When a lot of people think about climate change, they think about cars, oil, lightbulbs, coal plants, and airplanes. And yes, all of those things are major players in the what-causes-climate-change game. But food too is another big factor that we need to consider in our efforts to confront the climate crisis.

I just saw this great TED talk about how food even gets to our plates in cities by Carolynn Steele in which she brings up a lot of the ways in which food itself influences how we live in an urban environment:

Overall agriculture around the world is responsible for nearly as much total greenhouse gas emissions as all forms of transportation put together so it shouldn’t actually be so surprising that the food choices we all make have a big impact one way or another.

To get a fuller picture, watch this video from Slow Food Nation on which covers nearly every aspect of how food and climate relate from the effect of organic farming to the threat of drought to how meat production fits into things. I think this might be one of the most comprehensive online resources for really learning about how our food choices have global impact:

There is almost no end the myriad of ways that food, agriculture and climate change are connected. That’s one reason I’m particularly excited to see how many food bloggers have already signed up to participate in Blog Action Day (45 by my count) this year and I for one am looking forward to seeing how these bloggers take on climate change.