sarahlorrain asks:What foods have the lowest carbon footprint?

I would think that the food you grow yourself have to have the lowest carbon footprint. From your yard to your kitchen takes no petroleum, highways, or any more energy than elbow grease and a green thumb.

that is an interesting question and I think the answer lies in from where you get your food and what kind of food you are eating. Non-veg basically have higher footprint. So the vegetables you can grow in your own garden, without the use of any chemicals, pesticides etc. is by far the best and the lowest with carbon emission as you are also cutting the transportation, storage etc.

I do raise my own cattle and have my own fields to feed them. I realize not everyone has this, but I believe to raise them yourself, means a less visible footprint.

I think that any food that doesn't create methane or solid digestive waste would have a higher carbon footprint than foods that don't, leaving us with fruits and vegetables as the better choices, unless they are grown in hot houses, which use artificial light at times, or hydroponic gardens that used circulating pumps or artificial light.

I could be wrong, but that's just my opinion.

If you can't grow your own food then buy food that is grow locally. The farther that your food has to travel the more fossil fuel had to be burned to get it there. Also, consider buying organic. The carbon footprint is slightly less, although the health benefits are much greater. As a rule, vegetables and other plant foods have a smaller carbon footprint than animal based foods because of the energy lost in the internal workings of the animal when they convert the energy of the plant into energy their bodies can use.

Until Sage brought it up, I hadn't really considered anything about hydroponics beyond the fact that the water (with nutrients) is recycled, which I figured was pretty groovy. But I hadn't thought about the power used to pump the water. Maybe if you used solar to power the pumps, or wind?