Ever considered how much energy is needed to fill your fruit bowl?

Even the most humble of produce is conventionally farmed with artificial fertilisers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from oil) and machines (run on petrol), before being flown or shipped thousands of kilometres (using petrol), trucked to a supermarket (also using petrol) and then sold in a plastic bag (made with oil).

We all need to eat, but fortunately it's easy to cut down on food carbon emissions. Here's how:

1. Buy seasonally

Produce grown in its natural season requires much less human interference than when it's grown out of season, so requires less much energy and water use.

Crops grown in their natural season are also more likely to work with the local ecosystem to minimise the need for pesticides and energy-chewing hothouses - so enjoy vitamin-packed mandarins in winter, and save the thirst-quenching watermelon for summertime.

2. Buy locally

Fresh and frozen produce bought locally not only saves on food miles, but reduces the need for refrigerated storage - which makes up 14.9 per cent of the entire food industry's energy use each year.

Even if you can't make it to the farmer's markets, buying products made in Australia with Australian ingredients will go a long way (no pun intended). Currently, the average Australian shopping basket has travelled over 70,000 kilometres from its producer to reach you, so every purchase counts.

3. Research importing methods

Recent research reveals that how your food has travelled is just as important as how far your food has travelled. "Shipping food in from overseas can even be more energy efficient than locally grown produce, if it's out of season or hothouse-grown," states Caroline Saunders, professor of trade and environmental economics at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand.

And she should know, having co-authored a study that found shipping kiwi fruit to the UK from New Zealand actually uses less energy than trucking the same amount in from Italy does. So follow her example, and look into the importing methods of your supermarket.

4. Avoid hothouses

Hothouse-grown produce might look tasty, but it's the farming equivalent of an oil spill. Hothouses use vast amounts of energy to create the right climate to grow the vegies - so much so that one study found tomatoes grown in Spain and transported to the UK actually had a lower carbon footprint than tomatoes grown domestically in UK hothouses. "Hothouse-grown foods are definitely not the way to go!" confirms Saunders.

5. Cut your packaging

Packaging accounts for approximately seven per cent of all energy used in our food production system and sadly, most of it ends up in the bin after a single use. Extra packaging usually means extra weight in transportation, too, resulting in extra fuel usage.

So aim to replace your packaged goods for fresh ones. When you can't avoid buying something packaged, try buying it in bulk - and look for recyclable options like paper and glass. Just don't forget to recycle them!

6. Avoid processing

Imagine all the energy that goes into turning potatoes into Pringles. They have to be peeled and cooked and mashed and shaped and fried. Compare that to more traditional potato chips. They are peeled and sliced and fried. Big difference!

While it might seem obvious to avoid products that are so processed they're no longer recognisably natural (what exactly is a Cheezel?), there are plenty of every day foods that are processed, too.

Bread, for example, requires grinding, milling, wetting, drying and baking before it's ready. In fact, processing accounts for approximately 16 per cent of all food production energy - so only buy what you really need.

7. Buy less meat

Cutting back your meat consumption is one of the most positive steps you can take towards being low-carb. According to a 2006 United Nations report, the livestock industry generates a devastating 18 per cent of all human-induced emissions globally, while chicken, if on a slightly lesser scale, also requires energy intensive processes like feeding, processing and packaging.

If you find that you can't give up meat entirely, try cutting back - a recent American study found that one less red meat-based meal a week makes a bigger difference to your carbon footprint than does buying all your food locally.

8. Buy fewer big fish

Harvesting big fish, such as tuna or swordfish, produces similar amounts of greenhouse gases to harvesting beef. This is because long-distance ocean voyages are required to catch these large, predatory fish. Plus they are higher on the food chain, eating lots of other smaller fish, which means many edible fish have gone into creating just one edible fish.

Opt for more energy efficient fish, such as sardines or anchovies, which are lower in the food chain and live close to the shore.

Alternatively you could do away with fish altogether and opt for plant-based proteins such as mushrooms, legumes and nuts instead. Not only is this energy efficient, but you'll be conserving our marine life too: some estimates predict that up to 90 per cent of edible fish may disappear by 2048, if we don't stop consuming them so rapidly.

9. Buy organic

Apart from producing food with consideration to animal welfare and environmental sustainability, organic food comes without the embedded energy associated with artificial pesticides and fertilisers.

According to Ivan Kennedy, professor in agricultural and environmental chemistry at the University of Sydney, pesticides are primarily made of chlorine, oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, nitrogen, and bromine, "and they're generally made using petroleum, too".

So the less we use, the better. And worse still, says Kennedy, is the footprint of artificial fertilisers: "you have to use hydrogen gas, made from natural gas or petroleum [to make them], and the CO₂ goes straight to the atmosphere." In fact, he adds, about three per cent of all fossil fuels we use go towards making nitrogen fertiliser - so discourage its use by choosing organic.

10. Try it raw

It makes sense: the less you cook your food, the less energy you'll use - and in most cases, the more nutrients you'll retain, too. If you must cook something, try poaching or steaming instead of baking - ovens suck a lot of power.

And try cooking your week's meals together- a report by the Royal Institute of Technology, in Sweden, found that it's almost always more energy efficient to cook several portions at once.

Written by Georgina Rickard. Originally published in G Magazine.