Questions tagged [food]
substance consumed to provide nutritional support for humans and animals. Use this tag for questions on the sustainability aspects of food in general. See also [meat],[fish],[cooking]
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What is the most sustainable way to handle food waste...throwing food scraps into garbage or down my sink's garbage disposal?
Every night when I wash dishes, I either throw food scraps down the garbage disposal or throw it in the trash.
Is it more sustainable to throw food scraps down the garbage disposal? I think things ...
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What are the greenhouse gas benefits of vegetarianism?
I'm looking for a range, or better yet, likelihood distribution, compared to:
The average US meat consumer.
The average world meat consumer.
How significantly are those averages affected by:
...
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Why does cheese have such a high carbon footprint?
(Source of information here)
As you can see, cheese has the third highest carbon footprint. Only beef and lamb have a higher footprint.
Several other sources (such as this) corroborate this.
Why is ...
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Any food and grocery buying systems that lead to less food waste?
I am not asking for specific diets or reducing plastic waste. Many people may not want to change their diets.
How do people buy food so that they throw away as little food as possible? There must be ...
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Optimising crop yields without using fossil-fuel-manufactured fertiliser
The green revolution produced a step change in crop yields. Although nitrogen-based fertilisers have been produced without fossil fuels, a very large proportion of global fertiliser production depends ...
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How to preserve meat during warm months without electricity?
It's so easy to preserve food with a fridge. But if you don't have electricity, because of some big disaster or resource depletion, how would you handle preserving meat?
In winter it is relatively ...
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How can I manage my fridge's contents better?
Sadly, about 30-50% of the Western world's food is thrown away. Personally, I waste about half of my food, due to poor fridge management. I forget what I have bought and find expired food located in ...
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Local greenhouse/hothouse vegetables vs. remote naturally-grown vegetables
I've often wondered what is ecologically better:
A tomato from the region grown in a (heated) greenhouse/hothouse
A tomato from several thousand km away grown naturally
Ceteris paribus, are there ...
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Meat or fish, which requires more energy to produce?
In general it is assumed that the energy that is required to produce a certain type of food is a good surrogate for the total environmental burden of food products. I scanned some studies to compare ...
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What area is needed to grow enough food to sustain a person for a year?
I was wondering, what area space (m²) do I need to plant rice/bean in order to sustain one person for a year?
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Which is more sustainable: Almond, Soy, Coconut, Cashew or Other Milk?
As my question indicates, what is the most viable dairy alternative from a sustainability perspective (ignoring the importance of nutritional value)? From a life-cycle analysis are some options more ...
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How food producers calculate "best before" date?
How food producers calculate "best before" date?
Why I'm asking on SL? Because I'd rather not waste food to be sustainable. And many times I'm advised (by "best before" date put on food package) to ...
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Can real straw be used as a natural drinking straw?
I'm wondering if grass (or something else) straw was ever used for making drinking straws before plastic ones were made.
My daughter loves having a straw in her drink but it irks me to have to throw ...
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How does transportation cost depend on food?
Given that two foods requiring refrigeration have the same weight and volume and are being shipped from one location to another via the same method, how does the environmental impact of that ...
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Is human energy efficient?
I spent 2 weeks traveling on my bicycle, and usually I was very hungry.. Since I ate a lot of food, I asked to myself if maybe a train (dividing cost between all passenger) was more green than me!
I ...
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1
answer
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Reference request - Farm level, multi year comparison between organic and conventional agriculture
This meta study on the crop yield gap suggests that organic farming has about 80% the yield of conventional farming at the field level, yields may vary widely and organic yields can surpass ...
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If everyone were to be vegetarian, what would be the carrying capacity of the Earth?
I'm not asking what will happen if everyone in the world suddenly turned to vegetarianism. In an ideal world with the current population, can everyone follow a vegetarian diet (except for people who ...
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Is there any efficient and small-scale compost heat recovery(CHR) system?
I want to develop a system mainly based on compost heat recovery technology.
Much research has already been in the past years and some good DIY designs established for farms to warm greenhouses. But ...
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What type of guinea pigs will keep a food forest well cleaned?
I'm building a food forest, and was wondering what type of guinea pigs would work best to keep a food forest floor clean while not harming my plants so I can have plenty of food as well as getting ...
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