Homemade soup - good for physical and mental health? Photo/Babiche Martens
Homemade soup - good for physical and mental health? Photo/Babiche Martens
Store-bought or stovetop? New Reset magazine columnist Ethically Kate considers the pros and cons of homemade food.
Dear Kate, In order to reduce food waste and purchase products that come in single-use plastics, I like to cook as much as I can at home. I'd like to bake my owngranola/dehydrate homemade fruit roll-ups/toast my own seeds/whole roast a pumpkin for soup, but how energy efficient is it to be running the oven on low for hours at a time? Should I just buy a packet of soup instead?
An energy efficiency comparison will depend on things like what oven you're using and where the packet of soup came from (generally the product or at least some of the ingredients would come from overseas, using energy to get here). But I think a more important question is to consider what type of energy you're using when you cook at home; renewable or nonrenewable.
Have you heard of off- and on-peak times? Approximately 83 per cent of energy sources in Aotearoa New Zealand come from renewable sources, mainly hydro with geothermal, wind, and solar featuring in this percentage too. However, when a large number of Kiwis require energy from the grid at the same time, the production of renewable energy doesn't meet demand. That's when non-renewable sources like coal and gas kick in. This means that if you had the oven running at an off-peak time, 9pm-5am, you would be more likely to use cleaner energy compared to cooking between 5am-9pm.
Does homemade make you happier? Kate Hall considers the pros and cons of storebought versus stovetop. Photo/Supplied
Moving away from the energy chat, it's important that we consider more factors when it comes to sustainable living decisions and cooking that glorious list of food you've mentioned.
Firstly, depending on how you make your homemade soup, the ingredients in a packet of soup are less healthy for your body. Secondly, the process of making your own food, understanding where your ingredients came from and putting effort into your basic needs are beneficial for your mental health. When a person is healthy and feels empowered by the sustainable actions they do in their everyday life, it's more likely that they will make even greater changes that have a far more positive impact - like voting, signing petitions, or emailing local councillors.
Top this off with the fact that the plastic packaging of your pre-made soup will exist for up to 500 years somewhere on this Earth and your plans to DIY food at home sound great.
