Foods with Huge Carbon Footprints

When you bite into a hamburger or enjoy a pile of roast asparagus, do you think about the impact it has on the environment?   Well, maybe you should.

The food that we eat has an incredible impact on climate change. In fact,

agriculture is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. What foods we choose to buy, how we choose to purchase them and how often we consume them matter to global warming.

And not all foods have an equal impact.

Livestock and their byproducts account for at least 32,000 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, or 51% of all worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. And agriculture is responsible for 80-90% of all United States water consumption. That’s crazy!

Here are the top five offenders.

5 Foods with Huge Carbon Footprints

In 2011, CleanMetrics Corp., a Portland, Oregon-based environmental firm, published a report called “The Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change & Health.” Based on that report, these foods are the most ‘environmentally impactful’ based on their greenhouse gas emissions.

Each of these foods was studied from a variety of angles: emissions produced before a product leaves the farm (i.e. use of fertilizer and pesticides, irrigation, impact of animal feed) and emissions produced after the product leaves the farm (i.e. food processing, transport, retail, cooking and ultimately waste disposal).

Here are the results, in kilograms of CO2:

1. Lamb – Produces 39.2 kg CO2 during its lifetime.
2. Beef – Produces 27 kg CO2 during its lifetime.
3. Cheese – Produces 13.5 kg CO2 during its lifetime. 
4. Pork – Produces 12.1 kg CO2 during its lifetime.
5. Farmed Salmon – Produces 11.9 kg CO2 during its lifetime.

And it’s not just animal products that are the problem. Potatoes produce the most emissions of all protein-rich plants, followed by asparagus, avocados, bananas and eggplant. Most of these require air freight to different parts of the world, because they only grow in warm climates.

What can you do about it?

Every single day, a person who eats a vegan diet saves 1,100 gallons of water, 45 pounds of grain, 30 square feet of forested land, 20 pounds CO2 equivalent and one animal’s life. That’s seriously convincing!

Here’s what I want you to hear most: food is power. You have an incredible amount of influence in the palm of your hand. What will you do with it?

Reducing (or eliminating) your meat intake has innumerable benefits.

You’ll contribute significantly to the causes of conservation and lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and you’ll look and feel better in the process.

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Learn about the impacts of the agriculture industry. Get to know the facts & equip yourself with knowledge.
   

   Eat Less or No Meat

2. Don’t feel pressure to change your entire diet in one day. Take it bit by bit. Start by eliminating red meat, then chicken.
3. Slowly integrate plant-based meals into your weekly routine. Once you have some recipes you know you can count on, phase out the rest.

Already eating a plant-based diet? Make it a point to shop in season and shop local whenever possible, if not always!

Think you can do it? I know you can!

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Very interesting read!  Who ever thinks about these things when we eat?  I don’t eat red meat or pork, but I never thought about the environment when I stopped eating these foods 30+ years ago. I still eat poultry, fish, & seafood, along with cheese & salmon; I’m not a vegan or a vegetarian. My goal is to try to eat healthy & most of the time I succeed…

Is anyone out there a vegan or a vegetarian? Do you eat meat or Poultry? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this…

Have a great day!