greater than less than equal to comparison cards

Let’s take the example of beef from a beef herd – the average footprint is approximately 60 kilograms of CO 2eq per kilogram of beef. But the key point here is that the difference in transport figures is very small relative to the total footprint of beef. If you live somewhere very remote you’d assume this must be much, much larger than if your beef is produced by your local farmer. You might think this figure is strongly dependent on where in the world you live, and how far your beef will have to travel. Food transport was responsible for only 6% of emissions, whilst dairy, meat and eggs accounted for 83%. But studies also shows that this holds true for actual diets here we show the results of a study which looked at the footprint of diets across the EU. This data shows that this is the case when we look at individual food products. Not just transport, but all processes in the supply chain after the food left the farm – processing, transport, retail and packaging – mostly account for a small share of emissions. For most food products, it accounts for less than 10%, and it’s much smaller for the largest GHG emitters.

Transport is a small contributor to emissions. Combined, land use and farm-stage emissions account for more than 80% of the footprint for most foods. Farm-stage emissions include processes such as the application of fertilizers – both organic (“manure management”) and synthetic and enteric fermentation (the production of methane in the stomachs of cattle). Poultry and pork have lower footprints but are still higher than most plant-based foods, at 6 and 7 kg CO 2-equivalents, respectively.įor most foods – and particularly the largest emitters – most GHG emissions result from land use change (shown in green), and from processes at the farm stage (brown). Lamb and cheese both emit more than 20 kilograms CO 2-equivalents per kilogram. Overall, animal-based foods tend to have a higher footprint than plant-based. The most important insight from this study: there are massive differences in the GHG emissions of different foods: producing a kilogram of beef emits 60 kilograms of greenhouse gases (CO 2-equivalents). This metric takes account not just CO 2 but all greenhouse gases. To capture all GHG emissions from food production researchers therefore express them in kilograms of ‘carbon dioxide equivalents’. CO 2 is the most important GHG, but not the only one – agriculture is a large source of the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide. In this comparison we look at the total GHG emissions per kilogram of food product. In this study, the authors looked at data across more than 38,000 commercial farms in 119 countries.

This is data from the largest meta-analysis of global food systems to date, published in Science by Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek (2018). This extends from land use changes on the left, through to transport and packaging on the right. In the visualization we see GHG emissions from 29 different food products – from beef at the top to nuts at the bottom.įor each product you can see from which stage in the supply chain its emissions originate. GHG emissions from transportation make up a very small amount of the emissions from food and what you eat is far more important than where your food traveled from. While it might make sense intuitively – after all, transport does lead to emissions – it is one of the most misguided pieces of advice.Įating locally would only have a significant impact if transport was responsible for a large share of food’s final carbon footprint. ‘Eating local’ is a recommendation you hear often – even from prominent sources, including the United Nations. What can you do to really reduce the carbon footprint of your breakfast, lunches, and dinner? There is rightly a growing awareness that our diet and food choices have a significant impact on our carbon ‘footprint’. 1Īs I have shown before, food production is responsible for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. People across the world are becoming increasingly concerned about climate change: 8-in-10 people see climate change as a major threat to their country.

Greater than less than equal to comparison cards