Overall impact of the 40 most produced foods on the environment
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Getting to know the actual impact of food on the environment is tricky business. Indeed, depending on the source[1], the farming system at play in the research[2] or the parameters investigated in the study, the overall results may vary tremendously. Furthermore, the “impact on the environment” is more than often restricted to CO2 emissions. Water scarcity, the degradation of the soils[3] or the destruction of ecosystems[4] are to be considered also in relation to the CO2 emissions, as well as the impact of the food chain (farm, packaging, transport, retail) on the overall environmental print of the production of food stuffs. All of these elements do, indeed, contribute to the health of the planet and one cannot be favored in relation to another (a low level of CO2 in the atmosphere would be of little help if the majority of our soils would be to acidic to be used for cultivation).
Why go through the numbers?
Researching the matter may be a tremendous, easily biased and forever evoluting task, the spreadsheet below is thus here published to allow us, as consumers and climate conscious citizens, to take a first step towards the understanding of the complex “environmental impact” of various foods. This step may therefore allow us to consider the plurality of impacts of the food we buy — and therefore drive us to dig a little deeper when grocery shopping or considering our diet.
We will here be able to compare the overall CO2 emissions, the land use, the acidification, the eutrophisation as well as the water scarcity impacted by the 40 most produced foods in the world. As we will therefore witness, a small CO2 print does not necessarily mean “good for the environment” as the heavy use of water and the deep acidification of the soil may for instance be off the charts for a low CO2 print product.
References & details
These numbers are gathered from the largest database to date of the kind: 40,000 farms, across 119 countries. This comparative spreadsheet is based on 2 documents included in the research study titled “Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers” published by J. Poore[5] and T. Nemecek[6] in February 2019 (first publication June 1st 2018) in the american magazine Science.
🔍📄Click link to read PDF article
🔍📄Click link to have a look at the graph
🔍📄Click link to download precise spreadsheet
Comparing the data
OVERALL IMPACT OF THE 40 MOST PRODUCED FOODS ON THE ENVIRONMENT | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Protein rich products (for a 100g protein) |
GHG emissions (kg CO2 equivalent[7]) |
Land use (m2 year) |
Acidification[8] (kg SO2eq.[9]) |
Eutrophisation[10] (g PO2eq.) |
Use of water (kL equivalent) | |
Beef (meat) 🥩 | 50 | 164 | 0,189 | 0,177 | 871 | |
Lamb & Mutton 🐑 | 20 | 185 | 0,087 | 0,060 | 1082 | |
Beef (dairy) 🥛 | 17 | 22 | 0,209 | 0,209 | 1650 | |
Crustaceans[11] 🦐 | 18 | 2 | 0,060 | 0,098 | 1394 | |
Cheese 🧀 | 11 | 41 | 0,149 | 0,089 | 4735 | |
Pig meat 🐖 | 7,6 | 11 | 0,083 | 0,044 | 1073 | |
Fish[12] 🐟 | 6,0 | 3.7 | 0,025 | 0,092 | 1315 | |
Poultry meat 🐓 | 5,7 | 7,1 | 0,064 | 0,030 | 402 | |
Eggs 🥚 | 4,2 | 5,7 | 0,052 | 0,021 | 556 | |
Tofu 🌱 | 2,0 | 2,2 | 0,006 | 0,006 | 139 | |
Groundnuts[13] 🥜 | 1,2 | 3,5 | 0,018 | 0,011 | 1431 | |
Other legumes 🌱 | 0,8 | 7,3 | 0,019 | 0,015 | 364 | |
Peas 🌱 | 0,4 | 3,4 | 0,008 | 0,007 | 353 | |
Nuts 🌰 | 0,3 | 7,9 | 0,019 | 0,009 | 1914 | |
Milks (for a 1L ) |
Cow Milk 🥛 | 3,2 | 8.9 | 0,149 | 0,089 | 628 |
Rice milk 🥛 | 1,2 | 0,3 | 270 | |||
Soy milk 🥛 | 1,0 | 0,7 | 0,003 | 0,001 | 26 | |
Oat milk 🥛 | 0,9 | 0,8 | 48 | |||
Almond milk 🥛 | 0,7 | 0,5 | 371 | |||
Starch-rich products (for a 1000 kCAL) |
Manioc / Yucca 🍠 | 1,4 | 1,9 | 0,003 | 0,001 | 0 |
Rice (flooded) 🌾 | 1,2 | 0,8 | 0,024 | 0,030 | 1962 | |
Oatmeal 🌾 | 0,9 | 2,9 | 0,007 | 0,007 | 302 | |
Potatoes 🥔 | 0,6 | 1,2 | 0,003 | 0,003 | 43 | |
Wheat & rye 🍞 | 0,6 | 1,4 | 0,012 | 0,007 | 567 | |
Corn (flour) 🌽 | 0,4 | 0,7 | 0,007 | 0,002 | 120 | |
Oils (for 1L) |
Palm oil: 🌴 | 7,3 | 2,4 | 0,018 | 0,011 | 7 |
Soybean oil: 🌱 | 6,3 | 11 | ,016 | ,011 | 418 | |
Olive oil: 🌱 | 5,4 | 26 | ,041 | ,040 | 2322 | |
Rapeseed oil: 🌼 | 3,8 | 11 | 0,029 | 0,019 | 234 | |
Sunflower oil: 🌻 | 3,6 | 18 | ,027 | ,051 | 943 | |
Vegetables (for 1Kg) |
Tomatoes 🍅 | 2,1 | 0,8 | 0,011 | 0,005 | 235 |
Brassicas 🥦 | 0,5 | 0,6 | 0,007 | 0,004 | 97 | |
Onions & leeks 🌿 | 0,5 | 0,4 | 0,003 | 0,002 | 11 | |
Root vegetables 🥕 | 0,4 | 0,3 | 0,003 | 0,001 | 23 | |
Fruits (for 1Kg) |
Berries 🍓 | 1,5 | 2,4 | 0,010 | 0,005 | 292 |
Bananas 🍌 | 0,9 | 1,9 | 0,005 | 0,002 | 86 | |
Apples 🍏 | 0,4 | 0,6 | 0,003 | 0,001 | 140 | |
Citrus 🍋 | 0,4 | 0,9 | 0,003 | 0,002 | 65 | |
Sugars (for 1Kg) |
Cane sugar 🎍 | 3,2 | 2,0 | 0,015 | 0,014 | 492 |
Beet sugar 🌱 | 1,8 | 1,8 | 0,011 | 0,004 | 170 | |
Alcoholic beverages (for 1 unit[14]) |
Beer (5%) 🍺 | 0,24 | 0,22 | 0,006 | 0,002 | 15 |
Wine (12.5%) 🍷 | 0,14 | 0,14 | 0,011 | 0,004 | 68 | |
Stimulants (for 1 serving) |
Dark chocolat (50g) 🍫 | 2,3 | 3,4 | 0,017 | 0,031 | 209 |
Coffee (15g) ☕ | 0,4 | 0,3 | 0,046 | 0,060 | 14 |
Notes
- ↑ Depending on the various ties that the researchers or institute funding their research may have with the industry which can have a tremendous impact on the numbers so to say.
- ↑ The research may, more than often, exclusively focus on the american farming industry and its leaders, not taking into account small scale, alternative farming, or legislation at play in Europe or other parts of the world.
- ↑ Food production creates ~32% of global terrestrial acidification and ~78% of eutrophication.
- ↑ e.g deforestation, destruction of “submarine forests” such as coral reefs and algae, annihilation of insect and animal species
- ↑ Zoologist from the School of Geography & Environment, The Queen's College& University of Oxford
- ↑ Agroecology and Environment specialist, Zurich, Switzerland
- ↑ Including methane for instance
- ↑ The acidity of a soil is defined by its hydrogen potential (pH). Below a certain threshold (~ 6 on the pH scale), the soil is too acidic for most cultivated plants: it limits biological activity (fertility) and its structure is degraded. Indeed, acidity influences the uptake of nutrients and trace elements by a plant, as well as the presence of deep roots or earthworms that structure and aerate the soil.
- ↑ soils or waters (ex: ocean acidification due to fish and crustacean water farming)
- ↑ Excessive intake of nutrients into the water, resulting in overgrowth, oxygen depletion and ecosystem imbalance. e.g. nitrogen + phosphorus
- ↑ 🦐 farmed)
- ↑ 🐟 farmed
- ↑ 🥜 mainly peanuts
- ↑ 10ml of 100% alcohol