Ghastly Greenhouse Gases<\/h2>\n
Carbon footprint and greenhouse gases are a pressing concern for society. Take a look at the statistic below. It was published by Powerful Thinking in their \u2018Environmental Impact report\u2019:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impacts of the food supply chain are significant, with some research suggesting livestock and their by-products alone contribute between 18% and 50% of all global greenhouse gases\u201d. How does this make you<\/strong> feel?<\/p>\n Research shows that production of meat plays a main role in the cause of environmental damage. The Guardian published an article which stated that;<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u201cto produce<\/em> 1kg of meat requires between 5,000 and 20,000 litres of water and 160 times more land\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n These statistics have generated concern within society; subsequently the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) has controversially suggested consumers consider adopting a meat free diet.<\/p>\n An example of positive action of this in the UK is the Shambala Festival, Nottingham where organisers have embedded a meat free policy for their 2016 festival. Shambala argue this is a positive step for sustainability.<\/p>\n You may think that you travelled a long way to get to a festival, but that can be nothing compared to how far your food came. In fact, it can have travelled thousands of miles! This unfortunately leads to more pollution, which in turn has an impact on climate. In fact, the NRDC (Natural Resources Defence Council) found;<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cin 2005, the import of fruits, nuts and vegetables into California by airplane released more than 70,000 tons of CO2, which is equivalent to more than 12,000 cars on the road<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n The use of small-scale local farms and using seasonal ingredients are popular solutions to aid the reduction of food miles. But how do events actually implement this? Australian festival; Peats Ridge Sustainable Arts and Music Festival decided that bicycles were the only mode of transport onsite to move food and equipment. Not only does this support the environment, they also contribute greatly to the local economy.\u00a0 Adopting these kinds of measures will improve an events ecological reputation.<\/p>\n A win for local economy and a win for sustainability.<\/strong><\/p>\n Could this motivate event managers and caterers to source local foods to avoid a further increase in pollution and is the reduction of food miles the only available solution?<\/p>\n Both organic and Fairtrade fall into the category of alternative trade initiatives however, their journey hasn\u2019t been easy due to their battle with conventional agriculture. Fairtrade are all about environmentally sustainable production and to achieve this, they have specific green standards. In order to become more environmentally friendly, Fairtrade are eager to convert wholly to organic production. This can prove costlier to farmers which hinders the progress. Yet, moving across to organic production allows farmers to receive a higher price for their produce. Lastly, the Guardian found that in 2014, organic sales had risen by 2.2%. Looks like the public are catching on after all.<\/p>\n Choosing to eat local foods, well what\u2019s in it for you<\/strong>?<\/p>\n Local food is less processed, travels less time in transit and retains more of its nutrients. It is undoubtedly fresher and arguably tastes better. The production of home-grown food usually has less sodium and sugar content as it passes through less stages than conventional food which makes it a healthier option. Well isn\u2019t that fantastic news?<\/p>\n By eating local food, the community can reap the benefits. The purchasing of local produce supports farmers which aids in their sales revenue and generates a sense of community spirit.\u00a0 The creation of job opportunities and gaining transferable skills through training can spur local economic development.<\/p>\n The topic of locally sourced food is becoming a wider theme for debate. Presenting the question: how serious is the damage conventional agriculture is causing? Pesticides, land degradation, animal welfare, weakening resources and climate change are issues conventional farming is causing. Surely if this much destruction is being caused, event organisers should embrace sustainability. But is it ethically correct to change the way companies are currently working?<\/p>\n Should elements of sustainability become compulsory for event managers? Academics indicate that \u201cfood and beverages can play a vital role in delivering green themes or messages at events, but may be overlooked in favour of more visible elements, such as waste management or recycling\u201d. <\/em>Should this encourage event professionals to rethink the economics of better taste and less waste<\/strong>?<\/p>\n Will these environmentally harming food trends ever fade out, or is there still hope for the world yet?<\/strong><\/p>\n Photo sources:<\/strong> Google Images, Pixabay.com, De.wikapedia. org, Flickr and Wikipedia<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Food is fundamental to human life and is therefore a key consideration for any event professional. Previously, the main emphasis for most festival caterers has been to supply a relatively cheap and convenient product, therefore maximising their profits…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[41,42,44,45],"class_list":["post-1562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spring-2016","tag-fair-trade","tag-food","tag-greenhouse-gases","tag-organic"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1562"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2838,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1562\/revisions\/2838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2016\/03\/5.jpg?resize=648%2C273&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\nHow far would you travel for dinner?<\/h2>\n
Ethical Eating<\/h2>\n