This document provides an introduction to green eating, including defining key terms like sustainability, food systems, carbon footprint, and biodiversity. It explains that food choices have environmental, social, and economic impacts. There are differences between industrial and alternative food systems, with industrial systems focusing more on profit and mass production using fossil fuels, while alternative systems emphasize shorter distances from producers to consumers using smaller farms. The principles of green eating that will be covered in subsequent modules include eating locally, emphasizing a plant-based diet, and choosing foods that are fair-trade, cruelty-free, and organic.

1. Green Eating 101

2. 1. What is Green Eating?
2. What does Green Eating
have to do with me?
3. Principles of Green
Eating

3. How green is your eating quiz
a) “I’m a level 5 vegan – I don’t eat anything that casts a
shadow.”
b) “I eat a mainly plant-based diet and eat locally grown
foods whenever possible.”
c) “OK, my meals consist of meat mostly, but I do eat
vegetables sometimes”
d) “I would eat a vegan if there were no more cows left.”
Click which answer best describes you to
view your results!

4. Your green eating quiz results:
OK…you must be hungry.
Click here to continue reading to learn more
about eating green.

5. Your green eating quiz results:
That’s great, your food choices seem quite
sustainable.
Click here to continue reading to learn more
about eating green.

6. Your green eating quiz results:
Eating vegetables is good! But remember
everyday that you reduce your meat
consumption you can lower your carbon
footprint!
Click here to continue reading to learn more
about eating green.

7. Your green eating quiz results:
Um, you’re scaring me…PLEASE continue
reading to learn more about green eating…
Click here to continue reading to learn more
about eating green.

8. What is Green Eating???
Green eating refers to the consumption of
food and beverages utilizing principles of
sustainability.

9. OK…so what is sustainability
exactly?
sus∙tain∙a∙ble: of,
relating to, or being a
method of harvesting
or using a resource so
that the resource is not
depleted or
permanently
damaged (Merriam-
Webster).

10. The truth is…
Sustainability can be hard to define, in fact
there is no concrete definition.
Sustainability is constantly evolving and
adapting to a changing environment.
However, there are some principles you can
adopt in your life today to help make a
better, more sustainable future.

11. Sustainability has three major contributing
factors:
– Environmental – what type of effect the food,
from production to consumption, has on the
environment
– Social – the effect the food has on the people
and community, from production to
consumption
– Economic – the cost, profit, and affordability
of food

12. But there’s a little bit more to it than that

13. So what does this have to do with
the food I eat?
Foods and beverage choices have a
profound effect on the environment,
people, and economy. Certain food
choices have negative repercussions
including greenhouse gas emissions,
unethical treatment of worker’s and
animals, and a loss of biodiversity
(more on this later).
It is everyone’s responsibility to choose
food and drinks that do the least amount
of harm to people, animals, and the
environment and that help support the
local economy.

14. Before we being, a few key terms
Before we begin a little background
information may be necessary
Throughout these slides you will see
some terms that you will want to
know: Production Processing
1. Food Systems: how your food is
grown, harvested, processed,
packaged, transported, marketed,
consumed, and disposed of;
including all its inputs and
outputs. Consumption
Transporting
or waste
The steps in the cycle can either harm,
benefit, or have little effect on the
environment. There are two types of
food systems: industrial and alternative.
Distributing

15. Some differences between food
systems
Industrial Alternative
• Focus is on profiting from cheaper • Focus is on geographic location
food and mass production • Much shorter trip from producer to
• Food takes a much longer trip from consumer
producer to consumer – Can go straight from producer to
– Average food travels: 1500 miles consumer
• Relies on fossil fuels • Less damaging to the environment
• Much more damaging to the – Less transportation
environment – Smaller farms
• Builds community
Click here to take a tour of the industrial food system

16. Now back to our definitions…
• Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG • Fair-trade: trade in which fair
emissions): gases that trap heat in wages are paid to producers
the atmosphere • Cruelty-free: produced without
• Carbon footprint: basically the inhumane testing or treatment of
total amount of GHG emissions a animals
person, group, or product puts out • Organic: refers to food grown
• Food miles: the distance food without synthetic pesticides,
travels from producer to consumer insecticides, herbicides, fungicides,
• Biodiversity: the variety of life in hormones, fertilizers or other
the world, a given habitat or synthetic or toxic substances’
ecosystem

17. Green Eating Principles
• Over the next 3 weeks you will be learning more detailed
reasons for following the principles of Green Eating
• These principles include:
– Eating locally
– Time to Veg Out with a Veggie-based Diet
– Eating with Ethics (or Eating Green Means not Being
Mean)

18. Who ever said it wasn’t easy
being green…
was just plain wrong,
sorry Kermit.
Stay tuned for our
following modules to
learn just how easy
being green can really
be!

19. Green Eating Calculator