Snow of Tomorrow | Why climate protection starts on your plate

I probably have to admit to myself at this point that I have long neglected an important aspect of climate protection: my food. I wouldn't say that I ate poorly or only bought the cheapest of the cheap. But I also simply didn't pay consistent attention to organic food. At some point that changed. There was no particular trigger. One of my old landlords, I was living on a farm in the middle of the Blue Land near Murnau at the time, told me when I moved out to only buy organic, especially when it came to onions and potatoes. "Everything else is contaminated with pesticides, I don't want that on my plate," he told me as I got into the car. Contaminated with pesticides?

I started to do some research. Pesticides. You know, the chemicals that keep insects away from plants to protect the harvest. However, the fact that they also drive insect mortality and are therefore not only bad for nature and the environment, but also bad for us, is often not considered. The fact that I became a vegetarian only came later. Mainly because I don't want animals to die for my food. And I know that someone might come along and say that I still eat cheese and therefore support the dairy industry, i.e. the slaughter of calves. That's true and yes, at the very moment I'm writing this, I want to give up the cheese in my fridge. Forever. But as humans, not everything is so easy for us and, like almost everywhere else, we have to come to terms with the middle ground. As you can see, this topic is actually bigger than a short online article. That's why I want to focus on the most important things and show you in five points why climate protection starts on your plate:

Regional and seasonal are king and queen

Somehow we have become accustomed to the fact that all food is always available. Strawberries in winter are probably the most popular example. But have you ever wondered whether this is even necessary? I have. And that's why I've had an eco box subscription for years, which delivers seasonal and regional fruit and vegetables to me once a week. And yes, I'm not a fan of parsnips and I can't stand cabbage or beet in winter. But I still think that these fruit and vegetables taste so much better and make me more creative in the kitchen. It also helps us to support local agriculture. Regional is a broad term, but it's still better to buy potatoes from Germany than from Egypt, for example, where they use a lot of water that isn't available there. Seasonal fruit and vegetables also save energy. This is because the food does not have to be transported far and no energy is used to heat greenhouses.

Healthy climate = healthy soil

According to the Federal Environment Agency, one teaspoon of healthy soil contains more organisms than there are people living on Earth. However, 45 percent of soils in Europe have lost a significant amount of organic matter, i.e. humus and soil organisms, due to intensive agricultural use. They are burnt out. Burn out. Through too much stress that we have put on them through our intensive use. Yet soils are so important. As described above, they are important carbon sinks. If they are out of balance, they can no longer do their job as such. It is therefore important to buy food from farmers who also strive to maintain soil health. One keyword here is regenerative organic farming. This approach rejects pesticides and artificial fertilizers and also focuses on the regeneration of the soil and thus biodiversity. This is achieved through evergreen fields. There are no fallow fields. More and more small organizations are springing up. One positive example is the Kaindorf ecoregion in Austria. Many small solidarity farms are tackling the issue, perhaps there is one in your region that you can support.

Conclusion

Eating a climate-friendly diet is not rocket science, but at the moment it means a little extra effort for the food on your plate. But if we can do this, we can contribute to a long-term change in agriculture and thus also to a reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions. And thus to the protection and preservation of winter!