Saving the planet often seems like a herculean task, but is it really?   Lynn Fung finds ways to save the world just by eating right.

Bottled Up
Almost any meal in a posh establishment starts with the waiter asking, “Still or sparkling?” - a seemingly innocent question, but one with serious environmental implications. According to a WWF report, roughly 1.5 million tons of plastic are used by the bottled-water industry each year, 80 percent of which ends up in landfills. Then there’s the fossil fuels needed to make and transport the bottles, and all for a product that comes straight out of our taps.

It’s debatable whether bottled water is better for us at all. According to KK Suen, senior engineer at the Water Supplies Department, our water complies chemically and bacteriologically with the WHO’s Guidelines for quality. “If internal plumbing systems—including freshwater storage tanks—are properly maintained, one can drink water direct from the tap.” When we contacted restaurants known for refusing tap water to patrons to ask if they wanted to present their side of the argument, such as perceived health issues or old plumbing, they either refused to comment or insisted that they did in fact serve tap water to customers who ask. Seems they’re well aware that their profit-driven bottled-water-only policy is morally wrong.

Got Beef?
At every upmarket meat counter, consumers are assailed with choices: Kobe, Wagyu or Black Angus? Grass- or grain-fed? How to choose? While much of the decision is based on personal preferences, the one to avoid at all costs is grain-fed beef.

A recent study from the Hudson Institute Centre for Global Food Issues reports that 95 percent of beef from the US comes from grain-fed cows raised in feedlots. According to Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” this is due to an excess of cheap government-subsidized corn, which feedlot cows are forced to consume in order to use up the corn that floods the market. Cows are ruminants whose natural diet does not involve much grain, and when corn replaces grass as the mainstay of their diet, they gain a lot of weight and need a constant supply of antibiotics to stay alive—meaning us steak-lovers then take in said fat and drugs.

According to Pollan, not only is the meat from these cows bad for us, it wreaks havoc on the environment. Pastured cows make rangelands healthier by spreading grass seeds and fertilizing the land with their manure. Feedlot cows, in contrast, produce waste so toxic that if used as fertilizer, it would kill the crops due to the amount of chemicals in the animals’ diet.

With all this well-publicized information, it is astounding that many high-end steakhouses still market corn-fed steak as something desirable. When we asked Stephen McCrimmon, general manager at Morton’s, he said that grain-fed beef is “superior in marbling, texture and certainly flavor, and our guests have always preferred our USDA, grain-fed prime aged beef. It is what we’ve built our business on over our 30 years.” Unfortunately, questions about the higher amounts of saturated fats, chemicals and antibiotics were left unanswered, as he felt that “it would not be fair for them to comment on grass-fed beef, as all of Morton’s beef is USDA grain-fed.”
       
Organic Schmorganic
Everyone’s doing it nowadays, but is going organic better for the environment? Not according to Norman Borlaug, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for developing high-yield and disease-resistant wheat. An advocate of synthetic fertilizers, he believes organic farming is not better for the environment since they produce lower yields—therefore, more land is required to produce the same amount of crops. More land for farming means less rainforest, and besides, there’s simply not enough land in the world for every individual to subsist on organically farmed produce.

If Borlaug’s argument doesn’t convince you, then at least remember to steer clear of organic produce imported from faraway places. If buying organic produce is supposed to be beneficial for the environment, then importing out-of-season hothouse tomatoes is simply nonsensical, especially when there are organic farms here.

If you want to buy local organic produce yourself, check out the food stalls at Open Air Hong Kong’s two markets. The one in Discovery Bay takes place on the first Sunday of every month (next on Nov 2) while the other takes place at Cyberport on the third Sunday every month (next on Nov 16, both 10am to 5pm). The Star Ferry and Hong Kong Organic Farming Association also operate a market at the Central Star Ferry Pier every Wednesday from April through October, 1pm-6pm.

Seafood to Shun
Everyone knows that eating shark’s fin contributes to their declining population, but even if you choose to boycott it, there’s still loads of seafood items that are just as bad for the environment. Take the ever-popular Chilean seabass. Conservationists predict that the species will be extinct in five years thanks to illegal poaching to meet the demand. The fish takes 10-12 years to mature to a reproducing age, too long to replenish our over-fished seas.

Another depleted fish is the Pacific bluefin tuna. Because they’re highly mobile, it’s hard to monitor the catch rate as they swim in and out of differently regulated national waters. But if a life without toro isn’t worth contemplating, then Atlantic yellowfin tuna is a better option. They have a larger and more sustainable population, thanks to stringent regulations.

Ocean Grill Chef Chris Mark says other good options include farmed tilapia and turbot from China. Both are environmentally sustainable, and haven’t traveled very far to get here, meaning they’re fresher and have a smaller carbon footprint. Ultimately, Mark believes that the responsibility to order the right seafood is the customer’s.  “Restaurants are market-driven profit makers. If customers want endangered fish, most restaurants will provide them. Chefs would be happy to provide lesser-known and less-overfished options such as a New Zealand gurnard, if only customers would order them.”