Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Environmental Impacts of meal

My meal that I consumed was bought at Noodles and Company. I had purchased a small portion of buttered noodles with seasoning, some garlic bread and a small diet soda. I had purchased the meal by walking into the restaurant and purchasing the food the go. We are asked what environmental impacts were associated with the production of the meal. I'm honestly not sure what environmental impacts were associated with the production of this meal, I kind of think that the environment didn't impact at all, but the economy did by gaining more money. The three ingredients I'm choosing to describe in detail are flour, grain and basil. We all now that grain is found mainly on farmland but what about flour and basil? Well I see many articles are saying that flour is grown the same way wheat is, on farmlands. Finally, basil is found in Central Africa and Southeast Asia as a spice that they use. Next we are asked how our product affected resources like water, soil and ecosystems? For the ingredients I described before, I don't believe that they had a negative effect on biodiversity, because most of the ingredients were grown in farmlands. Chemicals or fossil fuels were used if you consider grease a chemical and the heat from the oven and pots used. Other than that I cannot think of any other chemicals or fossil fuels used. Earlier I stated that I walked in there to order my food to go, but I did get there by driving my car. The ingredient that came the farthest to get to Wisconsin would be the basil, since it came from Central Africa or Southeast Asia. I'm not sure what kind of waste my meal produced, I didn't waste any part of it.