Eat an eco-friendly diet

See below the Eat an eco-friendly diet Sub-Actions. Click or tap the sections further below to reveal a summary of the benefits of eating an eco-friendly diet, future-gazing to help visualise how this would work for you, a thought-provoking video, a step-by-step guide outlining how to achieve this Top Action, expert tips, and useful links and references.

It is recommended that you pick one or two of the Sub-Actions to progress at a time rather than try and complete them all at once. Visit our Approach page for other tips on how to set yourself up to minimise your environmental impact and get to net zero carbon.

Have you completed this Top Action already? You would need to complete:

• all the Halfway (0.5) Sub-Actions to complete half of the Top Action.
• all the Halfway (0.5) and Full (1.0) Sub-Actions to fully complete the Top Action.

Enormous resources go into producing food, which consequently has a large environmental impact; it requires much land, much water, fertilisers and also the energy required to harvest the food, pack it, transport it and store it. The land used to produce our food was once a natural landscape teeming with a diversity of plants and wildlife, however, our large scale mono-culture food production destroys this. Deforestation of long established valuable habitats for farming releases stored CO₂ and continues to increase the intense pressure on our natural ecosystems. The Guardian reports that the average westerner’s eating habits are responsible for the felling of four trees every year, many of which are in wildlife-rich tropical forests.

Choosing to eat a diet with low environmental impact will involve reducing our meat, fish and dairy intake, but we do not need to cut out meat, fish and dairy entirely unless we want to. If our meat and dairy consumption reduces, a large proportion of the land that was used to produce it could instead be converted to eco-friendly uses such as rewilding and wildlife conservation or the generation of renewable energy.

Reducing our meat, fish and dairy consumption has health benefits as well as huge environmental benefits. The health benefits, as outlined in the BBC Good Food Guide include reduced blood pressure and lower risk of obesity, heart disease and cancer.

Meat, fish and dairy are often some of the most expensive items in the shopping basket. No upfront monetary cost is required to complete this EcoTracker Top Action but there is a big opportunity to save money.

By learning to cook a wider variety of dishes including vegetarian and vegan, we can develop a new skill. This can be fun to learn, fulfilling to master and even better to eat! It will also get us ready to impress when a vegetarian or vegan friend visits.

We may even discover we prefer the taste of many of the new vegetarian or vegan meals and enjoy the variety of new ingredients.

So, why the focus on reducing meat, fish and dairy?

Meat is densely packed with nutrients but meat production is an incredibly inefficient use of land in which most of the nutrients are lost along the way. Livestock eat a lot of crops, they belch methane, and their waste can pollute waterways. To get an equivalent amount of food calories from meat than from plants, many times more land is needed, and the same principle applies to protein and various other vital nutrients. Mike Berners-Lee explains this vividly in his book There’s No Planet B. By farming livestock and eating meat, we are actually much reducing the amount of food and nutrients that can be produced per area of land. Dairy also originates from livestock and similarly has a large environmental impact. Carbon Brief cover many diet related topics, including the astounding fact that the total mass of animals raised for slaughter now outweighs all wildlife on earth by a factor of 15 to 1!

Less resources go into fishing than farming as we are typically catching wild fish in their natural environment. However, our fishing industries cause much damage as outlined by Friends of the Earth, for instance, they devastate various fish populations whilst bringing in a lot of unintended ‘by-catch’ organisms. The use of untargeted industrial scale trawlers can destroy large areas of ocean floor habitats and release CO₂ into the water. Farming fish may help reduce overfishing but creates other environmental issues as outlined by Encyclopeadia Britannica.

Of course, many people also choose to avoid eating meat, fish and dairy due to moral or animal welfare concerns, thus reducing the possibility of their diet causing anxiety and suffering in animals raised or caught for food.

Reducing our meat fish and dairy intake is a critical part of adopting a low impact diet, however, when our food comes from regenerative nature-friendly farming methods it may be a true eco-friendly choice. Such methods can produce food with no or limited artificial fertilisers, improve soil health and improve the farmland environment for wildlife, creating habitats. RSPB Hope Farm is an example of a farm adopting such an approach.

Try and imagine how your life will be and how you will feel when you complete this EcoTracker Top Action. This may feel like a big change or a small change, but really focus on how the benefits of the change could impact and improve your life and the lives of others.

For instance try and imagine how you will feel about:

• your reduced environmental impact which will help avoid the worst effects of climate change and ecological breakdown within your lifetime, helping to ensure you and others can live a long and full life.
• improved long term prospects for your children and future generations, who will have a much greater opportunity to avoid climate change and ecological breakdown during their lives. They will be much safer than in the alternative future of extreme climate change and ecological breakdown and many lives will be saved. Will you be able to look your child in the eye in years to come and say that you have done everything you can to protect their future?
• improved opportunities and social justice (climate justice) for those around the world who are currently struggling with the early impacts of climate change and ecological breakdown, with many lives and livelihoods saved.
• becoming healthier, with lower risk of many health conditions including high blood pressure, obesity, heart disease and cancer.
• saving money.
• learning to cook delicious new dishes.
• confidently being able to cater for a wide range of dietary requirements when you are cooking for others.
• reducing the amount of anxiety and suffering endured by animals raised or caught for food.
• some of the above may be really life-changing for you and your overall standard of living.

An effective way of developing a commitment and ongoing motivation to progressing this EcoTracker Top Action is to work out which of the themes above generate the most powerful emotional responses for you personally. Then try to capture this in some way and store it for when you might need motivation later.

You might be able to create a strong image in your memory, or a link to existing memories. You might want to write down how you feel say on a post-it note or in a diary as a reminder; perhaps somewhere that you will regularly see the message or somewhere you can come back to when you want to. You might even want to share this on your ‘progress thread’ on social media. If you are feeling creative, perhaps even draw an image to represent your future. Also, consider whether you might already have an object which could trigger your motivation e.g. a picture of your children.

These steps are generic because this is your unique personal journey and you will need to explore the details for yourself, using this process and the Expert Tips below as a guide and support.

The time required to complete steps may vary quite a lot depending on your resources or skill level, or whether or not you do the work yourself or pay a professional to do it. It is recommended that you pick one or two of the Sub-Actions to progress at a time rather than try and do them all at once, and so you may go through steps multiple times for the different Sub-Actions before you have completed the Top Action.

1. Build motivation from within to complete this EcoTracker Top Action, assisted by reading the Benefits and Future-gazing to imagine how your life will improve (10 minutes)
2. Make a personal commitment and share this to social media (5 minutes)
3. Book a time in your diary for progressing your EcoTracker actions – you may wish to set up a regular slot for taking actions (5 minutes)
4. Research – read the guidance on this EcoTracker Top Action page such as the Expert Tips and you may wish to visit your community for support (30 minutes +)
5. Discuss with others in your household and agree broadly what you will do (15-30 minutes)
6. Get the resources lined up e.g. find what you need online, locate or borrow/rent/buy the materials and tools (2-3 hours)
7. Make a final decision on exactly what you will do and book in a date (15 minutes)
8. Complete all Sub-Actions to enable you to complete the Full Top Action (5 + hours)
9. Visit our Tracker page, and share your progress to social media (5 minutes). You may want to share your progress as you go through the steps for each Sub-Action.
10. Once you’ve mastered this Top Action, why not also help others in the community complete their’s, with tips and support (1 minute, periodically)

Don’t blame yourself for your past habits, but choose to focus on what you can improve. Similarly, choose not to blame others in your household or elsewhere for their current or past habits, but to point out to them the damaging impacts of diets high in meat, fish and dairy and the benefits of eating an eco-friendly diet. Encourage and support others to make changes (e.g. by using EcoTracker). You may need to focus on and persist with some of these changes for weeks or months before they become new habits that you don’t need to think about. See the Approach page for further suggestions on developing habits.

You do not need to be perfect and updating your diet does not have to be all or nothing. Some people may want to cut out meat, fish and dairy entirely and become vegan. Although there would be undoubted environmental benefits from everyone becoming vegan, this is not for everyone, and the most important thing is to take steps to reduce the environmental impact of your food in the way that suits you. This might be through small and gradual changes over a long period of time, or maybe through a focused effort at forming a new habit to cut out meat and dairy.

If you have food allergies or dietary requirements that make it more challenging or impossible to complete this Top Action, it is recommended that you do the best that you can and try to avoid feeling guilty about what you can’t do. Your health comes first.

Vegetarians typically don’t eat any meat or fish, but some may eat dairy and or eggs. Vegans typically do not eat any animal-related food products at all. People have a wide variety of reasons for making such dietary choices. Flexitarians typically eat mostly vegetarian meals but will sometimes eat meat or fish, while pescetarians don’t eat meat but do eat fish and carnivores of course love meat! In evolutionary terms, humans are omnivores who can function well on a variety of different types of diets depending on what food is available, whether entirely plant-based or largely animal-based.

It is good to be aware of these categories, however, psychologically it may be best to avoid regularly labelling people or meals in this way. Many people are very attached to their food habits. By psychologically detaching yourself from a particular group, you may feel more free to experiment and less like you are breaking a long-term group allegiance. Try to think of non-meat meals as just another meal that is part of your routine rather than something different. Some people have a strong aversion particularly to veganism, and may feel that their world-view is threatened by it, which reinforces their own meat-eating habits. If this is you, introducing some non-meat meals into your routine will not suddenly turn you into a vegan! Why not give them a try and you might even find some delicious new dishes to add to your routine.

Reducing your meat, fish and dairy consumption are certainly the most significant things that most people can do to reduce their dietary environmental impact.

In order to do this effectively, you could either choose to eat more vegetarian dishes or cut down your meat, fish and dairy portion sizes and add in more of other foods. Starting with cutting down portion sizes gradually helps to make big changes without them being too noticeable.

When starting to introduce vegetarian or vegan meals into your routine make sure you research some beginners tips for aspiring vegetarians, for instance, at Easy Cheesy Vegetarian. If you have any barriers to reducing your meat, fish and dairy consumption (such as your family not liking vegetarian food), take the opportunities you have available; for instance you may be able to have a vegetarian lunch during your working hours. Try different meals or diets for 1 or 2 days a week or even less frequently initially and then increase this further if and when you feel ready. In order to do so, you may need to learn how to cook some new vegetarian or vegan meals.

Cooking new vegetarian or vegan meals will require some planning. Ideally you need to have a good idea of which new vegetarian or vegan dishes you want to cook before going to the shops as you may need some different and possibly unfamiliar ingredients.

For instance, as well as stocking up on a wider variety of vegetables, also consider protein. There are many excellent alternative sources of protein to meat, fish and dairy, such as lentils, beans, pulses, grains, nuts and seeds, or eggs for those that eat them, as outlined in the BBC Good Food Guide. You may also want to consider getting meat substitutes so you can give some of your old recipes a refresh. Ensure that you have a good stock of long-life vegetarian options in your store cupboard, such a tins of beans.

Use Happy Cow, BBC Good Food Guide, or simply search the internet for vegetarian and vegan recipes and cooking tips, and any good cookbook should have plenty of ideas. For many traditional UK meat-based dishes, the flavouring comes from the meat, so you may need to add more seasoning and greater variety of vegetables and other ingredients to compensate for this. Also consider whether you can adapt any of your favourite meat dishes with a veggie twist.

You could also try a food recipe box service which provides you with delicious recipes and delivers the ideal amount of ingredients, taking some of the decision making out of your hands which might be good for those who lead busy lives; in the UK examples include Mindful Chef, Hello Fresh and Gousto, who all claim that their approach also reduces food waste (see the Reduce food waste EcoTracker Top Action).

To complete the full Eat an eco-friendly diet EcoTracker Top Action you need to “eat a diet consistent with mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss”. We have deliberately left this open to some interpretation as the scientific understanding and opportunities may change over time and vary between locations, but we outline some considerations here. A typical vegetarian or vegan diet would certainly meet the definition. The EAT-Lancet Commission Planetary Health Diet would also just about meet the definition and does allow a modest amount of meat, fish and dairy to be consumed; however, consider the average meat, fish and dairy allowances as your absolute limits that would count towards achieving this Top Action. It is strongly recommended that you choose to reduce meat, fish and dairy consumption well below the Planetary Health Diet allowances if you are able to for the following reasons:

• The allowances were derived by developing a global food budget that just about allows us to stay within planetary environmental limits in 2050 and assumes that everyone will adopt this diet.
• It is very unlikely that everyone globally will adopt the Planetary Health Diet in the near future.
• Estimated planetary environmental limits have a range of uncertainty and we should avoid testing the limits.
• As we know very well great urgency is needed to address the Climate and ecological emergency by 2030.

If you are serious about going vegetarian or vegan, do make sure you research (e.g. at BBC Good Food Guide or Vegetarian Society) on how to eat a well-balanced diet as there may be specific foods that you may need to eat enough of, or possibly you may need to take a couple of supplements.

If you are struggling to enjoy vegetarian or vegan meals, try a highly rated local restaurant that ideally focuses on vegetarian or vegan food (or a highly-rated restaurant generally that has a few appetizing and relevant options). This will probably offer a much more attractive meal than what you could come up with on your first vegetarian or vegan cooking attempts, and may inspire you with ideas!

Use Happy Cow to identify good local vegetarian or vegan restaurants.

Reducing your meat, fish and dairy consumption and eating more vegetarian meals are typically the most significant things you can do to reduce the environmental impact of your diet, however, you can also try to reduce your impact further by making other changes.

Use the guide from Mike Berners-Lee on BBC Food to compare the CO₂ emissions of a variety of foods. When selecting between meats, beef is typically the worst choice, followed by lamb, while poultry has relatively less environmental impact although still a much higher environmental impact than most non-meat, fish and dairy foods. Your food choices also have further environmental impacts. It is recommended that you undertake a palm oil audit and detox as the palm oil embedded in many food products is linked to deforestation, whilst the packaging of the foods you choose will play a big role in reducing your plastic consumption  – see the Use eco-friendly products and services (and reduce waste) EcoTracker Top Action).

Eat seasonal and locally-sourced food when possible as part of your efforts to reduce your dietary environmental impact, although the transport related emissions of food are usually relatively small (see Carbon Brief for more on this). Use a seasonal food calendar such as this one produced by Love British Food for the UK. Visit your local farm shop or farmers market, which are likely to offer locally-sourced, seasonal foods. Avoid foods that you know have travelled by air e.g. more perishable foods from half way around the world. Also, beware of out of season locally-grown food which may have been grown in a heated area, therefore requiring a lot of energy.

If you can trace food back to regenerative nature-friendly farming methods this may be a true eco-friendly choice. However, it may take up more land than than intensively farmed alternatives, which is an important consideration; more research is needed on the pros and cons of different farming methods, given limited land availability. Some extensively grazed herbivores may be used to manage wildlife habitats so we don’t have to, however, due to the very low densities of herbivores (to avoid overgrazing and habitat destruction), little meat with such credentials is available. There is currently insufficient food produced by regenerative nature-friendly farming methods, hence it is currently not realistic to suggest that everyone buys such food. This will be monitored and in future the Sub-Actions may be updated to include for this.

When you do eat meat, consider opting for meat such as venison that originates from controlling excessive and damaging wildlife populations. This may be the most eco-friendly meat you can get. Needless to say, it is critical to avoid eating game meat if the species is endangered. Do bear in mind that a key reason that the populations of herbivores such as deer grow excessively in the first place is the absence of their natural predators, which humans have driven out of large areas or even made extinct. Rewilding and species reintroductions can help restore the natural balance (see the Rewilding EcoTracker Top Action).

If you eat fish, use the Marine Conservation Society Good Fish Guide to pick a sustainable option, and when buying fish, also pick options with the Marine Stewardship Council label. Also bear in mind that the names of some commercially fished species sometimes get rebranded to increase sales, so beware of fish names that you don’t know and choose to avoid eating types if you’re not clear on the conservation status of the fish.

Choose unprocessed fresh foods where possible. Processed food will often be less eco-friendly than unprocessed alternatives, due to the additional resources that go into the processing, and they will often be less healthy too! There is increasing awareness of potential negative health impacts from diets high in ultra-processed foods.

Some vegetarian favourite foods get a mixed review from some sources, such as soya beans, which are so flexible and popular that they are grown very widely and are sometimes associated with the deforestation. The problem is not humans eating soya beans, but the amount of beans being used (much less efficiently) for animal feed for meat and dairy farming.

Any home growing you can do can contribute to reducing the environmental impact of your food, but do ensure you avoid using peat based compost, pesticides and herbicides (see the Rewilding EcoTracker Top Action). Your local garden centre should have peat free compost options for you to choose, or you can make it yourself using a composter and your garden and food waste – follow the composting tips on the Reduce food waste EcoTracker Top Action page.  The food you grow yourself may taste even better and be more satisfying than the food you buy!

Also, consider and minimise the environmental impact of food for pets, which can be very significant as reported by the Independent. The same general rules above for sourcing pet food apply to human food although the dietary options for pets may be more limited e.g. some pets need to eat meat. Avoid feeding pets more meat-based foods than they need and buy meats with lower environmental impact. This may have other benefits: research suggests that vegan diets may be healthier and safer for dogs than conventional meat-based diets, as reported by the Guardian. For pets that need to eat meat, pet foods such as Percuro and Lovebug are now available which use insect meat rather than meat from livestock, as outlined by the Independent; such foods have a much lower environmental impact and are highly recommended.

EAT-Lancet Commission Planetary Health Diet: https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/the-planetary-health-diet-and-you/

Carbon Brief (meat and dairy impact): https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/what-is-the-climate-impact-of-eating-meat-and-dairy/

The Guardian (food and deforestation): https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/29/average-westerners-eating-habits-lead-to-loss-of-four-trees-every-year

Friends of the Earth (fishing): https://friendsoftheearth.uk/sustainable-living/fishing-and-environment

Marine Conservation Society Good Fish Guide: https://www.mcsuk.org/goodfishguide/

BBC Good Food Guide (vegetarian diet tips): https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/vegetarian-diet-health-benefits-tips

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-sources-protein-vegetarians

BBC Food (CO₂ emissions of foods): https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/articles/carbon  

Vegetarian Society (vegetarian diet tips): https://vegsoc.org/resources/

Easy Cheesy Vegetarian (beginner’s tips): https://www.easycheesyvegetarian.com/11-tips-for-new-vegetarians/

Happy Cow (recipes and restaurants): https://www.happycow.net/recipes

Love British Food (seasonal calendar – UK): https://www.lovebritishfood.co.uk/whats-in-season-when

There is No Planet B, Mike Berners-Lee (recommended book): https://theresnoplanetb.net/

RSPB Hope Farm (example of nature-friendly farming: https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/conservation/conservation-and-sustainability/farming/hope-farm/

Recipe boxes:

Mindful Chef: https://www.mindfulchef.com/

Hello Fresh: https://www.hellofresh.co.uk/about/sustainability

Gousto: https://www.gousto.co.uk/

Pets:

The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/opinion/pets-uk-ownership-cats-dogs-carbon-environmental-impact-b1249610.html and https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/business/lovebug-percuro-pet-food-cat-dog-b1907181.html

Percuro: https://percuro.earth/pages/why-percuro

Lovebug: https://www.lovebugpetfood.com/