SUCCEED blog: Sustainable eating in Pittsburgh and beyond

Rachel Reolfi

Jun 30, 2021

When President Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, he famously said that he “represent[s] the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” But shortly after, the City of Pittsburgh (home to Carnegie Mellon University) and 175 other local governments clapped back, signing a pledge to meet the Paris goals on their own.

Growing, processing, transporting, and refrigerating food all make a lot of greenhouse gas emissions, and most of that food ends up eaten (or thrown away) in cities. That’s why Pittsburgh’s Climate Action Plan and many others include goals for cutting emissions from food. My CMU classmates and I wanted to figure out how Pittsburgh and other cities could actually make that happen.

We started with the most basic questions - how much food is there in the city, and how much of it is wasted? Here’s what we found:

The amount of food that flows through Pittsburgh each year per person is roughly equivalent to 100 watermelons, 1,600 Chipotle burritos, or 2,200 pints of Ben and Jerry's. About 1/3 of food in Pittsburgh never gets eaten.

watermelon emojies

When we throw food away, all of the emissions from farming, trucking, and refrigeration were all for nothing. By reducing food waste, we can feed everyone with less and help the planet. Cities and food businesses can partner with local food banks to make sure unused food ends up in the hands of those who need it. Businesses can also give food scraps and inedible products to composting services or local animal farmers to keep it from ending up in the landfill.

Not all food is created equal, too. Most of the carbon footprint of each food comes from making it - growing the crop or raising the animal it comes from. As you may know, beef has by far the biggest impact on the climate of any food, and Pittsburghers eat A LOT of it: 

With the beef eaten and wasted annually in Pittsburgh, we could make about 200 Primanti Pitts-burgers for every person.

burger emojis

While the most popular American foods aren’t going away any time soon, cities can encourage people to eat a little less meat by providing information about its environmental impact and making fresh fruit and vegetables easier for everyone to find and afford. It’s ultimately up to individuals to make their eating habits more sustainable - and you can learn more about how to do that here - but governments and large businesses have the unique ability to make big, sweeping changes when it comes to cutting greenhouse gas emissions!

Learn more about this study by me and my classmates in the Engineering & Public Policy program here.

 

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