The State Of The Food We Consume – CleanTechnica

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The Trump administration’s Big, Beautiful Bill is in the hands of the Senate now. Yes, some of the House measures within those 1000 pages will look different, but three food and agricultural provisions that are certain to affect the state of the food we consume are expected to remain intact:

• never-before seen cuts to the nation’s nutrition programs;
• more subsidies than ever heading to industrial farms; and,
• deletion of Inflation Reduction Act funding dedicated to farmers who are confronting climate change.

That means hungry children and farmers who already are struggling will be further impacted. Big Agriculture, which is already responsible for most of the atmospheric carbon dioxide causing climate change, will continue to bloat its profits while consumers struggle to eat a healthy diet. Farm workers who are not descended from Europeans face an uncertain fate with Donald Trump’s mass deportation threats and the restrictive H-2A policies.

What do people in the US know about the state of food and its connection to greenhouse gas emissions? Too many people in the US are “generally unaware that food contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, much less what foods are responsible for driving emissions.” An Earth Day 2025 study determined research from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine revealed that, while most respondents correctly ranked beef to be the top emitter, many other adults ranked vegetables as the top emitter — above both beef and cheese. The data shows how much public education on agriculture emissions is still needed to empower people in the US to make good food consumption choices.

Some good news did emerge from the study. Most adults agree that federal food policy should discuss the impact of food choices on climate change, and the government should offer incentives to animal agriculture farmers to transition to growing crops and orchards instead. Overall, there is broad support for policy and systematic change in public education and animal agriculture for the benefit of the environment, and there is only hesitancy regarding taxes and personal adoption of plant-based diets.

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA): CSA plays a crucial role in addressing the global impacts of climate change and the state of the food available to the world’s humans by integrating adaptation and mitigation strategies into agricultural practices. CSA technologies have been shown to improve energy efficiency, enhance water and land management, increase agricultural productivity and household welfare, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by enhancing carbon storage in soils and biomass.

As with any systemic change, several barriers exist that prevent wide scale adoption of CSA, including the absence of appropriate policies, weak political commitment, limited farmer awareness, and financial and institutional constraints. Resources purged from USDA websites include information on climate-smart farming, accessing federal loans, forest conservation, and rural clean energy projects. Sure, the USDA pledged to restore climate-focused webpages purged from its websites after Earthjustice and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY), NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), and the Environmental Working Group (EWG). But we’re not holding our collective breaths.

The need to strategize the state of the food we consume: If people eat healthy food, they’re also engaging in sustainable living. Why? Because, when consumers are nutritious-conscious, they tend also to waste less food, shop smartly, and be more efficient in meal planning. That’s according to a study by researchers at the University of Adelaide. Interestingly, consumers who prioritize don’t seem to follow through with their professed intentions, called “an action-intention gap.” While these consumers might like shopping locally and avoiding excessive packaging, this “may not necessarily translate into concrete actions” that lower food waste, the authors explain.

Eco-minded consumers may lack the strategies to effectively convert them into action. “These findings highlight the need for integrated interventions that align sustainability goals with healthy eating habits to drive more effective food waste reduction,” write the researchers. The lesson here is that messaging about healthy eating produces more ancillary benefits than does highlighting sustainability. One way to help consumers strategize their food consumption is to integrate nutrition planning efforts with how people shop for groceries, as that can offer the “dual benefits” of healthier eating and lower food waste.

Food with chemicals: A sustainable transition of the food system must address the health impacts of synthetic chemicals in food. The use of such sprays is the default setting. The increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods, which contain synthetic chemicals, also contributes to adverse health. One of the reasons for the occurrence of chemical exposure-related chronic diseases in the human population is shortcomings in chemical risk assessment, management, and enforcement.  A grocer isn’t obliged to tell customers about the various pesticides used on conventional produce.

Marketing that enhances non-meat choices: The Better Buying Lab is working to create a new lexicon that restaurants, food retailers and cafeterias can use to describe plant-based food, its dishes and their benefits in a way that appeals to mainstream consumers who do not consider themselves vegetarian or vegan. This language must evoke positive meanings, values and benefits, and it should be adaptable and adoptable by many different brands and outlets.

As climate change accelerates, shifting toward a plant-based diet could offer a practical and personal form of climate action. Reducing meat intake can lower individual carbon footprints and boost personal health. (And did you know that deleting unnecessary emails and photos reduces our own digital carbon footprint by lessening data storage power needs?)

Choose Earth-friendly foods: In general, produce, grains and beans require a fraction of the water that meat, dairy, and eggs do. Plant-heavy diets have also been associated with a lower risk of heart disease, posing significant health benefits. Eating more plant-based meals helps in several important ways.

• It lowers greenhouse gas emissions, which helps slow down climate change.
• It reduces pollution inherent in producing meat.
• Growing plants for food uses less land and water.
• It makes humans healthier with fewer chances of diseases like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and even some types of cancer.

Support research to produce food for a changing climate: One example is what’s been heralded as a research breakthrough. For years farmers and scientists puzzled over why rice grown in high temperatures often develops a chalky texture and crumbles easily into fragments of low quality grain. These quality issues are also linked to lower rice yields overall. Scientists recently discovered a gene variant that makes rice more resilient, enabling plants to produce almost 80% more grain under heat-stressed conditions, compared to more heat-sensitive counterparts.

Food systems struggle to provide healthy, sustainable, and affordable foods. It’s clear that public health efforts need to consider the impact of dietary choices much more intensely, not only in terms of nutritional quality but also in terms of environmental and economic impact.