grocery stores

Environmental Injustice And the Coronavirus | Earth Wise

May 29, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Cities and towns across the United States continue to wrestle with the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and none have been hit harder than low-income and minority communities. Places like Detroit, Chicago, and St. James Parish in Louisiana have suffered from decades of economic inequality and pollution in their poorest neighborhoods and many of these same places have experienced some of the highest mortality rates from the virus.

Recent studies have shown a link between high levels of pollution and the risk of death from COVID-19. Pollution of various kinds are higher in low-income communities and communities of color. Such communities don’t have a strong political voice so that laws and environmental regulations are not enforced like there are in white, higher-income communities. Thus, these communities have highways, landfills, factories, chemical facilities, paper mills, and other pollution sources that communities with economic power – and therefore political power – manage to avoid.

People living in low-income communities and communities of color tend to have higher rates of underlying health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and asthma. They have less healthy diets – more fast food and fewer grocery stores. Part of the reason these communities have a higher risk of mortality from COVID-19 infection is that many people have reduced lung capacity as a result of exposure to pollutants.

The Trump administration has been suspending enforcement of environmental regulations during the pandemic. Communities already affected by environmental injustice will bear the brunt of this decision. Groups like nursing home populations, meat packers, prisoners and the poor are suddenly highly visible. COVID-19 is exposing the real differences between the Haves and the Have-Nots in this country.

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Connecting the Dots Between Environmental Injustice and the Coronavirus

Photo, posted May 2, 2006, courtesy of Sean Benham via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Food Waste And Access To Groceries | Earth Wise

March 19, 2020 By EarthWise 1 Comment

One-third of all food produced is wasted, which turns out to be a major contributor to carbon emissions. Most of the carbon emissions associated with food waste are related to the production of the food. Reducing waste would trickle through the supply chain over time and ultimately less food would be produced.

A study at Cornell’s SC Johnson College of Business looked at a particular strategy for reducing food waste’s environmental impact: opening more grocery stores.

It turns out that the more stores there are, the lower food waste will be. Cornell Professor Elena Belavina created a model that incorporates data from the grocery industry, the U.S. Census Bureau, and other academic studies.

When applied to Chicago, which is typical of many American cities, the model predicts that by adding just three or four markets within four-square-mile area, food waste would be reduced by 6 to 9 percent. This would achieve an emissions reduction comparable to converting more than 20,000 cars from fossil fuels to electric power. According to the model, not only would food waste be reduced, but so would grocery bills. By trimming food waste and travel costs, consumers would spend up to 4% less.

Most big cities are well below their ideal density of grocery stores that would minimize food waste. When consumers can purchase perishable goods nearby, they shop more often but buy less each time. There is less food sitting at home, so there is a much lower likelihood that food will spoil.

New York City, which has an abundance of produce stands and neighborhood markets, comes close to having the ideal density of markets. Basically, the way to reduce food waste is to bring less groceries home.

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Better access to groceries could reduce food waste, emissions

Photo, posted March 22, 2009, courtesy of Nick Saltmarsh via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Packing With Banana Leaves

July 25, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

More and more places are instituting bans on single-use plastic bags. Places like California and Hawaii already have bans in place and New Jersey is considering such a ban. New York’s law will go into effect next March. Supermarkets will no longer provide plastic bags at the checkout line. But the laws have some exceptions, including the plastic bags used to hold produce and to pack up meats.

Banning or reducing single-use plastic bags is a growing trend in Asia as well including places like South Korea, Vietnam and Thailand.

One supermarket in Thailand came up with a novel approach to eco-friendly packaging: wrapping produce in banana leaves. The idea quickly became a viral hit on social media and drew the attention of supermarkets in Vietnam. Several big supermarket chains in that country also began experimenting with banana leaves as a packaging alternative.

Representatives of Vietnam’s Lotte Mart chain said that the banana leaf packaging was still in the testing phase, but they plan to replace plastic with leaves nationwide very soon. Aside from wrapping vegetables and fruits, the grocery chain intends to also use the leaves for fresh meat products.

Customers seem to be quite positive about the new packaging noting that it is actually quite attractive visually. The banana leaf packaging also makes people more aware of the need for protecting the environment.

While Vietnam is a relatively small country, it turns out that it ranks number four in the world for the largest amount of plastic waste dumped into the ocean. The country disposes of about 2,500 tons of plastic waste per day. So, efforts like the banana leaf packaging are not just symbolically important, they are genuinely a major environmental imperative.

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Supermarkets in Asia are Now Using Banana Leaves Instead of Plastic Packaging

Photo courtesy of Perfect Homes Chiangmai via Facebook.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Reducing Food Waste

October 9, 2018 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

Food waste is a huge problem. About a third of all food produced globally goes to waste, and the numbers are even worse in the US. If food waste was a country, it would be the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. Worse yet, all of this takes place in a world where 850 million people are chronically undernourished.

[Read more…] about Reducing Food Waste