What’s Your Foodprint?

I know about footprints, especially as the snow melts and the muddy season arrives each spring. But what on earth, you ask, is a foodprint? While I was checking information for the celebration of April’s Earth Day, I came upon that word and learned more about how a foodprint relates to environmental justice and climate action.

A foodprint measures the environmental impacts associated with the growing, producing, transporting, and storing of our food—from the natural resources consumed to the pollution produced to the greenhouse gases emitted. Just as we each leave different footprints, we leave different foodprints, too! While we should all be working to reduce our foodprints, there are many factors, including access, affordability, health and culture that help shape our decisions about what we eat. There is not one prescribed diet for everyone.

I found the quick quiz at www.foodprint.org interesting—and telling. Taking the quiz led to an amazing number of resources that would be valuable for adults and youth alike. Share the website with others and be more aware of your foodprint and that of others in your household and congregation.

-Vernita Kennen
Incarnation Lutheran, Shoreview