Thoughts on Meatballs

When making my food choices at the grocery store, I take into account a number of factors, although I must admit the issue of environmentalism does not at all come across my mind. First and foremost, I chose food depending on what I prefer. To eat something, I have to like it. Usually, the other most critical factors are health and price. I am not overly concerned with health, but I make sure I get food items from some different food groups. The sodium content, cholesterol, and fat content are things that I scan for quickly in the nutritional facts. With respect to price, I try to find the item that goes along best with my taste and health preferences, but one that is the cheapest. As a college student, I really must focus on stretching every dollar, so if I spot a deal with something I wish to purchase, I will go for it.

Of the food I have recently eaten, I would probably say that my meatballs have had the greatest environmental impact. The meat mixture I use is comprised of three different meats, a portion of which comes from Canada, and the other portion, the United States. This means that there were high transportation costs, aside from all the other costs of raising the meat (pork, veal, beef)which one of the readings noted uses more energy than those products distribute. Aside from the meat itself, the meatball also has cheese, seasoning, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, eggs, oil, and some milk. To get all of these products to one place definitely contributed some type of environmental damage through transportation. All these different ingredients require an expenditure of energy to create, especially the animal-related products, and the fact that they are all concentrated into a ball that fits into the palm of my hand shows how one small piece of food can require a great deal of energy, which in turn can harm the environment. Furthermore, I cooked the meatballs using a gas stove, which is not the most friendly fuel for the environment. All the oil that is left over from cooking is simply disposed of, which also raises the environmental cost because energy was used to create it, and it was not used to its fullest extent.