Sustainability is on the agenda. And why is that? We know that our lifestyle has a direct impact on the climate. Our consumption habits have been causing changes in the way our planet behaves, with direct consequences for our lives.

Etymologically, the word sustainable originates from the Latin word sustentare, which means “to sustain”, “to support” and “to conserve“. Thus, we can say that to be sustainable is to support and conserve our common home, our planet, and its resources, for the preservation of life on earth.

But what can we, as consumers, actually do to attain such a concept? We can make little changes in the way that we eat, by adopting simple practices that are easy to maintain:

Eat local food. There are foods specific to each geography and each country, region or local, suited to the climate, and adapted to the population’s needs. For this reason, it is more ecological to choose what is available within a close radius of our home, for example, than to eat food that has travelled thousands of kilometres to reach our plate. What we guarantee when we choose local food is that the environmental costs of transporting and storing it are minimized.

Eating seasonal food. With new technologies for farming, we have access to all kinds of foods during the entire year, making difficult to know what the foods are available during a certain season. Choosing foods in season is being sustainable and healthy, since we choose food adapted for the condition of the season, without greenhouses.

Cooking our own food. Cooking at home has many advantages such as portion control, know what ingredients we are consuming, and choosing the kind of food we eat (cooked, roasted, baked or steamed). Buying food in bulk also has advantages because we reduce the number of packages that enter our homes.