How we eat

Why the food we eat is important

Jet-setting tomatoes and globe-trotting guavas cost the environment more than they cost you at the cash register. And the packaging...! Even the food we produce here in Australia accounts for 35% of our ecological footprint. So food counts for more than calories!

First Steps

  1. Buy food that is in season. Out-of-season fruit and vegetables have usually travelled vast distances to get to you.
  2. Don't waste food. It is easy to forget that producing food uses water and energy so the waste goes way back down the line.

Big Impact

  1. Buy less processed food. Fresh really is best, and uses none of the energy required for processing.
  2. Buy food, not packaging. Spend your money on food, not on the packaging it comes in! Don't buy food that relies too heavily on packaging. Select products with minimal packaging.
  3. Eat less meat. It takes only 1350 litres of water to produce a kilogramme of wheat, but 16000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of beef… that's a lot of water! Make sure you limit your meat intake to 125 grams recommended by nutritionists and go vegetarian 2 days a week.

More ways to shrink your Ecological Footprint

Clean up your act by reducing the amount of waste you produce...