But those are only half truths. They’re omitting the fact, that a lot of the biomass we’re eating comes from farming. Those plants that collect carbon dioxide from the atmosphere use a lot of synthetic fertilizers to grow, which itself uses A LOT of fossil energy to be produced. A lot of that plant biomass is fed to livestock to produce different kinds of foods that the marketTM demands, while emitting methane and ammonia and nitrous oxides, some of which are far worse greenhouse gasse, than CO2.
And then there’s the whole issue of food waste and bullshit products you can buy at the supermarket that might contribute a little bit to your ability to exhale CO2 but come with insane amounts of useless packaging (made from petrol, and the best case scenario for them is, that they’re going to be burned in a waste incinerator later).
People breathing is breaking the natural carbon cycle in lots of places, and part of the problem is, that they are being fed by capitalism.
They’re omitting the fact, that a lot of the biomass we’re eating comes from farming. Those plants that collect carbon dioxide from the atmosphere use a lot of synthetic fertilizers to grow, which itself uses A LOT of fossil energy to be produced.
The CO2 emissions per calorie of food varies almost 3 whole orders of magnitude between different food types:
At the same time, our CO2 exhalation is about the same per calorie of food, regardless of source. So it’s more fair to describe our baseline biological needs and bodily functions separately from our economic consumption of the products we prefer to consume (food or otherwise).
So I still think the focus on the raw calorie count of our consumption (and the accompanying CO2 exhalation) obscures, rather than explains, how our food consumption contributes to climate change.
I think it should have been clear from my text, that imho the issue lies in food production rather than food consumption and that what kinds of food you’re eating and how it was produced is the part of this issue, that you have some control over. I mean, consumers can’t buy what “the marketTM” don’t offer and yadda yadda yadda, but at least you can do more about it than about the fact, that you need to breathe at all. (Apart from drastic measures, that I neither expect nor recommend)
But those are only half truths. They’re omitting the fact, that a lot of the biomass we’re eating comes from farming. Those plants that collect carbon dioxide from the atmosphere use a lot of synthetic fertilizers to grow, which itself uses A LOT of fossil energy to be produced. A lot of that plant biomass is fed to livestock to produce different kinds of foods that the marketTM demands, while emitting methane and ammonia and nitrous oxides, some of which are far worse greenhouse gasse, than CO2.
And then there’s the whole issue of food waste and bullshit products you can buy at the supermarket that might contribute a little bit to your ability to exhale CO2 but come with insane amounts of useless packaging (made from petrol, and the best case scenario for them is, that they’re going to be burned in a waste incinerator later).
People breathing is breaking the natural carbon cycle in lots of places, and part of the problem is, that they are being fed by capitalism.
The CO2 emissions per calorie of food varies almost 3 whole orders of magnitude between different food types:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/ghg-kcal-poore
At the same time, our CO2 exhalation is about the same per calorie of food, regardless of source. So it’s more fair to describe our baseline biological needs and bodily functions separately from our economic consumption of the products we prefer to consume (food or otherwise).
So I still think the focus on the raw calorie count of our consumption (and the accompanying CO2 exhalation) obscures, rather than explains, how our food consumption contributes to climate change.
I agree with everything you’re saying.
I think it should have been clear from my text, that imho the issue lies in food production rather than food consumption and that what kinds of food you’re eating and how it was produced is the part of this issue, that you have some control over. I mean, consumers can’t buy what “the marketTM” don’t offer and yadda yadda yadda, but at least you can do more about it than about the fact, that you need to breathe at all. (Apart from drastic measures, that I neither expect nor recommend)
Very insightful. Now deliver it in rage bait format so more people understand