Unseasonably hot days feel different lately. They don’t just make me warm; they make me worried, too. I get to thinking about whether the sweltering is a bellwether of our future. Climate scientists tell us we can’t extrapolate from anecdotal experiences like my weather worries, but we now have the data to confirm that spikes in temperature worldwide are indicating an irrefutable fact: The age of climate chaos has begun.

Thankfully, there’s a lot we can do — from big-picture tough stuff like taking a stand for forward-looking local and federal environmental policies to the simplest act of all: making climate-friendly choices when it comes to the food on our plate.

The food system, from seed to plate, is responsible for as much as one-third of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions. The production of livestock for human consumption alone is responsible for nearly one-fifth of the world’s total emissions — that’s more than every gas-guzzling SUV, jet plane or tanker combined.

Five easy steps to climate-friendly eating

So what can we do to support a climate-friendly diet? Here are just a few things that can make a difference:

1. Choose minimally processed food: Supermarket shelves are lined with products full of trans fats, high-fructose corn syrup and multisyllabic additives. Each of these elements takes enormous energy to create. Choosing real food — fresh, whole foods with minimal packaging — is choosing energy-efficient food that’s good for your body and the planet.
2. Don’t panic — go organic: Organic farms are not only good for the birds and the bees; they’re good for the climate, too. By building healthy soil, organic farms emit half the carbon dioxide as chemical farms. And since they don’t use synthetic fertilizers or pesticides, organic farms also use much less fossil fuel energy than their conventional counterparts.
3. Enjoy meatless Mondays … or Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays: Livestock production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, so try cutting meat and dairy out of your diet, or just trim back: Choose one day a week to go meat-free and you’ll be helping to decrease the carbon “foodprint” of your diet.
4. Live la vida local: Decrease your food mileage by choosing food from your locally stocked supermarket or your nearest farmers market. And help keep those local farmers on the land and thriving by becoming a shareholder of a community farm near you through community-supported agriculture.
5. Skip the straw: With more and more of us eating on the run, food packaging has become a bigger and bigger problem, filling our landfills and adding to the overall climate toll of our food system. So try, when you can, to choose less packaged products, travel with reusable mugs and turn to the tap instead of bottled water.