You don’t have to go on a diet to change your diet. Making a simple commitment to eat more plant-based meals and less meat is one of the most impactful changes you can make to conserve water, energy, and natural lands. Become a “locavore” and eat food grown locally and in season to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from refrigerating, packaging, and shipping food over long distances. Supporting Suncoast farmers, grocers, and restaurants that are part of the blossoming farm-to-table movement supports our local economy, biodiversity, soil health, and food security.
Cost: Variable
Mom was right: Eat more vegetables! Dishing up more fruits, vegetables, and grains is far less damaging to the environment than meat.
You don’t have to swear off steak forever: simply cutting back on the amount of red meat you eat is helpful (and healthful too). Why not give Meatless Mondays a try and explore tasty recipes that go way beyond a salad?
This calculator generates your water use and greenhouse gas emissions based on the mix of meats that you eat. You can then calculate the impact of substituting high protein vegetables like soy for some or all of the meat in your diet.
Cost: Variable
For fresh, local, in-season food strive to find everything you want to eat within 50 miles. Fruit and veggies grown out of season in greenhouses, or grown in other states or countries, require large amounts of water, fertilizer, pesticides, and energy to raise, store, and ship long distances. In Florida, fresh food can be grown in every season and harvested at peak ripeness for maximum flavor and nutrition. Strawberries, lettuce, citrus, tomatoes, corn, squash, and blueberries are among crops grown locally at various times of year. Increasingly, small farms are opting for organic methods that avoid chemicals.
Supporting Suncoast farmers, ranchers, and fishermen in your own community, along with a thriving network of farmer’s markets, food co-ops, and farm-to-table restaurants supports our local economy, biodiversity, soil health and food security. Search for “Fresh From Florida” products and suppliers by location and look for Fresh From Florida labels wherever you shop. Even major supermarket chains are getting into the locally grown groove.
Community Harvest SRQ, a non-profit leader in the local food movement, maintains the Eat Local Guide, the definitive searchable guide to Suncoast-sourced food, including farmer’s markets, grocers, restaurants, community gardens, CSA farms, and U-pick farms.
Farmer’s Markets
Seafood Markets
Livestock Farms
Farm Co-ops (CSA Produce Subscription Boxes)
U-Pick and Farm Stands
If you are a diver, help control invasive Lionfish in our area waters by participating in the local Lionfish Derby. If you don’t dive, you can still help by purchasing lionfish harvested locally from local seafood markets. Because lionfish are voracious predators of juvenile fish, you’ll be helping to preserve our native fisheries. Blackened lionfish tacos sound good? Here are some recipes.
This calculator generates your water use and greenhouse gas emissions based on the mix of meats that you eat. You can then calculate the impact of substituting high protein vegetables like soy for some or all of the meat in your diet.
How many ounces of meat do you consume per week? (Typical serving size is 4oz)
Impact of eating
meat for 1 year
Impact of substituting veg for 50% meat for 1 year
% savings by substituting 50% veg
Total pounds of meat
Number of chickens
Number of pigs
Number of cows
Gallons of water used
Pounds of CO2 emitted
That’s the water equivalent of leaving your faucet running for (x) days:
That’s the GHG Equivalent of:
Ac. of forest growing over 1yr
Tree seedlings grown for 10 yrs
Gas-powered car miles (22.5mpg)
How are these calculated?
Meat Consumption (OECD Data)
Food Availability (Per Capita) Data System (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture)
Meat-Calculator to Evaluate the Environmental Impact of Meat Consumption (Blitz Results)
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