Happy Earth Day! Everyone is well-acquainted with the idea of “reducing, reusing and recycling,” but … have you ever considered how that can be applied to your plate? Our food, shopping and cooking choices have a large impact on our planet’s wellbeing and environmental sustainability. 8.2% of total human-made greenhouse gas emissions come from food loss and waste, and one-third of food grown is never eaten.
In the United States alone, all the food that is annually wasted would amount to 90 billion meals. Interestingly enough, if people reduced food waste by 50%, it would be more effective at protecting the biodiversity of ecosystems than changing people’s diets.
Bring your own container next time you’re at a salad or hot bar.
This Earth Day, take some time to reflect on your habits and consider incorporating these suggestions to reduce food waste and make your day-to-day eating more sustainable.
Choose local and seasonal produce
Most food travels around 1,500 miles to its destination, during which it requires refrigeration, contributing to energy costs. When you buy produce that is grown on local farms or nearby, you reduce the amount of energy and emissions necessary to bring that produce to faraway locations. When farmers focus on growing seasonal produce, they support natural environmental cycles, maintaining the Earth’s preferred rhythms. This requires fewer artificial techniques, such as additional lighting for plants and growth-boosting chemicals. In addition to environmental benefits, eating seasonally will cost less and offer tastier, fresher products! The Santa Barbara Farmers Market comes to State Street every Saturday and is a great place to find an abundance of fresh, local produce and other artisan goods.
Reduce food waste
As previously mentioned, food waste is an enormous environmental issue all over the world. But there are many steps you can take to help reduce it.
Keep produce such as cabbage, lettuce and other leafy greens away from apples and bananas. These fruits produce ethylene gas, causing their neighboring produce to ripen and spoil quicker!
Produce that can be kept without being refrigerated does best in drier conditions with circulating air. So when you buy potatoes or onions, remove them from any plastic packaging and store them freely on an open shelf.
Refrigerated produce, however, does best in sealed containers, which stop moisture from escaping, preventing your produce from drying out.
Berries are a notoriously quick-spoiling treat. This can be solved by first washing them, then drying (using reusable towels, of course) and storing them in a container with a large surface area to prevent them from squishing one another.
- Plan your meals and form shopping lists accordingly
When you plan out approximately how much you need to prepare ahead of time, you’re less likely to end up making too much and having it turn bad before getting the chance to eat it. When you know exactly what you need to purchase at the grocery store, you’re less likely to impulsively buy too much additional food, which also risks the chance of spoiling. If you know you’re going to need to stock up for a while, you can plan out which foods you can freeze for longer keeping, such as vegetables or rice.
- Use leftovers in creative, tasty ways
Broccoli stems can be made into fries with drip using an air fryer and some spices.
We’ve all found ourselves in the situation where you’ve made a bit too much food, and maybe you enjoyed it at first, but now it’s no longer looking so appealing and exciting. While your first thought might be to just get rid of it or hope one of your housemates gets to it, there is often a way to reincorporate those leftovers into different meals. Carbohydrate bases such as rice and pasta can be used in so many unique combinations, varying from cuisine to cuisine. Some of the best ways to incorporate ingredients you might already have are making stir-fries or fried rice, burritos and wraps or pasta bakes.
- Understand expiration dates
What is the difference between “best by” and “use by”? Most of these labels are actually just educated guesses from the food manufacturers on how long their product can last. The “best if used by/before” date is not actually about the safety of the food! It simply estimates by which date the food might be at its peak freshness or crispiness. The “use by” date is almost the same thing, only being an issue of safety for baby formula. The “sell by” date actually only applies to the grocery stores selling the item. It tells them when to remove the item from stock, so that buyers will always have a certain number of days to enjoy the product before it goes bad. Ultimately, the best way to tell if something is no longer safe to eat is to just use your sense of smell and taste buds, they will not let you down!
Set up composting
While it may feel like a hassle setting it up at first, you will be shocked at the amount of trash you can reduce by composting all your food scraps. UC Santa Barbara is already playing a huge role by maintaining composting services at all the dining halls, cafes and restaurants on campus. The UCSB Associated Students Department of Public Worms has been around since 2004 and works to not only take care of food waste, but also reincorporates the compost into community gardens to create a closed-loop food system. If you’re living in Isla Vista, you can collect your compost and drop it off at one of the multiple community gardens around the area, thanks to the Isla Vista Compost Collective.
Shop using sustainable methods
Santa Barbara’s local Lazy Acres market sells fresh juice in reusable glass containers
When you walk into your average grocery store, you’re likely to see a wide variety of colorful shopping bags brought by customers. The cloth Trader Joe’s bags are, of course, a staple, but other totes and even rolling bags are likely to be found as well. This is an incredible way to utilize eco-friendly methods when shopping. Not only are you preventing the production of more plastic and paper, but you also get to enjoy a cute, more durable bag (basically not fearing that your groceries will fall out of the bottom or your bag handle coming off in the middle of the parking lot). Another way you can reduce the waste generated by shopping is to try to buy in bulk, utilizing reusable containers. Oftentimes, it’s possible to find grains, beans and even granola in self-serving containers in stores, and if you bring your own bags and containers, you can eliminate substantial amounts of plastic packaging. Another incredible tip is to invest in reusable mesh bags for produce, so you can forgo those single-use plastic bags every time you want to buy some fruit or vegetables.
This Earth Day, try implementing some of these practices into your everyday life to help protect our Earth. It might be a challenge at first, but once these tasks turn into habits, you’ll be left feeling better about your shopping and cooking overall.
A version of this article appeared on p. 16 of the April 24, 2025 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
