Ready to Challenge Yourself to Create More Sustainable Food Practices?

There is no denying 2020 was difficult. Farm and food laborers were exposed to the coronavirus at alarmingly disproportionate rates, and our industrial food complex buckled under the strain of the virus, leading to the unnecessary slaughter of thousands of animals. The possibilities we saw at the outset of 2020 — including plastic bans and improved working conditions for migrant farmworkers — were terribly wrong. Instead, we saw a lack of oversight and protective measures on farms and processing plants, and an increase in food packaging coupled with the dialing back of plastic bag bans due to COVID-19 safety concerns and the surge in take-out dining.

While the 2021 future seems brighter, we haven’t yet arrived at a coronavirus-free world. Instead of worrying until then, it might help to make some immediate changes to improve your life, reduce your personal impact on climate change, learn to create less waste, use less plastic, and support the local economy and fair labor rights. With everything bad that’s happened in 2020, making tangible, positive changes towards a more sustainable, equitable food system sounds good, right?

That’s where our 4-week Reduce Your FoodPrint challenge comes in. We’ve adapted our 2020 plan to acknowledge the challenges of the COVID-19 world, with a series of 28 daily sustainable food practices to help make your routine, your habits, your purchasing — and your advocacy — healthier for you, more humane for animals, better for food and farmworkers, and less harmful to the environment.

Even small steps can have a big impact: Giving up meat one day a week can reduce your personal consumption by 15 percent. With some planning, such as bringing along a tote bag or focusing on recipes that use stems and leaves, you can cut back on plastic and food waste. Larger changes, like choosing Food Justice Certified or Certified Grassfed labels when grocery shopping, will guarantee you’ll be supporting more humane and sustainable food production.

The plan is laid out in a four-week structure so that anyone can start it, anytime they’d like. Go through the steps to gain a fresh perspective and commit to these goals. Suggest the challenge to your coworkers, classmates or friends — moral support can be the encouragement you need to keep going and make your new sustainable food habits stick.

Ready to take the leap, commit to new sustainable food practices, and start reducing your foodprint? Download the 4-week plan PDF and check off each activity as you work through the next 28 days. Follow us on social media @foodprintorg to get more tips and information about the challenge, and let us know how you are doing by sharing your progress with the hashtag #ReduceYourFoodPrint.

Top photo by @makenamedia/Twenty20.