Food

FOOD

Anyone who eats has the ability to affect Climate Change. Anyone who makes food for others is on the frontlines. As you make your own food decisions, all of these choices will make a difference. Some things to think about:

With the bombardment of media telling you what you should and shouldn’t do (a little like our own list above), it can feel daunting. Getting good at taking actions to combat global warming is a bit like deciding to go on a diet and then struggling to stick to it. We don’t expect you to do everything every day even if your intentions are terrific. We just hope you keep coming back and setting yourself yet another goal. And, you are not alone in wondering what difference you, as an individual, can actually make. But, consider bees building a honey hive or voters electing a president. In both cases, there are lots of individuals taking small actions and achieving monumental things.

How to sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050, in 21 charts

CURRENT NEWS

Future of food production hinges on water

By Ayurella Horn-Muller 05/17/23
A team of 40+ USDA scientists has listed the most significant looming challenges facing water resources and agricultural production nationwide. Why it matters: Their newly-released plan unlocks a 30-year roadmap for mitigating some of the…
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How Much of a Difference Does Organic Food Make?

By Earth911 05/04/23
As a father, I’ll do just about anything for my kids. But one thing I won’t do is put non-organic meals on their plates. As a farmer, I see firsthand the big differences between food…
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United States Supermarket Scorecard 2022

04/06/23
EIA scored the biggest U.S. supermarket chains on their actions to reduce emissions of climate super pollutant hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). Each company is scored on actions in three categories of technology adoption, refrigerant management, and policy…
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Op-ed: We Need a New Farm Bill—for My Iowa Farm and Beyond

By Wendy Johnson 04/05/23
grew up on a farm in Iowa during the Farm Crisis of the 1980s. Back then, life here was not flourishing, but dying. I pursued a career in fashion and moved to Los Angeles, where…
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The IPCC’s Latest Climate Report Is a Final Alarm for Food Systems, Too

By Lisa Held 03/20/23
The world’s top climate scientists are not pulling any punches in their latest assessment: The climate crisis is already affecting the world’s food supply and exacerbating hunger—and those impacts are going to get worse.
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cnn

Blueberries have joined green beans in this year’s Dirty Dozen list

By Sandee LaMotte 03/15/23
Blueberries, beloved by nutritionists for their anti-inflammatory properties, have joined fiber-rich green beans in this year’s Dirty Dozen of nonorganic produce with the most pesticides, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental health…
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Meat, dairy and rice production will bust 1.5C climate target

By Damian Carrington 03/06/23
Emissions from food system alone will drive the world past target, unless high-methane foods are tackledEmissions from the food system alone will drive the world past 1.5C of global heating, unless high-methane foods are tackled.Climate-heating…
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CNN

USDA toughens up regulation of organic products for first time since 1990

By Carma Hassan 01/19/23
The US Department of Agriculture is taking steps to improve the transparency and standards for products that are currently considered organic.
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State, federal solar incentives help Illinois feed mill slash energy costs

By Kari Lydersen 11/21/22
The semi-trucks stream in and out, more than 60 a day, delivering mounds of corn and soybeans and departing full of feed pellets ready to fatten pigs across Illinois and Missouri.
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Inside the Global Effort to Keep Perfectly Good Food Out of the Dump

By Somini Sengupta 10/13/22
In Seoul, garbage cans automatically weigh how much food gets tossed in the trash. In London, grocers have stopped putting date labels on fruits and vegetables to reduce confusion about what is still edible. California…
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Gotham Greens just raised $310M to expand its greenhouses nationwide

By Brian Heater 09/12/22
That’s not a typo. $310 million, with a zero at the end. This latest round brings Gotham Greens’ total funding up to $440 million since its 2009 launch. The nine-digit raise was led by BMO…
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KEY RESOURCES

Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems

10/06/20
Food systems have the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability; however, they are currently threatening both.

Focus on Food Would Help Solve Climate Change, Says Study

02/18/20
A paper released today presents a new global food system approach to climate-change research that brings together agricultural production, supply chains and consumption. ...

Regenerative Farm Map

02/06/20
Click any pin on the map to view more information about specific farms. This is the easiest way to find local farms in your area selling regenerative products.

Center for Food Safety

06/24/19
The Center for Food Safety (CFS) developed the Cool Foods Campaign to show food can be part of climate solutions. The campaign emphasizes eating fresh, unprocessed foods; buying local and seasonal products; choosing organic fare;…

MORE NEWS

Wsj

U.S. Heat Wave Hits Supermarkets’ Produce Sections

By Jaewon Kang and Others   09/11/22  
High temperatures in the Western U.S. are hitting the produce industry, damaging crops, shrinking shipments and leaving fewer leafy greens and fruits on supermarket shelves. A California grower said some of his lettuce leaves are…
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How the Inflation Reduction Act Affects Food and Agriculture

By Tom Philpott   08/11/22  
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, whose Senate passage makes its enactment likely, contains a multitude of provisions. It’s the “biggest climate bill that any country has ever passed,” gushed Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), lauding…
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49 million people face famine as Ukraine war, climate disasters intensify

By Sarah Kaplan   06/13/22  
With temperatures spiking to 110 degrees once more, Jeetram Yadav sat in the shade on his farm outside New Delhi and cupped a handful of this season’s disappointing wheat between his calloused palms. The grains…
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The Johnny Appleseed of Sugar Kelp

By Charity Robey   06/10/22  
When Michael Doall was a teenager, he hated seaweed, and so did everybody else he knew on Long Island. It was an icky nuisance that brushed against your legs at the beach, fouled your fishing…
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Feeding a Hotter Planet

By Somini Sengupta   06/10/22  
Pandemic, war, and climate change have brought matters to a head. The world faces what the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, this week called “an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution.”
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How Bad Is the Global Food Crisis Going to Get?

By David Wallace-Wells   06/07/22  
They were calling it a crisis even before the war began: more than 800 million people in a state of chronic hunger. But, as you may have heard, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia —…
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NASA climate research scientist wins World Food Prize

By David Pitt   05/05/22  
Cynthia Rosenzweig, an agronomist and climatologist, was awarded the $250,000 prize in recognition of her innovative modeling of the impact of climate change on food production. She is a senior research scientist at the NASA…
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Devouring the rainforest

By Terrence McCoy and Júlia Ledur   04/29/22  
Cattle ranching, responsible for the great majority of deforestation in the Amazon, is pushing the forest to the edge of what scientists warn could be a vast and irreversible dieback that claims much of the…
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Five charts that show why our food is not ready for the climate crisis

By Nina Lakhani, Alvin Chang, Rita Liu and Andrew Witherspoon   04/22/22  
The industrialization of agriculture in the last century boosted production around the world – but that success also made our food systems much more vulnerable to the growing climate crisis.
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Ecokitchen

By Priyanka Naik   04/02/22  
Become a climate-conscious cook with Priyanka Naik's actionable tips on how to make your daily life in the kitchen greener, from saving energy to minimizing food waste, in this 8-week newsletter guide. You'll receive your…
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Our Best Food System Solutions Stories of 2021

By The Civil Eats Editors   12/30/21  
From the climate crisis to systemic racism to the never-ending pandemic, challenges abound, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But across the food system, people and communities are thinking creatively and acting boldly to address…
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Taking Stock And Looking Forward: Climate and Animal Agriculture

By The Civil Eats Editors   12/28/21  
As 2021 comes to an end, we take stock of another momentous year that marked massive upheavals in the food system and across society. To lead us into 2022, we asked some of the leading…
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How climate change and extreme weather are crimping America’s pie supply

By Laura Reiley   11/17/21  
For months, supply chain issues and labor shortages have been putting the squeeze on Mike’s Pies, a popular commercial bakery here that’s been selling pies based off owner Mike Martin’s mother’s recipes for three decades.…
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Could Climate Change Make Food Less Nutritious?

By Greta Moran   11/16/21  
As the climate crisis progresses, the planet is becoming less inhabitable—not only for humans and other animals, but also for plants.
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Foraging On Oregon’s Central Coast

By Tony Kastelnik   11/12/21  
In 1959 author Jean Craighead George released the adventure novel My Side of the Mountain. The book tells the story of a 12-year-old boy who runs away from home and lives off the land in…
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A recipe for fighting climate change and feeding the world

By Sarah Kaplan   10/12/21  
“It’s so different from anything I’ve baked with,” says my baking partner, Jenny Starrs. We’re standing in the tiny kitchen of my D.C. apartment, examining palmfuls of a dark, coarse, rich-scented flour. It’s unfamiliar because…
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The Impact of Eating Habits on Sustainability: Going Green in the Kitchen and Beyond

10/11/21  
As our planet faces the challenges of climate change, population growth, and dwindling natural resources, many people are looking for ways to take small steps to make a big difference. This can mean familiar measures…
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The most comprehensive study ever reveals which are the greenest ‘blue foods’

By Emma Bryce   10/08/21  
What is the role of fish in a sustainable food future? Compared to other food groups, we have limited knowledge about the environmental impact of blue foods when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions and…
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Nestlé, Campbell Soup ‘highly exposed’ to climate risks, investor group warns

By Chris Casey   09/29/21  
Major food players including Nestlé, Campbell Soup, Nissin Foods, Ajinomoto and Kerry Group ranked among 50 large companies that are "highly exposed" to the physical effects of climate change relative to other businesses in the sectors…
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A third of the food we produce is thrown away. An app is trying to change that by connecting consumers to extra food at a bargain price.

By Maya Mokh   08/09/21  
At the end of a given day, restaurants, markets and other food stores often have leftover food that is still perfectly good, but can no longer be sold the next day. That food often gets…
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Is Lab Meat About to Hit Your Dinner Plate?

By Tom Philpott   08/02/21  
For at least a century, people have dreamed of being able to dine on plentiful meat without having to worry about the labor exploitation, environmental destruction, and animal cruelty that go along with it. In 1932,…
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Man v food: is lab-grown meat really going to solve our nasty agriculture problem?

By Jan Dutkiewicz and Gabriel N Rosenberg   07/29/21  
Americans will eat about 2bn chicken nuggets this year, give or take a few hundred million. This deep-fried staple is a way of profiting off the bits that are left after the breast, legs and…
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How Simple Mills Is Supporting Regenerative Agriculture

By Sami Grover   07/29/21  
When frozen potato giant McCain committed themselves to regenerative agriculture, I noted that these signs of positive progress should be tempered with a note of caution: Just like buzz words like “net-zero,” definitions of regenerative agriculture…
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The total health and climate consequences of the American food system cost three times as much as the food itself

By Laura Reiley   07/16/21  
The true cost of food is even higher than you think, a new report out Thursday says. The United States spends $1.1 trillion a year on food. But when the impacts of the food system…
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Giant Eagle targets net-zero carbon emissions

By Russell Redman   07/14/21  
Regional grocer Giant Eagle aims to reduce its climate impact by achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
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Krasdale Foods plans one of New York City’s largest solar projects

By Russell Redman   07/13/21  
Krasdale Foods plans to add a solar power system to the roof of its Hunts Point warehouse, which the grocery wholesaler described as the largest solar project in the New York City borough of the…
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Will the U.S. Ban PFAS in Food Packaging?

By Tom Perkins   06/03/21  
Since they were developed around the middle of last century, PFAS have been hailed by multiple industries as miracle chemicals. Not only could they stop rain from soaking through fabric, but they could also prevent…
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Plants in, beef out: restaurant menus are adapting to climate-friendly eating

By Mike Dorning and Bloomberg   05/16/21  
Eleven Madison Park, a top Manhattan restaurant, is going meatless. The Epicurious cooking site stopped posting new beef recipes. The Culinary Institute of America is promoting “plant-forward” menus. Dozens of colleges, including Harvard and Stanford,…
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Climate change threatens one-third of global food production

By Aalto University   05/14/21  
Climate change is known to negatively affect agriculture and livestock, but there has been little scientific knowledge on which regions of the planet would be touched or what the biggest risks may be. New research…
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One-Third of Global Food Production Threatened by Climate Change

By Aalto University   05/14/21  
Climate change is known to negatively affect agriculture and livestock, but there has been little scientific knowledge on which regions of the planet would be touched or what the biggest risks may be. New research…
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Restaurant-led agriculture effort aims to fight climate change

By Michael Elizabeth Sakas   05/09/21  
Most ranchers sell their cattle to a meat company for the going price, so there’s often little profit or incentive to invest in significant environmental improvements to their land. Something as simple as planting trees…
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Tackling climate challenge through food and agricultural innovation

By Ryan Hobert   05/06/21  
Buried among the flurry of announcements made at the Leaders Summit on Climate was a new initiative to address a substantial driver of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: food systems. One-third of global emissions come…
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Researchers look to solve food production challenges due to climate change

By Jamie Warren   05/04/21  
Former Deputy Secretary and Chief Operating Officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan says at the local level, drought and wildfires are the most significant threats to Arizona ranchers...
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Opinion: Biden isn’t trying to cut meat consumption. But he should.

By Stephanie Feldstein   04/30/21  
The spark that ignited this right-wing meat fury was an analysis of the climate benefits of Americans eating less beef, which the Daily Mail falsely connected to the president’s climate plan. But the report, from…
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Climate Change May Reduce Children’s Diet Diversity

By Christian Fogerty   03/02/21  
Researchers synthesize climate and health data to statistically quantify the relationship between diet diversity and climate variables.When it comes to improving nutrition in marginalized communities, education and infrastructure are some of the first investment targets…
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Your food isn’t as sustainable as you thought—how can you do better?

02/28/21  
From the heavy carbon and water footprints to the vast amount of deforestation, the food industry has left quite a negative impression on the environment. The irresponsibilities of the industry have resulted in large-scale environmental degradation due to food production,…
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America has a valuable chance to reimagine our food system as a force to combat climate change

By Paul Lightfoot , Opinion Contributor   02/27/21  
Imagine a world where the United States has improved our food system so that it actually draws carbon from the atmosphere rather than adding to it, provides nutritious and affordable food for every American, and gives our…
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Exclusive: Former UN climate head joins Impossible Foods

By Bryan Walsh   01/15/21  
Christiana Figueres, an architect of the Paris climate agreement, will be joining the board of alternative protein startup Impossible Foods, Axios has learned.
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14 Stories of Resiliency and Food Justice in Indigenous Communities

By The Civil Eats Editor   11/25/20  
This year, Thanksgiving is fraught for many reasons, chief among them the ongoing and escalating crisis of the coronavirus pandemic. Many families have canceled or limited travel and festivities, and some are only gathering virtually.
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Cutting Greenhouse Gases From Food Production Is Urgent, Scientists Say

By Henry Fountain   11/05/20  
Rising greenhouse gas emissions from worldwide food production will make it extremely difficult to limit global warming to the targets set in the Paris climate agreement, even if emissions from fossil-fuel burning were halted immediately, scientists reported Thursday. But…
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Health and environmental experts are coming for your gas stove

By Hannah Sparks   10/29/20  
But natural gas combustion isn’t just bad for Earth’s atmosphere. Researchers at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit advocacy organization for sustainability, have revealed that toxins, such as carbon monoxide and formaldehyde, are collecting inside…
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GEAR ON THE EDGE OF WASHINGTON’S FRONTIER

By Tony K.   10/29/20  
A good gear shop can be like a temple for adventure seekers. There are unmistakable signs of the wild on the weather-worn buildings that compel passers-by to stop. The old skis crossed and mounted on…
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Interactive: What is the climate impact of eating meat and dairy?

By Daisy Dunne   09/14/20  
Food production accounts for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and takes up half of the planet’s habitable surface.
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Changing what we eat could offset years of climate-warming emissions, new analysis finds

by New York University   09/07/20  
Plant protein foods—like lentils, beans, and nuts—can provide vital nutrients using a small fraction of the land required to produce meat and dairy. By shifting to these foods, much of the remaining land could support…
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Can cabbage boost the environmental friendliness of lithium-ion batteries?

By Doug Johnson   06/10/20  
Although the economics have yet to pencil out, scientists are exploring the use of phytomining to help meet the world's increased demand for lithium, a key...
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Eating our way to a healthier planet

By Eve Turow-Paul and Sophie Egan   05/15/20  
Yeast, vegetable seeds and local farm boxes are new hot-ticket items. Windowsill scallions are having their moment in the sun. People are exchanging tips on how to use every bit of food in the fridge,…
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UN: Acute Food Shortages Worldwide May Double Due to COVID-19

By Jordan Davidson   04/21/20  
A stark new assessment from the UN's World Food Program (WFP) found that the economic implications from the economic downturns due to the coronavirus crisis might...
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What’s Eating America

By Andrew Zimmern   02/24/20  
In a new, five-episode series What’s Eating America, award-winning chef and TV personality Andrew Zimmern explores the most provocative social and political issues impacting voters through the lens of food. What’s Eating America premieres Sunday,…
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Most Americans Don’t Consider Environmental Impacts of Food Choices, but Are Willing to Eat More Plants, Study Finds

By Jordan Davidson   02/14/20  
Recent books like We Are the Weather advocate for considering how our dietary choices affect the climate crisis, but new research shows that most Americans are...
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Golden Globes will serve plant-based meal at awards ceremony

By Jonathan Landrum Jr   01/02/20  
The Golden Globes, known as the “party of the year," is going with a meatless menu for its 77th annual awards show. Guests will be served a 100% plant-based meal just...
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