Dishing out the Details: Beyond Seasonal Eating

Header credit: Public Domain

I’ve never eaten meat. Well, on purpose that is. Actually, given I don’t have the gut flora to cope with it, it usually comes right back up. Regardless of eating semantics, it means on average the lifetime greenhouse gas emissions I’m responsible for are ~75% less than that of a meat eater. The environmental benefits of a vegetarian diet are well known, but somehow I am yet to receive my gold star sticker for all my unconscious effort in saving the planet. Kidding. But, not finding satisfaction in the non-effort of my latent diet, I often wonder what food choices I can make that give me a greater piece of mind when it comes to eating sustainably.

Since the advent of industrialization in the west, our historical ways of obtaining and consuming our food have transformed. Variety has mushroomed, costs have been pruned away, and as a result our attention has been toasted. As futurist Alvin Toffer put it in the 1970’s, in today’s society we don’t suffer from an absence of choice, but an overwhelming excess of it. Of the many factors that we weigh when we make a choice at the grocery store, the sustainability of our food is a somewhat new consideration. And an important consideration it is, as climate scientists estimate that between one-quarter and one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food production.

The ethically heavy shopping basket. Credit: Public Domain

Food Miles and Seasonal Eating

Perhaps an unnoticed shift to my generation, but rather than being constrained by locality and seasonality, our grocers stock the same produce year-round. Sure, this could be seen as progress to a demanding culture of abundance, but what are the ecological implications? To address this, the concept of seasonal eating has become a popular suggestion of green eating campaigns. This food philosophy is usually centered around reducing the CO₂-emitting miles (food miles) it takes for our produce to get to us by choosing more in-season and local foods.

To conceptualize the common assumptions behind seasonal eating, it may be useful to compare apples and oranges:

Apples and Oranges. Credit: Public Domain (thegraphicsfairy.com), Apple, Inc.

🍊: Suppose it is September and you want an orange. In September, the harvest seasons of the relatively nearby orange-producing countries such as Spain or Egypt have not yet started. This means the orange you find in the grocery store will likely come from a southern-hemisphere country like South Africa. The orange will have traveled by ship for 19-25 days and been trucked to and from the respective ports, all while being refrigerated at an optimum temperature.

🍎: In September, apple season is beginning locally in the United Kingdom. The apple you find will have been harvested just weeks ago, and therefore has required less refrigeration. Like the orange, it is also driven around in a CO₂-emitting refrigerated truck to get to market. Supposedly it has taken less CO₂ to transport due to its seasonality and locality.

But, like with many things in our age of vast progress, it’s more complex and strange than that.

Why? It’s also entirely possible you could be eating what’s known as a “birthday apple” – an apple that has been stored for 12 months before going to market and accounts for many apples on the shelves. A fantastic buffer against food waste, yes, but an emission generating process as well.

An apple on its birthday. Credit: Public Domain (thegraphicsfairy.com), Apple, Inc.

Despite shorter distance traveled, environmental impacts during the tree-to-table logistic journey are typically mostly generated at the tree₁ (or stalk, etc.). Except in the case of air freighted produce (eg. out-of-season berries), which generates 20 to 30 times more emissions than sea freight. All this to say, seasonal eating is a surprisingly complex practice. In fact, one of the main issues in studying seasonal eating is simply being able to define “local” is₂. With the return of wind-powered cargo ships, and an increase of electric trucks, ways of reducing the supply chain’s impact are increasing. So, what are the impacts of seasonal eating outside of food miles?

Food Processing

The idea of eating a ripe summer tomato or a savory autumn mushroom is a significant sensory draw to seasonal eating. Once winter comes, one might shrink away from the idea and return to the bask of the supermarket glow. But, winter doesn’t have to be a desolate time. An often neglected aspect of seasonal eating is seasonal home processing of produce. Pickling, canning, and smoking are all ways to reduce the emissions generated by packaging. Additionally, it’s effective at reducing the impact of food waste because of the extended shelf life.

Ethical & Environmental Concerns

There often is an imbalance in the benefits of produce trade between high-income consumer and low-income producer countries. Studies have found that high-income countries only represent an eighth of the world’s population, but generate half of food-related global emissions. By reducing the demand for exotic produce, more land in poorer producer countries can be dedicated to feeding local populations and habitat restoration, and local pollution can be reduced₃.

In Conclusion…

Humans have been trading food across large swaths of land for a long time. But, we’ve been eating local, seasonal foods for longer. Best practices for seasonal eating include buying produce grown in their natural season at the time of harvest. Additionally, by processing that food home as part of your seasonal eating practice you can reduce food waste. And, by eating locally, you can potentially contribute to environmental justice. Simply getting familiar with your country’s seasonal produce could have a greater global impact than you think.

1. Finch, T. (2020). “Restoring farmlands for food and nature.” One Earth 3(6): 665-668.
2. Poore, J. and T. Nemecek (2018). “Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers.” Science 360(6392): 987-992.
3. Vargas, A. M., A. P. de Moura, R. Deliza and L. M. Cunha (2021). “The Role of Local Seasonal Foods in Enhancing Sustainable Food Consumption: A Systematic Literature Review.” Foods 10(9).