KONIALIAN'S KITCHEN: SUSTAINABLE MEALS FOR YOUR WALLET AND THE PLANET
BIG MAC COMPARISON
Why a Big Mac?
A majority of us are aware of what a Big Mac is, even if we haven’t had one. Big Macs are one of McDonald’s staple food items and quite possibly the most well known fast food burger that exists. Not everyone eats Big Macs, but they’re so iconic that nearly everyone knows them. Due to its low price and popularity, I thought a Big Mac would be a great means of comparison.
How was the comparison made?
Since there is a general belief that fast food is affordable, I wanted to prove that cooking Mediterranean dishes at home could be even more cost effective. I set a standard for myself: a single serving of each of my recipes to had to cost less than 15% of the price of a Big Mac. Since a single Big Mac costs $3.99, a recipe’s serving could not exceed $0.798 prior to tax.​ If a recipe fits this criteria, then I could say that it is affordable.
Once a recipe was deemed affordable, I had to ensure that it was also ecological. It is extremely difficult to determine if something is considered to be ecological since the term encompasses a plethora of factors. I chose to focus on the carbon and water footprints. A recipe could be categorized as ecological if both its carbon and water footprints for a single serving fit my defined criteria. For the carbon footprints, I decided that a serving of a chosen recipe could not exceed 25% of that of a Big Mac. In other words, a Big Mac’s carbon footprint would be at least four times (4x) more than a single serving of each recipe. This means that a serving of my recipe emits 75% less carbon than a Big Mac does. With regards to the water footprints, I wanted to ensure that a serving of each recipe fell below 35% of that of a Big Mac. Adhering to this benchmarks means that a serving of my recipe would only consume roughly 1/3 of the amount of water required to make a Big Mac. If a recipe fits all of this criteria, then I could say that it is ecological.