There are carnivores, omnivores, locavores and now climavores! You don’t eat red meat, not for health reasons, but to reduce the impact of your diet on the planet? Do you calculate the CO2 emissions of your recipes and do you choose the ingredients with the least impact on the environment? You are part of this new category of consumers.
In a recent survey by a US consultancy (Kearney), 15% of 1,000 people surveyed in the United States said they were aware of the impact of their food choices. A still small part that is expected to grow in the coming years, if we are to believe the analysis of this international company that specializes in the strategy of a whole range of areas, including distribution and trade. The study highlights a new profile of consumers, whose ranks should grow as everyone becomes aware of the impact of their food on the planet. Their name: climatologists.
The term is not yet used in Molière’s language, but is already resonating in the Anglo-Saxon world. In the UK, two artists are warning of the damaging effects of global warming on the seasons now completely shaken by bad weather and heatwaves that occur at inopportune times of the year. Above all, it has become legion to see tomatoes on the stalls in the winter… The London duo, consisting of Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe, called their project ‘climavore’. This includes organizing exhibitions to combat the threat to the resources essential to our food.
What does the climavore diet consist of?
Vegetable steaks instead of beef, seaweed instead of fish grown in aquatic farms, organic and preferably local food… These are all ways to create a climatic diet.
Activists Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe explain that the vegan diet cannot be the only solution to reduce your carbon footprint while eating. They are more interested in production systems to assess whether a particular food is acceptable. The two acolytes, who christened their duo Cooking Sections, instead propose adapting their diets to the climatic hazards and changes that reshape landscapes and soils, and thus food sources.
For example, we will not eat winter vegetables in mid-August… Above all, we will also avoid all crops that are the result of intensive farming. It is about giving preference to those who contribute to the recovery of our resources: we will vary the delights with all kinds of algae because they bring oxygen to the oceans. We won’t hesitate to choose oysters and mussels over aquaculture for their superpowers in water filtration. You should also be curious and taste the ancient fruits and vegetables that belong to a region, which can be grown close to home.