Eating for the Environment.

• Author: LEON, WARREN

Being an environmentalist these days requires the use of information and judgment in making daily food choices. As this author points out, cutting down on meat might help the Earth more than recycling.

Until fairly recently, food choices received relatively little attention from most environmentalists. Mainstream environmental organizations either focused on preserving natural ecosystems, such as forests and wetlands, or they tried to reduce environmental damage caused by industrial products and processes--cars, power plants, chemical factories, and hazardous waste sites. Individuals were asked to recycle, conserve energy, and preserve wildlife.

But in recent years, environmental groups have become increasingly interested in food issues. They have addressed such topics as large-scale hog farms, collapsing fisheries, water pollution from farm pesticides, genetically engineered crops, and organic food standards. After all, agriculture is one of society's most resource-intensive activities, requiring vast tracts of land and using large quantities of water, energy, and other inputs. It stands to reason that its environmental impacts would be high.

When Michael Brower and I traced the major environmental consequences of Americans' consumer decisions for our recent book, The Consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, we discovered that food was second only to transportation in its overall impact. When all aspects of growing, processing, packaging, and transporting food are considered, they account for nearly three-quarters of all the water consumers use, directly or indirectly. The act of providing food is also responsible for nearly 40% of the consumer-related common water pollution and more than 40% of the land-use impacts that threaten natural habitats and biodiversity.

So what can we do to reduce the environmental costs of producing food? Most of the changes must be systemic ones undertaken by farmers and food processors with the assistance and prodding of governments. For example, sound government policies could ensure that agriculture uses water efficiently and that pesticides don't end up in rivers, streams, and drinking wells.

Cutting down on meat

Nevertheless, there are two key ways in which individual consumers can help move things in the right direction. The first is to eat less meat. Michael and I compared the environmental impacts of eating nutritionally equivalent amounts of pasta, chicken, and beef. As you can see in the chart below, the beef is a much worse choice for the environment. Compared to the pasta, it is responsible for nearly 20 times the land-use threats to...