Eat Less Meat

Oftentimes, adopting eco-friendly habits is logical, accessible, and even enjoyable! For instance, you can explore new foods and recipes by embracing movements like Meatless Monday (and who says we can’t have Meatless Saturday or even Meatless Thursday?), going flexitarian (a largely plant-based diet with moderate amounts of animal protein), or even trying your hand at vegetarianism or veganism! 

Go local, choose organic 

Whatever the extent of your plant-based diet, you can always ‘vote with your dollars’ and choose to purchase locally instead of supporting huge agricultural conglomerates with vast, disruptive supply chains. If you have the means, you can also choose organic produce to prevent chemical fertilizers and pesticides from harming the soil and contaminating our water supply.

Grow some of your own food

While not everyone has the privilege and means to peruse local farmers markets or buy pricey organic products, perhaps you could take matters into your own hands and grow your own produce! Not only is it a wonderful learning experience, but you could end up with a variety of healthy herbs, fruits, and veggies!  Don't have a green thumb? Try your hand with one of these kits or simply start by growing herbs in your kitchen window.

Join a local Farm Share (CSA)

By giving some financial support to small-scale, local farmers so they can hire help and maintain their operations, in return you get a big bag of fresh, local produce every week throughout the summer (maybe even in the spring and fall as well!). This is  an affordable way to obtain a lot of fresh produce—all while supporting your local community! Click here for the CSA directory and see if there is one in your area.

Address your food waste

At the very least, EVERYONE is empowered to have a significant impact through taking control of their own food waste. This entails simple practices like buying only what you need and being cognizant of the contents of your fridge and pantry at any given time. See the video below for other tips that will to maximize your grocery shopping, your culinary suaveness, and your relationship to the planet.

Composting (and biogas digesters!)

You could set up a cheap, home composting system so your food waste doesn’t rot in some landfill, emitting methane. Or if you want to be extra fancy, you could get your hand on a biogas digester, which takes your food waste and converts it to valuable fertilizer for growing, and gas for heating and cooking!

Expiration dates are more like guidelines

For best guidelines, see this article from the Cleveland Clinic.You may be appalled (or delighted!) to know that expiration dates on our food products are far from infallible and we really ought to question their authority. A general rule of thumb is if it tastes ok, if it smells ok, it’s probably perfectly fine to eat!

Fun & useful things to do with your food waste!

For those moments when you are suspicious of funky food, there is also an abundance of fun, creative ‘hacks’ to using inedible produce and food scraps that are otherwise tossed out (like making bread pudding out of spoiled milk and and rock-hard, weaponizable baguettes!). Move for Hunger has a lot of great suggestions!

Have a broader impact

While there are numerous ways to address global food issues on the individual level, feel free to imagine how you (as a student, worker, business-owner, teacher, etc.) can use your position to enact broader change. For example, consider the student-founded “Food Rescue” at Uppsala University - Campus Gotland. By collaborating with a large grocery store, Stora Coop, they established a weekly event wherein students could buy leftover products at a massively discounted rate, thus reducing Coop’s food waste by two-thirds! Great for the grocery store, great for the hungry students, and great for the planet!