Eat seasonably

DoAction 17

Eat local, seasonal foodDoers doing this DoAction have pledged to save: 15122 kg CO₂

Food

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The DoNation Eat seasonably DoAction - tasty local seasonal vegetables

Add some seasonal variety to your diet, enjoy the fresh tastiness of local food and dramatically slim down your carbon footprint.

95%

of all fruit consumed in the UK is imported.

By eating seasonal and locally sourced food, you can cut your carbon emissions by almost a tonne a year, equivalent to two return flights from London to Glasgow¹.

Why?

Climate change

Powering hothouses and flying fresh fruit and veg around the world uses a lot of energy. By eating local, seasonal food you cut the need for either of these, slicing about 1.3Kg CO₂ off each meal.

Both locality and seasonality must be considered: for example, in winter it would be more efficient to import tomatoes from Spain than grow them in a British hot house, but in summer British grown is the outright winner.

Tastier

Seasonal, local food is tastier too! It’s all about ripeness and storage. Plus, by having to think outside the box, seasonal eating will introduce a wider variety of food and add novelty to your diet.

Health

The key nutrients in your fruit and veg come from their stems; the longer the fruit is left on the plant, the more nutrients it is able to soak up². Seasonal produce is naturally picked at the peak of its ripeness, while goods shipped from the other side of the world will often be picked days before they are ripe, thus starved of some of their healthy nutrients.

How?

Check out what’s in season before you shop - Eat Seasonably has great information on this.
Download this great iPhone app to help you in the shops: The Food Guide
Give growing a go – the One Pot Pledge and BBC give great tips on growing your own fruit and veg.
Find your local food producers, using Big Barn's interactive map.

We also recommend a few cookbooks to help make things interesting as you cook up a vegetarian storm. Our friends at Beetroot Books have also been nice enough to give our users a 15% discount on the following titles. Just type the code 'Beet19' when you get to the checkout: