Contact: Team Chair: Marcia S.
100granniesiowacity@gmail.com
Mission: The Diet and Climate Team provides education on how food production and dietary choices, especially animal products, affect climate change.
What we eat is strongly connected to climate change. Food needs to be grown and processed, transported, distributed, prepared, consumed, and sometimes disposed of. Each of these steps creates greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s heat and contribute to climate change. According to the United Nations, about a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions is linked to food. According to the US Department of Agriculture, between 30 and 40% of food is wasted in the U.S.
Project Drawdown is an international effort to decrease greenhouse gases in the atmosphere based on systematic research that led to ranking the top 100 priorities. It may surprise many that the #3 leading priority is to reduce food waste and the #4 leading priority is to eat a plant-rich diet in terms of impact on drawing down atmospheric greenhouse gases.
The Love Food, Fight Waste program offers community members resources and information on how to reduce food waste. This program is a collaboration between the City of Iowa City and Table to Table, a local food recovery organization. It features postings at https://www.icgov.org/lovefood which cover a different topic each month. 100Grannies is one of the community organizations spreading the word about this program. A component of this effort is to reduce our carbon footprint and benefit our health by choosing local food as described here and in this video.
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, animal-based foods, especially red meat, dairy, and farmed shrimp, are generally associated with the highest greenhouse gas emissions. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 26% of the planet’s ice-free land is used for livestock grazing and 33% of croplands are used for livestock feed production. Livestock contribute to 7% of the total greenhouse gas emissions through enteric fermentation and manure. For these reasons, eating a plant-rich diet, especially a vegan diet is encouraged. Plant-based diets can readily provide all the needed protein as shown in this helpful poster of plant-based protein sources. For other evidence-based guidance and tips on eating a plant-based diet, follow these links to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and NutritionFacts.org
For an up-to-date list of Iowa City restaurants that offer vegan options visit this link.
Vegan Recipes – Alphabetic Vegan Recipes – By Category
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