Posted on 04/22/2022 at 4:50 p.m.,
Reading 3 mins.
Sustainable food is full of received ideas, from which many questions arise. What impact do we have by eating meat? Why eat local and seasonal? What is organic ? Discover how to eat without harming the planet.
It doesn’t take 15,000 liters of water to produce a kilo of beef
Meat production, particularly beef, is often one of the examples cited to explain global warming.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), livestock produce 14.5% of greenhouse gases. “Livestock specialists are struggling to agree on developing adequate methodologies to estimate the real impact of livestock on the environment”, explains Jean-François Hocquette, director of research at the National Institute of Agronomic Research (Inrae). He emphasizes that the relationship between livestock and the environment cannot be limited to the production of greenhouse gases.
We generally read that it takes 15,000 liters of water to produce more than a kilo of beef. A figure that Inrae disputes since this data takes into account rainwater, which allows the grass grazed by cattle to grow. “If you remove cattle and sheep from the grasslands, it will not stop raining and the grass will continue to grow, except there will be no way to eat it. The actual amount required for livestock must thus understand the water used to clean the slaughterhouses and that which is given to the animals to drink, i.e. 700 litres”according to the researcher.
Consume local and seasonal for real good reasons
You realize that Argentinian beef or Brazilian mango travel thousands of kilometers to reach us, and that’s why you try to eat locally… That’s good, except that your motivation must be guided by other arguments.
In a vast study published in 2013, the General Commission for Sustainable Development specifies that “environmental impact [d’un produit] depends more on the mode of production than on transport”. Moreover, a shorter distance does not necessarily mean less CO2 emissions per tonne-kilometre. A vast platform, which orchestrates the routes of imposing trucks, will optimize the transport of goods more than a van which will operate comings and goings to sell its local products. An ecological impact that also increases when consumers themselves take the wheel to do their shopping.
In fact, consuming local is a good idea to preserve biodiversity, be sure of the origin of the products, and promote the maintenance of local agriculture, provided that the producer does not grow tomatoes in the middle of winter outside. using overheated greenhouses…
According to’Ademe, a lettuce grown in a greenhouse would have a carbon footprint twice as high (even if it is French) than the same Spanish lettuce, grown outdoors. Eating in season is good. Eating in season while being aware of the geographical situation where one is located is better. Let’s not forget the social component: consuming products that have grown close to home also helps support local employment.
Organic does not mean without pesticides or without additives.
As recalled by Directorate General for Competition, consumption and the repression of fraud on its website, organic farming prohibits the use of pesticides or synthetic chemical fertilizers.
We must therefore not take shortcuts by imagining that farmers do not use any product to protect their crops. In reality, they are only allowed to draw from a portfolio of recipes of natural origin, such as copper derivatives, products that are often the subject of debate.
Used by winegrowers as well as fruit and vegetable producers, this natural material makes it possible to “control various fungal or bacterial diseases”, underlines Inrae. But its use is controversial: “the demonstration of the negative environmental effects of copper, in particular on soil organisms and crop auxiliaries, has led to regulatory restrictions on use (caps on the doses applicable per hectare and per year), and even to its ban as a pesticide in some European countries (Netherlands, Denmark)”underlines the research institute in a scientific expertise published in January 2018.
As for additives, they are not totally absent from the list of ingredients of items labeled organic. About fifty substances have the right to be cited in the content of an organic product, compared to more than 300 for a product from conventional agriculture. This particularly concerns preservatives, such as sulfur dioxide, which is not prohibited in organic viticulture. Winegrowers are limited to 100 mg per liter for reds and 150 mg per liter for whites and rosés.