?
If you are going to eat prawns, the MCS says small Northern or coldwater prawns are the most sustainable option. Farmed prawns with an EU organic or Soil Association label are also a good bet. For scampi, look for creel-caught langoustine or Dublin Bay prawns – a creel is a type of pot or wicker basket.
Seafood with a ‘blue tick’ from the Marine Stewardship Council was seen as the gold standard, but it has recently come under suspicion. Conservationists and campaigners say the MSC is certifying fisheries with unsustainable practices – like high levels of by-catch – while certifiers are also paid by the fisheries they assess.
For a truly sustainable alternative, buy mussels instead. They’re rich in protein, help clear up the ocean, don’t need any extra feed and are often cheaper than prawns. And if they’re local and seasonal, that’s miles better for your carbon footprint, too.
The trouble with rice
What’s the impact on the environment?
A report from Oxfam found more than half the world’s population rely on rice as their major source of calories, but growing rice uses around a third of the planet’s freshwater every year. The WWF says it takes between 3,000 and 5,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of rice, giving it a significant water footprint.
The method used to produce rice – flooding paddy fields to prevent weeds growing – allows methane-producing microbes to flourish too. Rice cultivation actually creates 12% of all global methane emissionsso some farmers have adopted a different method that switches between flooding fields and letting them dry out.
Unfortunately, scientists now believe intermittently flooded farms can release up to 45 times more nitrous oxide than continuously flooded fields; nitrous oxide is another harmful greenhouse gas (GHG) that can stay in the atmosphere for over 100 years.
Rice is also a mono-crop: growing the same crop species in the same field year after year. This has an impact on soil healthdepleting natural nutrients, and increases the risk of disease and pest outbreaks. Farmers then have to use more fertiliser and pesticides on their crops, which isn’t good for us or the environment.
What’s the alternative?
Rice has a huge cultural (and caloric) significance for billions of people, so not eating it simply isn’t an option. So, the announcement that a new rice variant can slash methane emissions by 70% is really good news. The scientists behind the new crop are now testing it in different types of soil to see how sustainable it really is.
A new farming method has also been created that means farmers can produce up to 50% more rice with less water. The System of Rice Intensification uses less fertiliser, less human labour and moist soil (rather than alternating between flooding and drying), to reduce its environmental impact.
If you want to buy sustainably farmed rice, look for products verified by the Sustainable Rice Platform. These include brands such as Nice Rice, Riso Gallo and some of Lidl’s own varieties. Or go for substitutes like sushi rice grown in Spain or Italy that will have a lower carbon footprint than rice flown in from countries in Asia.
Rather not rely on rice? You can mix up your diet – and avoid eating a mono-crop – by choosing alternatives like freekeh, teff, spelt and farro. Or go for lentils and pulses, like kidney beans and chickpeas, to broaden your nutrient intake.
Ecological issues with asparagus
What’s the impact on the environment?
Peru is the largest asparagus producer in the world, exporting 75% of their crop around the globe. In 2023, the UK imported roughly 6 million kilograms of fresh and chilled asparagus from Peru, worth around £23.3million, making us their third largest importer behind the US and Spain.
Research found asparagus has the greatest environmental impact of any of the fruit or vegetables we import. This is largely due to the food miles – asparagus is mainly air freighted to the UK – and its water footprint.
In 2010 it was revealed industrial asparagus farms in the Ica Valley in Peru were depleting local water resources. Nearby villages found their wells drying up, while the water table in the valley was dropping by eight metres a year in some places. But things haven’t improved over a decade later.
Studies show the Ica Valley is still facing severe water shortages as a result of the ‘agro-export boom’, and local water resources are still being exported as ‘virtual water’ in the asparagus. Plus, climate change will put even more pressure on Peru’s water supplies as their glaciers melt faster and the risk of drought increases.
What’s the alternative?
The simple answer is don’t buy asparagus from Peru. We don’t need to eat it year-round and cutting it out of your diet is one of the easiest ways to cut down your carbon footprint – importing 1kg of asparagus from Peru creates 11kgs of carbon dioxide, but Uk Arsapagus only produces 2.1kgs of CO2 per kg.
Buy locally produced when it’s in season – from April to June in the UK – to enjoy the taste and the feeling you’re helping to reduce virtual water exports. Agricultural exporters often say their product is driven by consumer demand, so let’s try to reduce that demand.
Unethical chocolate
What’s the impact on the environment?
The chocolate industry will be worth over $106 billion by 2027, but our love of the sweet stuff is having a huge negative impact on the planet. Scientists say cocoa farming is driving deforestation on the Ivory Coast and Ghana, where most of the world’s cocoa is produced – and 70% of this is illegal deforestation.
Some of the other ingredients used in chocolate also have large carbon footprints. Dairy milk uses a lot of land and freshwater, and produces GHGs – mainly methane from cow burps – while palm oil is responsible for the loss of huge areas of rainforest in Southeast Asia.
Cocoa cultivation is both causing and is a victim of climate change. Deforestation releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere but as the planet warms, a lack of rainfall and higher temperatures damages cocoa trees, which forces farmers to find new areas to grow cocoa. And the cycle continues.
Apart from environmental damage, cocoa production is known for several human rights abuses. Most cocoa farmers earn just 6% of the final value of a chocolate bar, while child labour, human trafficking and even slavery are common practices.
What’s the alternative?
Look for Fairtrade chocolate, which focuses on improving living and working standards for cocoa farmers, and choose ethical producers that only buy cocoa from sustainable sources. Organic chocolate and those that are palm-oil free are also good for your conscience and your tastebuds.
Not sure where to start? We’ve done the hard work for you; read our round-up of the 10 most planet-friendly chocolate brands.
Sticking to dark chocolate will reduce the environmental impact from dairy milk and it could be good for your health, too. Dark chocolate is rich in active plant compounds called flavanols that may help protect your heart, improve brain function and reduce your risk of chronic conditions like diabetes.
Climate-changing coffee
What’s the impact on the environment?
Research shows producing just 1kg of coffee creates about 15kg of carbon dioxide, putting it second only to beef in terms of its carbon footprint – or about the same as Denmark’s annual emissions! Coffee’s GHG emissions mainly come from deforestation, farming – particularly the use of fertilisers – and transportation.
Over the past 20 years, roughly 130,000 hectares of forest has been lost every year to coffee cultivation. A report by the WWF found land-use change (i.e. deforestation) contributed nearly half a cup of coffee’s total GHGs.
Fertilisers used by coffee farmers release large amounts of nitrous oxide, while processing coffee cherries using the ‘wet’ method uses significantly more water than simply drying them in the sun. The green beans are then transported to another destination; transport makes up around 15% of the GHGs in coffee’s lifecycle.
When you add in roasting, packaging and final transportation to shops and homes, it’s no surprise that coffee has such an enormous impact on the environment. And that’s before we even consider the cost on human lives, such as slavery, child labour or coffee farmers not earning enough to lift them out of poverty.
What’s the alternative?
Good news – you don’t have to give up your morning brew. Experts from University College London found sustainable coffee has a 77% lower carbon footprint than conventionally produced beans. Most of this reduction comes from using cargo ships rather than air freight, so find out how your coffee is transported.
Buying organic coffee guarantees it doesn’t use chemical fertilisers or pesticides, but check to see if it’s also shade-grown. This agroforestry system plants coffee among taller trees that shade the coffee plants, help reduce temperatures – tackling global warming – and boost biodiversity.
Some shade-grown UK coffee brands include Bird & Wild, Cafédirect, Easy Jose Coffee, Coromandel Coast and Owens Coffee. Buying coffee from producers who deal directly with the growers, or Fairtrade certified brands, means farmers also receive much better prices for their coffee crop.
If you really want to make your coffee greener, switch to drinking tea – a scientific analysis comparing tea and coffee production found coffee produces 2.5 times the GHGs of tea, and tea only needs 25% of the water used in coffee cultivation. But that might be a step too far for even the most ethically minded coffee drinker.