Dear MEL Topic Readers,
The truth about processed foods' environmental impact
Food factories may sometimes be greener than farms when it comes to environmental impact. Even though processed food, either heavily or lightly, isn’t as healthy as unprocessed food, such as fresh vegetables and fruits, they might cause less carbon footprint. Thanks to ingredients added to prolong the shelf life, processed foods last longer and create less waste even though energies are consumed for processing, storing, preserving, and refrigerating them. In fact, measuring the total carbon footprint of any food is complicated. As you know animal meat produces a large carbon footprint because animals need to be fed. Also, those animals emit greenhouse gasses until they are slaughtered. On the other hand, it takes a much smaller environmental impact to grow vegetables and fruits even though they leave quite a huge amount of waste when they are transported, stored, and prepared. It is in fact very complicated to measure the total carbon footprint of any type of food because it is inclusive of producing, processing, packaging, transporting, storing, and consuming, as well as the impact of health.
Enjoy reading the article and learn about how to assess the life cycle of environmental impact by food type.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210617-the-truth-about-processed-foods-environmental-impact
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