Big Food produces a massive amount of greenhouse gas and is heavily contributing to plastic pollution that is littering our planet.
This is the second in a series of blog posts derived from my Great Falls High Junior Research Paper, “Big Food’s Reign of Terror.”
Plastic has grown in popularity since its invention because it is lightweight, inexpensive, and convenient. There is a customer demand for plastic packaging because of how easily it can be disposed of and companies like Coca-Cola are catering to this demand (Bandoim).
While each individual can easily dispose of a plastic bottle, it becomes a much more difficult task when 7.7 billion people do not consider the lasting impact their plastic trash has on the environment. How do we dispose of 600,000 square miles of garbage in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
There is so much plastic being produced in the U.S. that China and other countries are refusing to take any more for recycling. Instead the plastic is being burned. This is causing more greenhouse gases to be emitted into the atmosphere.
Big Food produces the majority of this plastic with, “Coca-Cola, Nestle, and PepsiCo [being] the top plastic polluters globally” (Bandoim). Every time a customer buys a Coca-Cola product in a plastic bottle or Nestle’s chocolate chips in a plastic bag, they are telling the company to continue using the plastic packaging. They will not change until their customers force them.
In many places, such as Montana, there are little means to recycle plastic, however “Break Free From Plastic” believes that recycling is not enough to solve the plastic pollution problem. Instead, it wants corporations to stop relying on single-use plastic,” so maybe instead of working to get plastic recycling in places like Montana, customers should refuse single-use plastic products and make corporations adapt (Bandoim).
Coca-Cola plans on making their bottles from 50% recycled material by 2030. In contrast, India plans to eliminate all single-use plastic by 2022 (Bandoim). Big Food companies should be doing more.
They are not just top global plastic polluters but also top contributors to climate change “Together, the [top] 10 [Big Food] firms emit more tons of greenhouse gases than Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway combined” (“Big 10 Food”). If society does not change, Earth will no longer be a hospitable environment for the human race sooner than we would like to admit.
Some of these large companies are beginning to make the change, “Walmart promises to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by a billion tons of carbon between now and 2030.” While these efforts are good, it is clear that “you need to engage the whole supply chain” to make a difference (“Can Anyone”).
Deforestation has also increased dramatically with a lot of the land being cleared to growing food (“Don’t Cut”). Big Food uses this statistic to defer the blame to their suppliers, but keep in mind that the multibillion-dollar companies are creating a high demand for the abundance of food worldwide. Big Food is bringing Earth to its knees through plastic pollution, climate change, and deforestation.
The customers have the power to force change. By choosing eco-friendly businesses like Wholesome Hal’s, you are making a difference.
Works Cited
Bandoim, Lana. “Why Coca-Cola Refuses To Ban Plastic Bottles.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 29 Jan. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/lanabandoim/2020/01/23/why-coca-cola-refuses-to-ban -plastic-bottles/#418ea742327b.
“Big 10 Food Companies Emit As Much As The ‘World’s 25th Most Polluting Country’.” YaleGlobal Online, 18 June 2014. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale. com/apps/doc/A371825533/OVIC?u=mtlib_2_906&sid=OVIC&xid=cb86b8d0. Accessed 28 Jan. 2020.
“Can Anyone, Even Walmart, Stem The Heat-Trapping Flood Of Nitrogen On Farms?” All Things Considered, 21 Aug. 2017. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A501957168/OVIC?u=mtlib _2_906&sid=OVIC&xid=1ad2f84d. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.
“Don’t Cut Those Trees – Big Food Might Be Watching.” All Things Considered, 31 July 2019. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A596564891/OVIC? u=mtlib_2_906&sid=OVIC&xid=592696c3. Accessed 30 Jan. 2020.