DIY -- Sustainable Food Shopping Video

Many people know that cutting down on driving and making changes around the house can save lots of money and reduce global warming pollution. But did you know that tinkering with your diet and tweaking your grocery list can help too?

In The Green Grok's first Do It Yourself post, Dr. Bill Chameides gives tips to make your food shopping more sustainable.

Watch the video here, or go to youtube to watch it in full screen mode (be sure to click on "watch in high quality" underneath the video on the right side). Either way, let us know what you think about these tips -- and tell us about your top ways to trim global warming pollution.

Comments

[mjt218]

Local really doesn't necessarily mean better. Small local farms may produce tons of nitrogen fertilizer run-off, use lots of chemical contaminents and are not necessarily efficient. Massive industrial farms are by and large more efficient in local producers. So much so that even with carbon emissions from transportation, they may have a smaller carbon footprint than local products.

Don't believe that local automatically means better sustainability. In many cases it may be, but without doing a bit more research you really can't say for sure. If you're looking for the combined punch of helping your local economy and eating healthy, then buy local.

I'll agree on the bottled water and the cans.

[Bill Chameides - Huffpost Blogger]

You are right -- local does not always mean more sustainable. For example, fruit grown in an arid climate might require so much water that it is better to buy fruit grown in wetter regions and have it shipped. Produce grown locally but with lots of fertilizers may have a larger footprint than more distant produce grown sustainably. And so, as you advise, doing a bit of research is good.

Nevertheless, I think that a good rule of thumb for us to take to the supermarket is: all things being equal, choose locally grown foods.

[ThatsNotFunny]

Videos that play automatically are bad!

[WoodyCPM]

But videos that play are good!