Blog Post #3: Environmental Impacts of my Meal

My meal consisted of a few different items I eat most mornings, and from those items I am focusing on the orange juice and the strawberry banana yogurt and the environmental impacts associated with each item. The orange juice I typically drink is the Pulp Free Simply Orange brand, and for yogurt I normally have the Yoplait brand. 

The environmental impacts of my items are sustainable. No damage should be caused to the land, air, and water. When buying these items, I am always making sure to check that they do not contain ingredients that can be harmful to the environment or use pesticides. 

The oranges used to make Simply Orange juice come from USA, Brazil, and Mexico. They use oranges from all three countries because the freshness is different based on the time of the year. Yoplait's main ingredients are fruit and milk. The fruit is fresh fruit, and the milk comes from co-ops that participate in a comprehensive animal management program called FARM – Farmers Assuring Responsible Management. These farms do not give their cows artificial growth hormones.

The oranges and fruit used do not affect resources like water, soil, or ecosystems. Milk comes from cows and since cows produce milk for their children, taking their milk means their calves are fed milk replacers are unnatural. The taking of their milk can cause a decrease in biodiversity because the calves are losing milk. 

The only chemicals used to produce yogurt are potassium sorbate. This is used in yogurt to maintain freshness; therefore, it does not cause any environmental effects.

The environmental impacts were associated with the transportation, distribution, and consumption of the orange juice and yogurt were truck.  I buy my groceries from Woodman’s and Walmart and their products are transported by truck. The orange juice is produced in Florida at the headquarters and the yogurt is produced at general mills factory. From both places the items are shipped out to different distribution stores to get to customers like myself. 

These products produced packaging waste. Although the large container my yogurt was in could be washed and reused, if I did not it would go in the trash. I sometimes recycle the container and use it for other things at home.