Nations across the globe are stepping up to reduce emissions in a plethora of ways. Sweden, for example, has declared they will no longer use fossil fuels for electricity by the year 2020. Sweden is also hoping to eliminate the use of gasoline for all vehicles in their country by the year 2030. In addition to these measures, the Swedes are taking on new alternative measures to reduce the country’s carbon footprint.
In 2005, the national environmental agency in Sweden performed a study to determine the impact of individual consumption. The study concluded that approximately 25 percent of per capita emissions in Sweden were related to eating. This amounted to about two metric tons per year per person in Sweden.
In order to tackle this large percentage of the carbon emissions put towards consumption, the Swedes have decided to label foods with their carbon emissions. The agency in charge of the labels is the Nutritional Department at the Swedish National Food Administration. The agency determined the total carbon dioxide emissions associated with certain products by tabulating the emissions from transportation, packaging, fertilizers used and even the fuel required for machinery used in harvesting.
Not all foods are being labeled as the labeling is in an experimental phase. Some of the foods being labeled thus far include: pasta, oatmeal, rice, barley, chicken, vegetables and even some fast food places are using the labeling.
Coinciding with the labels are recommendations by the agency for what foods to eat to lower your carbon footprint. The agency is recommending consuming carrots rather than tomatoes due to the tomatoes having higher emissions since they are grown in greenhouses in Sweden. In addition, they are recommending eating chicken or beans rather than red meat. They also do not recommend consuming fish due to the devastated fish stocks in Europe.
A number of similar recommendations have been made for Swedes, however not everyone in the country is happy about the program. Some companies worry it will hurt their profits, especially those in the meat and fish industries. However, the agency is insisting that if such recommendations were followed, the country could reduce their emissions related to eating by 20 to 50 percent.
