Climate Action Day 31 – Shop for Your Meals Mindfully

Food and Farming

The Frog will explore The Climate Action Handbook: A Visual Guide to 100 Climate Solutions by Heidi Roop in the first 100 days of 2024

Take a moment and reflect on your feelings about pre-packaged meal kits and groceries that are delivered to your door. Before reading Action 31, I was inclined to feel that they had a high climate impact. Individual food portions packaged in plastic and driven to my door; seems like a high emissions way of putting food on my table.

Nope. Quite the opposite. Within certain constraints, we should be utilizing and encouraging the use of these types of options for your meals. “On average, the emissions of delivered meal kits can be 33 percent lower than a typical ‘grocery meal'”. If you read Day 30, you know that food waste ending up in landfills leading to methane production has a heavy climate impact, and the individual consumer is the biggest source of food waste.

Because of the way they are prepared and delivered, meal kits drastically reduce and potentially eliminate the consumer food waste and as long as the company controls waste in the preparation process (which is good business practice), the overall climate impact is reduced. A meal kit results in an average of 6.1 kg of carbon dioxide per meal compared to 8.1 kg for a typical grocery meal.

But you don’t like the packaging that your food comes in? It is a consideration (and we will discuss take-out food packaging in Action 32) and you can make smart choices and look for companies that share your values. The best meal kit would be locally sourced and delivered in recyclable, reusable or compostable packaging. You might find a local option (like The MN Table, for instance) or a bigger company that delivers nationwide.

Some companies are concerned about the packaging and try to differentiate themselves with sustainable packaging: check out Sunbasket which features a use for every part of the packaging including the 100% recyclable paper insulation, denim insulation, ice packs, and compostable fiber trays and sleeves. Overall, it is likely that a meal kit service will make a difference if you do not have the time to shop and prepare your meals with an eye to reduce food waste and compost what is left over.

What about grocery delivery? Done right, it can have an impact. What is needed in grocery deliveries organized by geography rather than by time (i.e. first ordered, first delivered). Well organized delivery routes can save 80-90% of the emissions from all of us getting separately in our cars to go to the grocery store. The more companies get sophisticated in efficiently planning the deliveries, and the more we request that they do so, the more likely the use of grocery delivery services will have a measurable impact on climate change mitigation.

Your voice can add power to systemic change and technology advances that “encourage less packaging and prioritize the reduction of negative environmental impacts”. Be aware of how grocery deliveries are prioritized and talk with your retailers about how they are planning to maximize the climate benefits of their services.

For individuals who might not like the idea of using delivered meal kits, prudently plan your grocery trips to reduce emissions, reduce food waste and compost (as discussed), source your food locally (including meal kits) and be thoughtful on how use food packaging.

Our local MN counties are sponsoring a Plastic-Free Challenge during the month of February to help individuals, families, communities, and companies jump-start developing lasting low-waste habits. Participants select actions from a number of categories, up to five daily actions and five one-time actions, and publicly track their progress. There are already close to 1300 participants! A useful and inspiring community event!

Next Up: Climate Action in 2024 – Day 32: Research More Than the Takeout Menu

Howard Creel

#rescuethatfrog
Email: rescuethatfrog@gmail.com