There is (almost) no way around Fondue Chinoise at Christmas in German-speaking Switzerland. It’s still the most popular holiday dish. Turkey is very popular in French-speaking Switzerland. This indicates that socializing during the holidays has traditionally been associated with a sumptuous meal. It’s a fine tradition, but it’s being questioned more and more. Not just because food has long been a matter of attitude. But also because of the importance of climate policy.
The calorie count has given way to the size of the CO₂ balance of the food. Discussions “Can I still eat avocados?” to meat consumption. There are now regular discussions about what is and isn’t allowed on the plate. “About 30 percent of environmental pollution in Switzerland can be attributed to our diet,” says Lukas Fesenfeld, a political economist at ETH Zurich and the University of Bern.
The impact of food on climate change
Apart from that, food waste is an equally big problem. About 330 kilograms of food per person goes to waste every year in Switzerland. 2.8 million tons of food wastage also has a negative impact on the climate. Holiday gluttony is a good opportunity to take a closer look, as climate change is the biggest concern of the Swiss population, as the Credit Suisse Concern Barometer shows.
Assuming meat is also served at most feasts, it’s worth taking a look at the food’s carbon footprint. For example, one kilogram of beef creates a CO₂ footprint of about 13.4 kilograms. For comparison: This is equivalent to driving a petrol-powered car for 103 kilometers. In the case of turkeys, one kilogram corresponds to the CO₂ emissions of driving 30 kilometers on an internal combustion engine.*
Comparison of food and transportation
If you make this comparison with alternatively driven cars, which currently make up about 50 percent of new registrations, there are significantly longer driving distances per kilogram of sirloin. Comparing food and mobility makes sense because both contribute significantly to emissions.
When it comes to mobility, new technologies deliver fewer polluting emissions. Not eating meat while eating would bring a lot. For example, one kilogram of plant-based meat substitute produces only about 1.8 kilograms of CO₂, about seven times less than beef or two to three times less than poultry.
But it gets tricky with edibles like the so-called flying pineapple. In other words, the thing that travels half the world by plane turns out to be bad in terms of climate balance. In contrast, organic tomatoes from abroad may be better for the climate than greenhouse vegetables from Switzerland. When it comes to side dishes, potatoes and carrots are superior to rice when it comes to climate balance. And if you mix cow’s milk in your coffee, you do double the damage to the climate.
Simple CO₂ calculation using a mobility app
The examples above show that the environmental impact of food is not easy to detect. The climate balance of transport vehicles cannot be made visible with a few clicks. Current online calculators are based on disparate data, which makes comparisons difficult. But unlike food, there is a mobility app that provides very precise information about the climate balance.
With the Swiss Climate Challenge app, you can measure your personal CO₂ footprint based on your own mobility (download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store). In the background, it records the means of transportation and distances traveled using movement data and calculates the environmental impact. On the contrary, it becomes clear how mobility needs to change in order to compensate for the climate effect of the festival. Like the author of these lines, anyone who serves a roast beef on Christmas Eve has to make up for 15 kilograms of CO₂. Garnishes, dessert and wine are not included.
The Swiss Climate Challenge is a fun approach to getting to know your own mobility. Operated by Swisscom and PostFinance, the app records transactions under a pseudonym and provides a daily balance sheet. This way, users can see how their mobility affects the climate.
Then you need to switch to other apps for counting calories in January.