The Environmental Impacts of my Chipotle Burrito

 

 

 

The Environmental Impacts of my Chipotle Burrito 

 

 

            I will be discussing the environmental impacts of two ingredients that I had in my Chipotle burrito. Those two ingredients are steak and cilantro   

            The first ingredient I will be talking about is steak. I will be discussing topics including where it was produced, if chemicals and/or fossil fuels were involved in the production of my product, if my product contributed to carbon dioxide emissions, what are the local and global impacts of my product, how did the product get to me, how far did it travel to get to me, and what kind of waste does my product produce. First talking about where my product was produced, Chipotle gets their beef from farms in the United States and Australia. I did some research on the biggest beef producers in the United States, and Texas was at the top of the list. More specifically, the “beef capital of the world” is located in Deaf Smith County, this is where the majority of the United States gets their beef. The next topic I’ll be talking about is the environmental effects of the production of beef. The World Wildlife fund talks about various environmental impacts from the production of beef. The impacts include the pollution of water due to improper treatment of cattle production waste, waste from slaughterhouses, which are rich in organic matter, heavy metals and caustic solutions is highly polluting to the environment, soil erosion due to livestock farming by turning forests into pastures, causing overgrazing and the loss of topsoil and organic matter that may take decades or centuries to replace, and the producing of greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide from cow burps and cow waste. The WWF says that beef production accounts for 7%-18% of global methane emissions. The third topic I’ll be addressing if chemicals and/or fossil fuels were involved in the production of beef. Chemicals involved in the production of beef include the pesticides and fertilizer used to grow crops like corn and soy for cattle feed. The use of fossil fuels in the production of beef include fuel used to transport cattle and beef products to market, which contributes to the overall fossil fuel footprint, along with that, converting forests into grazing land for cattle can release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The chemicals and fossil fuels involved in the production of beef create issues like destruction of ecosystems, increased levels of methane which deplete our ozone layer, the contamination of soil due to fertilizer and pesticides, and the contamination of water and air due to the amounts of carbon dioxide produced in the production of beef. The fourth topic talks about whether or not my product contributes to carbon dioxide emissions, the answer to that is yes. From the article, “What is the climate impact of eating meat and dairy,” by CarbonBrief, says, “Meat and dairy specifically accounts for around 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions” (CarbonBrief). Now that’s a lot of damage from just meat and dairy production, shows us how impactful the production of beef is to our environment. The fifth topic addresses the local and global environmental impacts of my product. The local environmental effects of the production of beef include water pollution, which causes eutrophication in bodies of water, the usage of land for cattle and the degradation of soil due to overgrazing and fertilizer and pesticides, concentrated animal feeding operations, and greenhouse gas emissions from cow waste. The global environmental impacts of beef production include deforestation at a large scale, depletion of the ozone layer due to the increase of methane and other gases, and mass soil degradation. The area that is most effected by beef production isn’t even in the United States, it’s in Brazil. Brazil faces issues including mass deforestation, indigenous communities being negatively affected, and the high greenhouse gas emissions. The sixth topic I’ll be talking about is how my product got to me. I got my steak from the restaurant Chipotle; Chipotle got their steak by trucks which go to distribution centers and bring it to Chipotle. The seventh topic talks about how far my product traveled to get to me. The steak that I got from Chipotle is from the United States and Australia, so it is both local and global, it had to travel a short and a long distance. The eighth and final topic I’ll be talking about is what kind of waste by product produces. The waste beef produces includes manure, digestive methane, slaughterhouse waste (organs, bones, and other parts that don’t go to use), feed production waste (whatever the cows don’t eat gets wasted), and land clearing. 

The second ingredient I will be talking about is cilantro. I will be discussing topics including where it was produced, if chemicals and/or fossil fuels were involved in the production of it, if my product contributed to carbon dioxide emissions, what are the local and global impacts of my product, how did the product get to me, how far did it travel to get to me, and what kind of waste does my product produce. The first topic talks about where my product was produced. Chipotle gets its cilantro from Taylor farms which is in the United States, but the biggest producer for cilantro is in the Ventura, Monterey, Santa Barbara, and San Benito counties in California.  The second topic covers the environmental impacts from the production of my product. The environmental impacts that come with the production of cilantro includes water depletion/waste since cilantro requires a lot of water, the use of pesticides and that getting into the soil and waterways, the depletion of soil nutrition, the use of greenhouse gases because of the transportation involved in getting cilantro where it needs to go, and if cilantro is handled incorrectly, it can lead to microbial contamination from the soil and water. The third topics talks about whether or not chemicals and/or fossil fuels were used in the production of my product. The chemicals involved in the production of cilantro include pre-plant fertilizer of nitrogen and phosphorous, insecticides, and the use of soil fumigation. The fossil fuels involved in the production of cilantro is the fuel used for transportation to get the cilantro where it needs to go, whether that’s by plane or truck. The environmental effects of the use of chemicals like fertilizer and pesticides can negatively affect the soil that they’re using to plant the cilantro and it can negatively affect waterways where runoff is happening. The environmental effect of fuel being used to transport the cilantro has a negative effect on the air quality, since there are harmful gases being released into the air, contributing to the greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. The fourth topic that I’ll cover is whether or not the production of my product contributed to carbon dioxide emissions. The production of cilantro does contribute to carbon dioxide emissions through land cultivation, irrigation, transportation, and the use of machinery. These all contribute to carbon dioxide emissions by using harmful gases to transport or produce cilantro and those harmful gases going into our atmosphere, waterways, and ecosystems. The fifth topic talks about the local and global environmental effects of the production of my product. The local environmental effects of the production of cilantro include land clearing, water depletion, and toxic chemicals getting into waterways and contaminating the air that we breathe. The global environmental effects of the production of cilantro include mass water depletion, usage of pesticides and fertilizers, contaminating major water ways and the atmosphere, the production of greenhouse gases through the transportation of cilantro, single use fields, deforestation, and mass soil degradation. The area that most likely gets affected the most environmentally is California. It produces a lot of cilantro and probably experiences a lot of environmental impacts because of their high production of cilantro. The sixth topic I’ll cover is how the product got to me. The cilantro got to me through Chipotle since I ordered my burrito with cilantro at the restaurant. Chipotle gets their cilantro from Taylor farms, so it is transported via trucks which go to the farms and bring it to Chipotle. The seventh topic talks about how far my product traveled to get to me. Taylor farms are in the United States, so the cilantro traveled within the United States so not too far, but also not super close. I would consider cilantro to be local. The eighth and final topic covers the kind of waste my product produces. Cilantro produces waste including organic waste (from not using the whole herb), water waste because of how much water it needs, and plastic waste for when it needs to be packaged and transported.

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

“Beef | Industries | WWF.” Beef . Accessed November 23, 2024. https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/beef.

Daisy Dunne, Tom Prater and Joe Goodman. “Interactive: What Is the Climate Impact of Eating Meat and Dairy?” Carbon Brief. Accessed November 22, 2024. https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/what-is-the-climate-impact-of-eating-meat-and-dairy/index.html.   

Tech, Advanced Chem. “How Does Eating Meat Affect Climate Change?” Advanced ChemTech, January 27, 2024. https://advancedchemtech.com/how-does-eating-meat-affect-climate-change/.  

Regan, Sylvia. “How Industrial Animal AG Is Making Lettuce Dangerous.” FarmSTAND, July 22, 2024. https://farmstand.org/how-industrial-animal-ag-is-making-lettuce-dangerous/.  

Cilantro production: Sample costs and profitability analysis. Accessed November 23, 2024. https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8029.pdf.June 27, 2019, Share        Get link        Facebook        X        Pinterest        Email        Other Apps, Eat Great vegan vegetarian, Labels: Eat Great vegan vegetarian, 2015 August 31, Post a Comment, Read more, and 2022 November 08. “Coming to Terms with the Beef Problem.” Greater Milwaukee Men. Accessed November 22, 2024. http://www.greatermkemen.com/2019/06/coming-to-terms-with-beef-problem.html. Toddler, Carly | 

My Green. “The Environmental Impact of Meat Production (It’s Big!).” My Green Toddler, September 5, 2023. https://mygreentoddler.com/environmental-impact-of-meat/. 

“Taylor Farms® Cilantro - 8oz.” Sam’s Club. Accessed November 22, 2024. https://www.samsclub.com/p/taylor-farms-cilantro-8oz/198189.