Looking to shrink your carbon footprint? A Fort Collins scientist says start with your grocery list

In The NoCo

Looking to shrink your carbon footprint? A Fort Collins scientist says start with your grocery list

By In The NoCo,

Published September 27, 2024 at 5:40 AM MDT

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Mark J Easter poses with his dog in front of a mountain. — Mark Easter's book The Blue Plate: A Food Lover's Guide to Climate Chaos was published in September. In it, he breaks down the carbon emissions of many of the foods we eat and explains the science behind it.

If you want to feel empowered to reduce your carbon footprint and fight climate change, the meals you plan, and the ingredients you buy, may be a great place to make some changes.

That鈥檚 a central point in a new book by . He鈥檚 a retired ecologist in Fort Collins who studies the carbon footprint of the food we eat.

In his book, titled , Easter walks readers through the typical ingredients in a home cooked dinner, like steak, potatoes, and fruit pie. Then he explains the carbon footprint of each ingredient, and how to reduce that footprint by making smarter purchases at the grocery store. Mark shares his research from places like orchards and feedlots.

ITN's Brad Turner talked with Mark Easter about his new book, which was published this month.

Mark will talk about his book at several upcoming events in Colorado:
Sept 27, 6:30 p.m.: Foothills Unitarian Church, Fort Collins

Oct. 3, 7 p.m.: Patagonia, Boulder

Oct. 8, 6 p.m.: Tattered Cover (Colfax), Denver

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In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

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Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS 暗黑爆料hour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

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Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University鈥檚 NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family鈥檚 financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

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