First of all let me recap on what my meal contained. I had lasagna with salad, the ingredients were pasta sheets, minced meat, cheese and multiple vegetables. There are multiple environmental effects that result from the production of my meal. To start with my meal contains meat and the environmental effects of meat production includes pollution through the use of fossil fuels, land and water. The livestock industry is one of the leading contributors to global pollution and cheese is a product obtained from animals so this can be in the category too. To produce food on a mass scale you need the use of large machines which are operated through the use of fossil fuels. There are agricultural machines that are used to harvest the crops initially then there are the machines in the factories that produce the final product. Also the use of fertilizers and pesticides during the growing stage of the production produces pollution to ecosystems.
The tomatoes used in my meal were grown in Florida by Subelt, the Lettuce came from Jackson, Mississippi, the cheese was grown down in Southern Louisiana and the meat was produced in Alabama by ALFA farmers federation.
During the production of my meal, water is depleted as well as polluted. Groundwater is contaminated through the use of fertilisers and pesticides which in turn affects habitats and the ecosystem as a whole. Soil is also effected during agriculture through over-use of the land which can make lush fertile spots into barren wastelands.
Oil is used to power the plants that produce the food contained in my meal. Around 10x more energy is used to produce meat than we actually get from it in calories. We all know the consequences of using oil and the effect on the environment through the greenhouse effect. I'm not sure which exact fertilizers and pesticides are used but i know that they are involved in the productions of crop which eventually ended up on my plate.
Like i said in the previous paragraph the fossil fuels used in the production of meat contributes to the greenhouse effect but releases co2 into the atmosphere which traps heat and leads to potential risks like increased extreme weather, rising sea levels and melting the polar ice caps. Also it effects air quality with the releases of chemicals that are damaging to not only the environment but also human lungs.
These effects on local in the fact that in the urban industrial areas the air pollution is a lot worse and the quality of air there is poor compared to the countryside rural areas but its also global in the fact that it contributes to the heating of the earth which leads to global effect mentioned in the last paragraph.
I'm confident that all the products in my meal where made in the United States so none of them had to travel huge distances but still the effect from transportation is great. Transportation accounts for a large part of the total Co2 emissions in the United States and the food sector is a major contributor. They would have been transported from the different states into Mississippi and then transported from various warehouses to the supermarket i bought them from.
All the ingredients were made in the south so they are somewhat local but the lettuce was the closest because it was made right here in Mississippi and the tomatoes were the furthest away being made in Florida.
Packaging is a major pollutant and we saw in the 1st post on plastic bags. They alone are environmental hazards and that's what we usually use to transport are food home and that's certainly what i did. Also the packaging from the food was too much i thought, it could definitely be reduced. Fortunately we recycle our garbage so hopefully the packaging from this meal will end up being used again in some way shape or form.
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