Outrageous portions

In Bulgaria, it’s a kind of national sport to follow all ranking where we are either at the bottom, if their are positive ones, or at the top, if they are negative ones. Self-hate is a revered tradition. And in the last week of 2021 we got a brand new reason to hate ourselves. Apparently, we are home to the most carbon-intensive meal in Europe.

According to research — and I use the term as loosely as I can — from an organisation called Uswitch, which used an online emission calculation tool called MyEmissions, a serving of Bulgarian moussaka had a carbon footprint of a whopping 6.5 kilograms of carbon equivalent.

The biggest contributor to the horrifying carbon footprint of one of the most popular and loved dishes in the country is, according to Uswitch and BBC Good Food, which supplied the recipes, was the 1 kg of beef required for making Bulgarian moussaka. And let me stop right here because this is nonsense. You might well say that the whole research is nonsense but I would like to address it.

I have been active in the kitchen for 20 years now and moussaka, as I said, is a favourite. Never have I ever in my life used a whole kilo of beef to make it. In fact, moussaka in Bulgaria is mainly made of minced pork, mixed with minced beef in a 60:40 ratio, to the tune of half a kilo per one whole moussaka, which contains about 6 generous servings. Some, I’m being told, even use pure pork mince. We’re a pork and chicken nation as a whole, not a beef nation, not least because beef is expensive. So much for the biggest contributor to that 10.83 kg of emission equivalent.

The more interesting part is the one about potatoes. According to the research, the reason Bulgarian moussaka has a considerably higher carbon footprint than the Greek original is the use of potatoes instead of aubergines. Indeed, I used MyEmissions to calculate the carbon footprint of 1 serving of potatoes and it was quite high, at 401 grams of CO2 equivalent per serving of 220 grams. As to why that is, however, the calculator remains silent. So I did some digging because it was December 30 and I didn’t really have anything more interesting to do.

According to one source, potatoes are actually among the foods with the lowest carbon footprint. The biggest source of emissions from potatoes is “farming”, which I expect covers the whole process of sowing/planting, growing, and harvesting and associated energy use. The second source of potato emissions, apparently, is transport. Which is where I am reminded of a brilliant passage from World War Z, the book.

In this passage, a character shows another character a list of ingredients for a common dessert from the pre-zombie era. The list features products from all over the world in what I’ve always seen as a brilliant illustration of the true nature of globalisation. It is also a brilliant illustration of the hypocrisy of calling for a phase-out of beef and lamb and why not all meat and let’s just go all vegan to save the planet.

In 2019, the University of Cambridge boasted a 33% reduction in emissions per kg of food purchased after it removed beef and lamb from the menu and replaced them with plant-based alternatives. The one thing it didn’t mention was whether the alternatives were all locally grown. Because if they were imports, they most likely entered the country via an airplane and don’t get me started on the carbon footprint of planes.

Food website Epicurious announced it would no longer carry beef recipes, “In an effort to encourage more sustainable cooking.” While acknowledging that dropping beef recipes was no silver bullet for emissions, the website said “All ruminant animals (like sheep and goats) have significant environmental costs, and there are problems with chicken, seafood, soy, and almost every other ingredient. In a food system so broken, almost no choice is perfect.”

It was news to me that the food system was “so broken” but I suppose it depends on the perspective. My personal perspective is that humans are omnivores and as such need the nutrients in all food groups. There are two ways to get these nutrients: by growing and raising plants and animals yourself, and by using the convenience of industrial farming, which has made a lot of foods a lot more affordable for a lot more people over the last couple of centuries.

Is industrial farming perfect? Of course not, especially for animals. The thing is that for the majority of people, their own selves are more important than any animal, even the most intelligent ones. It’s not fair from a natural perspective but we do have the most complex brains and that’s a fact we cannot change, at lest until we discover a species with a more complex brain and smart enough to live in deep hiding. And these brains, and the bodies that carry them, need food, a lot of it and varied.

This neatly brings me to the topic of excessive consumption. Just as we tend to overconsume energy by indulging in conveniences such as air conditioning in the summer (I do not mean hot places where AC is literally vital such as the Middle East and Florida. I mean European countries), we also tend to overconsume food. And replacing beef with a plant-based alternative the crop for which was grown in the Amazon, for instance, is not exactly a good solution.

But I do have a suggestion for all those worried about the carbon footprint of every bite they take. There are many countries where food is so scarce people are literally dying of starvation. Relocating to such a country would have a fantastic effect on one’s carbon footprint by simply cutting their access to the multitude of products and meat alternatives available at home. It might also teach them a valuable lesson about only coming to appreciate something after you lose it, exactly like energy security.

In anticipation of I’m sure deserved criticism, this is where I will report that both my husband and I are underweight by all standards, from which it follows that we do not consume food in excess. We do have a meat-heavy and potato-heavy diet but our daughter compensates by being almost entirely vegetarian in her tastes. I shop locally even when the pork shoulder from Spain is half the price of its Bulgarian equivalent.

I also have plans to grow my own vegetables though I admit this is not out of concern for my carbon footprint. That ship sailed the moment I decided to reproduce. It is because home-grown vegetables have much better taste. Incidentally, they also reduce my carbon footprint, which in this carbon-focused day and age makes me feel a lot better about myself. So much better, in fact, I’ll be making moussaka for dinner tonight.

To everyone a happy and abundant new year and remember: shop locally, eat seasonally and for the love of all that you consider holy do not throw away food. Now that’s something that would do wonders for our collective carbon footprint.

P.S. The headline was inspired by Outrageous Fortune a New Zealand TV series from a more irresponsible time when people counted calories and not emissions.