I am an ordinary environmentally conscious college student

I would say that I think like other environmentally conscious college students when I make food choices. Here is a “model” list that any good college students should think about before they buy food: First, it should be organic or proven that the producers treated animals well in its production. Second, local is better.
First of all, I respect all life forms as much as humans--except roaches and mosquitoes. However, I don’t think that I should be a vegetarian. I admit that eating meat is natural. What is unnatural is raising animals inhumanely, like by feeding cows corn, feeding non-vegetarian forage to vegetarian animals, and squeezing them into a cell-like cage. I am more environmentally conscious when I am emotionally involved in an issue. That must be why I am not that passionate about organic vegetables. Second, I support local farms for less fossil fuel consumption and local communities’ development. I hope that eventually local farms replace the big corporations’ farms. I believe these things are the best practical actions for environment with my food purchases.
On the other hand, there are other factors that affect my food choices. First, it shouldn’t be irrationally expensive. I can take few dollars difference as investing in my health and for supporting organic farms. However, I don’t think I will ever easily buy vegetables that are double the price at Whole Foods. Second, it is hard to quit my favorite foods. It seems as if my favorite foods are sacred. When I have Korean food that I miss so much I will not even think for a second what kind of meat it is, or whether it is organic.
Overall, I try to make good food choices and make consider the environment. But I confront some obstacles that are deep-seeded in my mind. I am satisfied with my food choices and its impact on environment and that is all I can do as an individual consumer.

In the past few days, I ate a fancy hamburger at Chef Geoff’s, Korean pork barbeque at home, and a burrito at Chipotle. Among my last three food choices, my fancy hamburger must have had the greatest environmental impact. I am sure that my hamburger patty was made out of “good beef,” but not the one from the factory farm. However, in general our big beef consumption has the greatest impact on environment. First of all, cows take a lot of energy to become beef; this means they need a lot of crops or corn (that cows are not supposed to eat) to grow up and get fat. A huge portion of Amazon’s deforestation is attributed not only to the raising cows, but also to growing beans and crops to feed cows. Also, the methane that cows produce has 25 times stronger impact on global warming than carbon dioxide.
By the way, I don’t like to measure my consumption simply by thinking about environmental impacts without consideration for animal rights; it’s too selfish reason to think just about our (humans’) food.