Exercises

Facts - What has our food to do with climate change?

 - Animal farming needs lots of water à a problem in times of water shortage

- Animal farming produces lots of CO2 and methane à heating of the atmosphere

- Animal farming needs lots of areas and soil (not only for the animals but also for the growing of their food like soy  or corn for pigs ). à This areas are lost for natural habitats, we lose biodiversity, and are in the same time lost for the cultivation of cereals or vegetables for men. High forest areas are destroyed to get new farming areas to produce animal feed à climate heating

- Overfishing: Too much consumption of fish and seafood: the oceans and rivers are overfished à on the one side the food chain of the animals is destroyed (animals which need the fishes which are already fished by men don’t find food anymore) also destruction of the basic food and economic resource of the people living near the ocean / rivers

- Fish and seafood farming produce waste, antibiotics and chemicals get into the open sea and rivers à pollution of oceans and rivers, in the end harming ourselves

- „normal“ conventional agriculture uses lots of pesticides (chemical plant protection products and weed killers which are poisonous for nature and men),

- „normal“ intensive and conventional agriculture uses techniques of soil preparation, which on the long sight destroy the soil life and the soil itself à , soils are leached out and over used à soils are poisoned, poisons get into vegetables, animals, men à the result of cumulated poisons causes diseases and in the long term death

- Advantages of organic agriculture: soil is prepared in soil protecting manner, animals can life in a more natural manner, organic herbicides and pesticides are not as poisonous as conventional ones

- Consumption of imported food causes CO2 and the other problems of traffic while transported

- Buying too much food: à lots of food is thrown away (which before had to be cultivated, harvested, stored, transported) à waste not only of the food but also of space, water, herbicides and pesticides, traffic infrastructure, CO2 production) …..

- Food is wrapped in plastic à the production of plastic needs mineral oil and natural resources, plastic is waste, mikroplastic gets into our environment

Solutions - What can you do?

- Reduce your meat consumption to once or twice a week or less, or become vegetarian

- Reduce your consumption of diary products like milk, cheese and yoghurt or abstain from it completely (become vegan)

- Buy organic food

- Buy regional food

- Buy seasonal food

- Cultivate part of your food by your own if possible (garden, balcony)

- Be aware of how much you buy: are you able to consume it or till there be something thrown away?

- Preserve food and vegetables from which you have too much

- Create dishes made of leftovers

- Buy at the local market or the farmer