5 Questions for Sustainable Grocery Shopping
Trying to eat sustainably can be super confusing, but I'm here to help. In this post, I outline the five simple questions that will make your grocery shopping more sustainable.
How to Use These Questions
These questions are meant to help you set personal sustainability standards for the foods you buy. For each question below, I explain the sustainability issues surrounding that question and suggest a "highest standard" answer.
When I buy food, I only buy items that meet the highest standard answer for three to four of these questions. If you are a beginner or have a tight food budget or limited time available for research, you could start by striving to meet at least two criteria with every food purchase you make. As you learn more about sustainability and find more sustainable foods that you like, you could strive to meet more and more of the standards below.
The 5 Questions
Will I eat the food?
Before you buy any food, be honest with yourself about whether or not you will eat it. Food waste is a major issue in developed societies, with 30-40% of food in the U.S. going to waste (big yikes). When you throw away food, all the energy and resources required to make that food goes to waste.
Since the agriculture industry accounts for 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions, wasted food translates into a whole lot of wasted energy. And that is only on the production side of things. After food waste reaches the landfill, matters get even worse. Food in landfills doesn't get enough oxygen to decompose efficiently, so it produces methane, one of the most harmful greenhouse gases.
To avoid food waste, make a grocery list and stick to it. Yes, making lists takes extra time and effort and can be cumbersome. However, I've found making lists to be super helpful in preventing food waste in my life. If you're a real go-getter, you can even plan your exact meal schedule ahead of time and shop accordingly.
Another tip: don't be afraid to grocery shop weekly, or even a few times per week. This tip is especially true if you live in an urban area or pass a grocery store during your commute. Buying less and shopping more often allows you to have fresh fruits and veggies without worrying about spoilage.
Highest Standard: Yes, I know for certain that I will eat the food.
How is the food packaged?
Food packaging is one of the first things I consider when buying food. In general, I try to stay away from all packaging. To do this, I buy primarily unpackaged fruits and vegetables. Most farmers and grocery stores keep their produce unpackaged, so buying more fruits and veg is a reliable way to decrease your foods’ packaging.
If your grocery store has those flimsy plastic produce bags, you can usually skip them. As long as you thoroughly wash your fruits and veggies, there's no need for the extra plastic. If you like to use produce bags to keep your fruits and veggies organized, see-through reusable produce bags can do the job without the waste.
Obviously, avoiding all packaging isn't possible. For non-fruit and vegetable items, I stick to glass, aluminum, cardboard or paper packaging. All these materials are easily and commonly reused or recycled. I especially love buying things in glass containers because I can reuse them for cups, fermentation containers, food storage and more.
As for other materials, avoid styrofoam and plastics as much as possible. Styrofoam is terrible for the environment and some states, like Maine, New York, Vermont and Maryland, are even trying to ban the material. For plastics, some can easily be recycled, but many others cannot, leading to dangerous microplastics in our oceans, land and air.
Highest Standard: The food has no packaging or is packaged in glass, aluminum or cardboard. It is not packaged in any plastic or styrofoam.
Where was the food grown or produced?
Local food is generally more sustainable than food that was produced in a different continent or country. Buying local food can (but does not always) reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions associated with your food's transportation. Perhaps more importantly, buying local food helps you get to know your local food producers. Creating a sense of community around your food can help you appreciate it more and be more motivated to learn about food and agriculture.
To find locally grown or locally produced foods, seek out co-ops, farm stands, CSA's, farmers market and other places where they sell local foods. When you're in the grocery store, you can also check produce tags, packaging and signs to find where foods were grown or packaged. If the food was not produced on your home continent, you should probably leave it behind.
Highest Standard: A local farmer grew the food, or the food product was produced on my home continent.
How was the food grown or produced?
You should also consider how your food was grown or made. Was it harvested from the ground and transported directly to the market? Was it extracted from a heavily-polluting animal? Was it made in a lab halfway across the world?
Foods that grow in the ground are usually more sustainable than animal products and manufactured food products. Fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and other ground foods are more sustainable than animal products because they don't release greenhouse gases as they grow and generally require less water and fewer resources.
Foods straight from the ground are more sustainable than manufactured products (like chips, granola bars, yogurts, etc.) because they are less processed and therefore require less energy and resources to make. There are many exceptions and complications to this rule, but in general, plant-based is the way to go.
You should also consider the farming or production methods used to make your food. This is where eco-labels come into play. For example, products that are organic, fair trade, Rainforest Alliance certified, from certified B Corps, or grown using precision agriculture are generally more sustainable than conventionally grown and produced foods. When buying food products form major brands, look for those sustainable certifications.
Although certifications and labels are not the most reliable indicator of sustainability, some certification programs are truly trying to make the world a better place. You can read more about this issue in my Pros and Cons of Eco-Labeling post!
Highest Standard: The food was grown in the ground and/or the food is sustainably certified.
Who or what does my money support?
Even if your food seems sustainable based on how and where it was packaged and grown, it might not come from a socially or environmentally sustainable business. For example, if you buy a locally grown organic pear from a chain grocery with a billionaire CEO who mistreats his workers, your pear purchase is supporting the CEO more than the local farmer who grew the pear. This makes the pear much less sutainable than its “local” and “organic” labels might suggest.
Buy directly from a farmer or small grocer whenever possible so you can know exactly who your money is supporting. Also, keep in mind that if you buy from a grocery store rather than directly from farmers, much less money will go to the farmers and farmworkers who produced your food. Instead, more money will go toward the business. If the company treats its workers fairly or is locally-owned, this could be a positive thing for your community. However, if the business is huge and monopolistic, you might want to avoid buying from them altogether.
Highest Standard: My purchase directly supports a farmer or small business or is from a large company that is serious about social and environmental sustainability.
The 5 Questions in Practice
To help you put the 5 Q's into practice, here are some examples of foods the meet and do not meet my standards:
A paper-packaged granola bar from a locally-owned business
This granola bar meets my criteria for food waste, packaging, local production and supporting good companies. The only downfall of the granola bar is that it is more heavily processed than something straight from the ground. However, since the granola bar meets every other standard, this does not render it unsustainable. I can eat my local granola bar in good conscience.
A paperboard-packaged, organic pint of ice cream from a certified B Corp
This ice-cream meets my criteria for not contributing to food waste, supporting good companies and being sustainably produced. This pint falls short in its packaging (because freezer paperboard is not recyclable) and its origins (because animal products are generally unsustainable). However, it meets my expectations in three criteria, so I'll buy it as an occasional treat.
An organic plastic-wrapped beef burger from a major grocery chain
This burger meets my standards for not contributing to food waste and having a sustainable certification. However, it is not local, is wrapped in plastic and does not support an ethical company. I'll skip the burger. Instead, I'll opt for a locally-raised, paper-wrapped burger from the farmers market.