There are lots of articles sprouting about lowering your carbon footprint through your food choices. A lot of it is very sensible stuff. I was very inspired by the article by Mary McVean in the LA Times about the emergence of the "Victory gardens" fashion, as she calls it, for people to grow their own vegetables in their back garden.

This might work for Americans or many suburban Brits but it is not practical in big cities. My garden in London could barely provide a supply of a basket of vegetables a year, hardly enough for anyone on a healthy 5-veg a day diet. Also there is no harm in having other plants in the garden (after all it is a place to plant hydrangeas, not an allotment), and letting a good fraction of it let go (having an excessively manicured garden is a sign of a sick mind), because the bird population for London is eternally grateful for a bit of messy shrubbery in the garden to hide and nest during the winter, and shelter from the London wildlife of foxes and domestic cats.

However there are many other ways to go down the low-carbon footprint path in our diet. The rule of thumb is to buy local. You have heard this many times before. It is true: transport emissions are key, and buying local is the only way to minimise these. Local and organic is still a better combination. Organic and from overseas is the most kafkanian combination. I was appalled by a recent article on The Times by the hugely opinionated restaurant critic A.A. Gill who tossed aside the organic movement as a scam. N'importe quoi. From a vantage point of high wisdom and lucidity conveyed by a third bottle of claret in the Wolseley he might feel very entitled to display a sublime degree of ignorance in expressing that view, but as it happens the organic movement is one of the best things that has happened since recycling. It eliminates our toxic footprint that are constantly leaving on our planet by spraying tons of pesticides on industrially produced vegetables. Also our own health suffers as a result and it is no wonder that our generation registers the lowest sperm count and feeblest sperm mobility and female fertility ever recorded. This we have to thank to the E-numbers and all forms of artificial chemicals in our food, including pesticides.

We have to be thankful for a very strong organic movement, and in particular in the UK, I find a newfound fondness for the monarchy given that the Prince of Wales leads by example providing a large variety of organic produce through his Duchy Originals range. Other producers please take note. The future of our diets is in a zero carbon footprint and zero ecological footprint target.

I am toying with the idea of writing a book about the ideal low-carbon diet, and I think that one can come up with very delicious choices which are positively zero-footprint, almost of pre-industrial levels. After all, when we are talking pre-industrial we are not talking stone age. We can adapt our technology and our food production processes to have the best of both worlds and at the same time slash our carbon footprint dramatically. I have asked around with my colleagues for inspiration. Having three vegetarian colleagues the advice is biased towards "grow your own" and "don't buy organic avocados flown in from Spain"; our chief executive is on Jana Klauer's Park Avenue high-protein diet, so he advises sustainable sources of wild fish and organic low-fat cottage cheese as a central element to the diet. I am not so keen on cottage cheese myself, but I agree that we all need a daily source of calcium, and whatever takes your fancy whether it is organic low-fat mature cheddar (less than 1.5% fat) or a few pints of skimmed milk (my personal favourite, after all milk has everything you need!) or a portion of Total 0% will do. The wonderful thing about dairy is that it is the one thing that can be sourced locally almost everywhere (and more and more frequently organic and low fat).

 I think I will come up with a combination of recipes to suit all..

A lot of our so-called high carbon footprint habits are simply force of habit. The same applies to our high ecological footprint. The huge fuss that has been caused on account of plastic bags has all to do with our bad habits. We have grown into the habit of rushing to the supermarket after work and grabbing our groceries in plastic bags. In all fairness it's neater than carrying a crumpled re-usable bag. But it just takes a minute of planning to put a nice jute or cotton bag inside our gym bag (or handbag) and use it for our shopping after work. This eliminates the need for so many plastic bags.  

The same applies to our shopping habits. Read the label. Don't buy anything that has been flown in or driven long distance. There is no excuse for it. Consumer power is an important thing. We can change the way manufacturers source their produce through our own choices. We don't have to accept it as a given.

Soon you will discover that changing habits can be a journey of discovery, of exploring new things, that you didn't know could be interesting and exciting and make you healthier. We are walking less and less. Often parents shuttle their kids to school in their SUVs, congesting the streets of our cities and not realising that their kids would be much better off walking/cycling that 1/2 mile to school (or hopping on the bus for a couple of stops). We don't stop to think about it because everyone is doing the same. The inertia of habit stops us from taking simple steps. It's like driving to the supermarket when we suddenly realise that a short walk is a pleasure we had almost forgotten about.

Brunella Bell

 brunella@carbonica.org

CARBONICA - PROTECTING THE WORLD'S RAINFORESTS 

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