Reduction of the carbon footprint of college freshman diets after a food-based environmental science course

Jennifer A. Jay (), Raffaella D’Auria, J. Cully Nordby, David Andy Rice, David A. Cleveland, Anthony Friscia, Sophie Kissinger, Marc Levis, Hannah Malan, Deepak Rajagopal, Joel R. Reynolds, Wendelin Slusser, May Wang and Emily Wesel
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Jennifer A. Jay: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Raffaella D’Auria: Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
J. Cully Nordby: Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
David Andy Rice: Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
David A. Cleveland: University of California Santa Barbara
Anthony Friscia: Integrative Biology and Physiology
Sophie Kissinger: Natural Resources Defense Council
Marc Levis: University of California Los Angeles
Hannah Malan: Fielding School of Public Health
Deepak Rajagopal: Institute of the Environment and Sustainability
Joel R. Reynolds: Natural Resources Defense Council
Wendelin Slusser: Healthy Campus Initiative
May Wang: Fielding School of Public Health
Emily Wesel: Civil and Environmental Engineering

Climatic Change, 2019, vol. 154, issue 3, No 16, 547-564

Abstract: Abstract The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of a two-quarter freshman course series entitled “Food: A Lens for Environment and Sustainability” (Food cluster) on the carbon footprint of food choices by college freshmen attending a large public university in California. Students enrolled in the course completed a baseline questionnaire about their diets in early fall quarter and then again at follow-up, about 6 months later at the end of the winter quarter. The control group consisted of freshmen enrolled in a different course series entitled “Evolution of the Cosmos and Life” (Cosmos cluster). The instruction in the Food cluster included lecture material on general environmental science and life cycle analyses of food, an analysis of a reading comparing the environmental footprint of various types of meats, and classroom exercises to calculate the environmental footprint of typical foods. The Cosmos cluster instruction included climate change, but no information about food. While the two groups were statistically indistinguishable at baseline, throughout the period of the study, Food cluster students decreased (a) their overall dietary carbon footprint for a 2000-kcal normalized diet by 7% (p = 0.062), (b) the beef component of their dietary carbon footprint by 19% (p = 0.024), and (c) their reported ruminant consumption by 28% (p

Date: 2019
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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-019-02407-8

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