On Being a Negative Foods Eater
The Rules of Thumb on How to Eat (19th) Edition of the Negative Foods Newsletter
In the Case for Being Bullish edition of this newsletter, I make the case that consumer demand will rise for foods with carbon negative (or neutral) footprints (“Negative Foods”). And that growing demand for Negative Foods will help reverse climate change.
Are you a consumer who eats? If yes, then YOU are the lever to reverse climate change with the food system.
In the future, effective carbon labels (see the first carbon labeling edition) will enable consumers to easily select climate friendly foods and avoid climate-offending foods. But, as we discussed in the third carbon labeling edition, we are not yet there.
In the meantime, what’s a thoughtful eater to do?
I’ve developed some ideas. These ideas might not be right for you. Some of these ideas might not be right at all! But hopefully these rules of thumb can help.
Eating at Home. The first rule of thumb is that you will eat with a lighter carbon footprint at home. As I wrote in the What Food Should You Buy edition, I created The List of Negative Foods with foods covered in this newsletter. Fill your fridge, your chest freezer and your pantry with items from this list. And with lots of fruits and vegetables. Send your ideas and from time to time we’ll update the list.
Eating at Someone Else’s Home. If I come to your house for a Saturday night neighborhood party, I’m going to eat whatever you serve without complaint. I’ll choose the salad over the hot dogs if given a choice, but if everyone gets served steak, I’m going to eat steak, and I’m not going to ask for its provenance. I’m not ready to create social conflict for the sake of being righteous.
Table Service Dining. If I’m at a restaurant that has a clear mission for sourcing regeneratively produced food (like Stone Barns), I’ll eat anything they offer without second thought. Otherwise, in table service restaurants I try to stick to vegetarian and/or shellfish options. So lots of salads, soups, oysters, mussels, roasted cauliflower, veggie burgers, etc. This is not as hard as it sounds. When I’m entertaining (or being entertained) over a business dinner, I generally make similar choices. In the rare occasion I find myself in a chain restaurant with tough menu choices for my preferences, such as Fat Tuesday’s or TGIF’s, a salad bar can save the day.
Quick Service Business Travel Eating. When I’m on the road by myself or with colleagues (not entertaining), I’m generally eating for sustenance. If I’m in a U.S. city, I’ll try to find a Sweetgreen. Otherwise, I stick to Chipotle (veggie bowl with guac) or Panera (veggie salads or black bean soup). If I can’t find a convenient Sweetgreen, Chipotle or Panera, I’ll look for a local restaurant with vegetarian soup or salad or burrito bowl options.
Eating Healthy! Choosing healthy food often lightens carbon footprints. Dan Kittredge does a good job explaining how regenerative agricultural practices - in addition to sequestering carbon - improve the nutritional quality of the food they produce. Your gut already tells you that eliminating added sugar and highly processed foods from your diet is likely to improve your carbon footprint along with your health. Go for it!
Eating Meat Selectively. Meat is polarizing, and for good reason. Industrial meat is the worst climate offending food. But meat produced regeneratively can sequester carbon on a net basis. So if I don’t know the source of the meat, I generally won’t eat it. If I know the meat to be sourced in a regenerative fashion, I enjoy it. Want to think about this more? Listen to the Audible version of We are the Weather for a beautiful and haunting narrative of why we should avoid meat before dinner.
Eating Fake Meat. At home we consume beef that’s been produced regeneratively from a supplier we trust. But if I’m at a restaurant (other than the mission-oriented table service exception), I will eat Impossible or Beyond burgers if I crave something more filling than vegetables.
Eating Seafood. I can’t remember being more depressed than after watching Seaspiracy. It shook my (already low) confidence in the global seafood industry. I am generally happy to eat oysters (and their cousins mussels and clams) at most table service restaurants. Otherwise I try to limit my choices to seafood (a) from Iceland when I’m in Iceland; (b) sold by my fishmonger Ryan at my local farmers market; or (c) farmed on land in a sustainable way (not fed fish harvested from the sea). I’m looking for some help on this topic, please send me your feedback.
Parenting Kids. You can imagine the PITA it must be to be my kid. With that in mind, I don’t tell my kids (16yo, 14yo & 12yo) what to eat. Of course I cook a lot more than they do, so they are often exposed to my food preferences at home. And they get brainwashed by being around me all the time (and occasionally being featured in this newsletter). But when they eat in the homes of friends, or when we go out to dinner, they make their own choices and I try to lead by example and not by mandate (like in business, I believe in empowerment).
Overseas. The food system is often quite different in other countries. I try to learn as much as I can, make choices based on local conditions, and then write about my learnings for this newsletter (France and Iceland so far). By the way, I’ve recently begun purchasing offsets for my air travel from Cool Effect. What’s your feedback on that concept?
On Not Being Dogmatic. My (mostly) carbon negative dogs each get a fried egg on Sunday mornings, and I sometimes enjoy eggs on weekends as well. If I take my bride out to celebrate her birthday, I turn off this list in my brain. If the kids leave half a pizza in the fridge on a Friday night and I’ve had a couple of beers, I’ll eat ALL OF THE PIZZA before bed. You know what I mean.
On More Work to be Done. The food system isn’t there yet for most of us. My favorite post-workout breakfast is Bob’s Red Mill Quinoa (I keep a cooked batch in the fridge) with Santa Cruz Dark Roasted Crunchy peanut butter, raisins and Oatly oat milk. I couldn’t tell you the carbon footprint of that meal. And I’m not sure what Negative Foods I should instead eat after morning workouts. As a society we’ve got more work to do.
Therefore, a renewed call to action!
Entrepreneurs, we need you to exploit this amazing market opportunity and quickly build brands of Negative Foods to steal market share from Big Food.
Investors, we need you to move quickly, on this extraordinary wealth creation opportunity, to build theses, raises funds and put capital to work supporting Negative Foods entrepreneurs.
Big Food, your lunch will be eaten by those entrepreneurs if you don’t embrace Negative Foods sufficiently quickly.
Counting on You. But the biggest call to action, of course, is for consumers. When we vote with our dollars, when we demand more Negative Foods, the market will react and cause the changes that we need to reverse climate change with the food system.
For Your Further Consideration:
AgFunder raises $21m for New Carnivore alt-protein fund from ADM, Alexandria & others
Research introduces a regenerative food chain process that’s safe, yet profitable
Growmark & Corteva partner with Indigo on carbon
Farm funding is our best shot to reduce pollution in Chesapeake
The views in this newsletter belong solely to Paul Lightfoot (and not to BrightFarms or other organizations). This newsletter accepts no advertising. Learn more about this newsletter at https://paullightfoot.substack.com/about.
Thanks, Paul -- I always learn from these newsletters and have made several changes in my choices as a result of the information you're sharing! Heading out on a roadtrip tomorrow and will look for better options on I-95 (sorry, fast-food burgers, we're over).