Overall impact of the 40 most produced foods on the environment: Difference between revisions

Getting to know the actual impact of food on the environment is tricky business. Indeed, depending on the source<ref>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.</ref>, the farming system at play in the research<ref>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.</ref> or the parameters investigated in the study, the overall results may vary tremendously. Furthermore, the “impact on the environment” cannot, in any way, be restricted to CO2 emissions<ref>For instance, the worldwide production of cow dairy produces 3x less CO2 in a year than cow meat production. However, it calls on the use of 2 times the amount of water as well as having a stronger negative impact on the soil (see numbers above).</ref>. Water scarcity, the degradation of the soils<ref>Food production creates ~32% of global terrestrial acidification and ~78% of eutrophication.</ref> or the destruction of ecosystems<ref>e.g deforestation, destruction of “submarine forests” such as coral reefs and algae, annihilation of insect and animal species</ref> 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.

This task is indeed tremendous, easily biased and forever evoluting. The spreadsheet below is thus here published to allow us, as consumers and eager responsible citizens, to take a first step towards the understanding of the complex “environmental impact” of various foods. We will here be able 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 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.