The Element C

There has been a lot of talk in recent times of Carbon Footprint, Carbon Audits and like which set my train of thought towards the decision we make in life. Can we use the overall Carbon impact to guide us in our personal choices or is it something limited to weird consultant world!!!

Q : Why are you a Vegetarian?
A : Being a Vegetarian is more Carbon efficient on an average. If we assume that the C - Efficiency of an average living being is 60% (includes Plants, Chicken.. maybe humans) then the farther up you dine in the food chain, the less carbon efficient your food habits become e.g. - If you eat chicken; then for 100 gm-energy equivalent of C absorbed by the Maize, you get 60 gm-E inside the chicken and you get only 36 gm-E from it. If you directly ate maize, you got 60 gm-E which is better. This is gross oversimplification but you get the idea!

Q : So why are you Non - Vegetarian then?
A : If you answer the above Q purely on energy basis, it does not give a full picture. The higher node you gobble from the food pyramid, the more processed food becomes. So if I live in Iceland where plants are few and maybe none edible, I will eat fish/ animals who in turn eat those plants and make them palatable. Alternatively, if I need Omega 3 fatty acids from fish! The clinching argument being I like the taste of Non -Veg fare...

..... This argument will continue with more Q n A