The Importance Of Ecological Footprint

As humans inhabiting this earth we all use the Earth’s resources, whether they be renewable or not. To measure how much of the resources we use, we assess our ecological footprint. Our ecological footprint allows us to measure the human demand on nature (footprintnetwork). The units of measurement for our ecological footprint is usually by the amount of land we would need to sustain our use of natural resources (Google). When determining one’s ecological footprint many factors are accounted for; what one eats is one of those factors. Asking how often one eats beef or lamb, or how many of the food products one purchases and consumes is considered to be local - within 200 miles (footprintnetwork) are a good way to partially assess one’s ecological footprint. Some foods have a higher ecological footprint than others. Eating foods such as processed foods and meats will definitely increase one’s footprint. Tracking the process of producing foods like these can go

I personally eat a strawberry Poptarts serving two to three times a week. Taking into account all of the ingredients - all 41 of them - there are many food miles. Three of ingredients that are in Poptarts are wheat flour, dried strawberries, and soybean oil, which all have food miles that make an impact on our ecological footprint. The wheat flour in Poptarts most likely came from a farm in North Dakota and/or Michigan(Kellogg’s). In respectable order, the following are the food miles from those farms to me, 1,045 and 28. Kellogg’s Poptarts claim to have dried strawberries in them and they also claim to use crops from farm that are near to the manufacturing plant, but seeing as the do not even list a state that they come from it is likely that the strawberries come from either California or Florida, 2,367 food miles or 1,280 food miles from me. Poptarts also have soybean oil, which is likely produced in North Dakota and/or Michigan as well