Consider the planet in your meal choices with this cookbook
Published on: Friday, December 30, 2022
By:
ETX Daily Up, FMT
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NGO The Kitchen Connection Alliance has recently published a book of 75 ‘good-for-the-planet’ recipes. (The Kitchen Connection Alliance pic)
Designed to guide consumers in their food choices while encouraging them to prepare food for pleasure, a new cookbook brings together 75 climate-friendly recipes, making it an ideal late gift for foodies who are concerned about the carbon footprint on their plates.
The Kitchen Connection Alliance, a non-government organisation, recently collaborated with the United Nations on “The Cookbook in Support of the United Nations: For People and Planet”.
Published early last month, the compendium was produced with the help of chefs, organic farmers, indigenous cooks, and food activists from all over the world.
The chapters are divided into themes such as biodiversity, sustainable consumption, climate change, and food waste. Even the design of the book is ecological, since the pages are printed on sustainable paper certified by the international NGO Forest Stewardship Council.
Inside, there are, of course, vegetarian and vegan recipes – though not exclusively – from all over the world with, for each of them, the corresponding carbon footprint.
One recipe, for example, encourages home cooks to prepare a ratatouille with “imperfect” products, with the aim of raising awareness on the importance of reducing food waste.
Chef Ska Mirriam Moteane, from Lesotho, also offers a recipe for dandelion salad that emits nearly 90% less carbon than an average meal in high-emission countries like the United States and China.
“Those in the highest-emitting countries in the world produce, through their food choices, about 3kg of CO2 per meal,” explained Earlene Cruz, founder of the Kitchen Connection Alliance and a professor at New York University.
“The recipes in this collection have 58.6% less carbon compared with an average meal from high-emitting regions of the world,” she added.
The book, priced at US$29.99 (RM132.55), should soon also take the form of a documentary series “that will include an exploration of indigenous communities and remote areas threatened by climate change”, according to a statement from the UN.
‘The Cookbook in Support of the United Nations: For People and Planet’ can be ordered online.
