Hannah- First Update

These first two weeks of the EcoAction project have been a bit more challenging than I anticipated, in terms of changing my diet and feeling like I’m making a measurable impact. As a group we decided to completely eliminate from our diets the top five foods with the biggest water footprints. For me, those are:

• Chicken
• Eggs
• Yogurt
• Nuts
• Chocolate

It was surprising to find out the amount of water required to produce the food I eat- I knew meat had a huge water footprint but somehow didn’t make the connection that eggs would as well, and definitely didn’t think chocolate had such a high water footprint.

Giving up these foods that I really enjoy and that are so readily available has been tough, especially considering that I used to eat eggs and nuts and chocolate every single day. I’ve ended up eating more granola and fruit for breakfast instead of eggs, and more vegetable snacks like bell peppers instead of nuts. And I’m definitely eating more garbanzo beans now that I’m not eating meat. However, it hasn’t been too difficult to adjust to these changes, and I think it will only get easier as time goes by.

I think the hardest part about our project is that we’re trying to reduce something we consume indirectly, and consequently we can’t see our impact. I have to keep reminding myself that my food choices do make a difference along the whole line of production and that those choices add up enormously over time. But it’s sometimes hard to know that intuitively.