Six steps toward eating for a healthy planet
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Print- Choose foods grown and produced locally
- Have meat during special occasions instead of every day, or a no-meat meal once a week
- Grow your own
- Donate to programs that provide or incentivize fresh local food for low-income RI residents
- Ask your school or workplace cafeteria to provide vegetarian or vegan meals
- Join or start a food co-op
We can not only reduce the greenhouse gas burden of our own diet, but help our neighbors do the same, by supporting access to healthy, low-impact food.
Household action: If you eat red meat, instead of having it every day, save it for special occasions and savor it fully: red meat creates the highest amount of greenhouse gases of any food.
Long supply chains, like the one for a pear that comes from New Zealand to Rhode Island, require lots of fossil-fueled energy. Some of your family’s dishes may require imported ingredients in order to taste right, but use local or at least US-grown/US-made versions when they’re available.
The many farmers’ markets and roadside farm stands in Rhode Island are great sources of local, seasonal fruits and vegetables: buying there boosts our economy and increases our food independence. All the markets listed at Farm Fresh RI allow you to pay with SNAP or EBT. (For more information on growing your own food—near your home or in a community garden—see the “Yard, Garden and Public Green Space” section.)
Community action: Donate to Farm Fresh RI’s Fresh for All fund. These funds go to to low-income families to make fresh fruits and vegetables more affordable, and to farmers to grow for and sell to underserved communities. Donating to land trusts that support Rhode Island agriculture, like the South Side Community Land Trust, the West Bay Land Trust, and others, also supports the careful use of land for growing food locally.
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