My next series of posts will discuss the impact of eating less meat on your carbon footprint. This topic is really personal to me since I am vegetarian for this environmental reason!
The livestock sector accounts for a hefty 18 percent of total anthropogenic GHG emissions, which originate from enteric fermentation, feed production, manure management, and energy consumption... This handy diagram from FAO explains this:
Significantly, CH4 and N2O are more potent than CO2 and consequently, have a greater warming potential: these GHG are predominately associated with livestock, with the sector contributing to 37 percent of CH4 and 65 percent of N2O total emissions. Unsurprisingly, shifting to a more plant-based diet is likely to reduce your carbon footprint: a study by Scarborough et al. (2013) found that the average GHG emissions associated with a typical 2,000 calorie diet for four diet groups were as follows:
Dietary changes could therefore play a key role in climate change mitigation; with a global transition to less meat, CH4 and N2O emissions could drop substantially. If planning on cutting down, the variation in emissions emitted by species must be considered to make those changes to your carbon footprint most effective. Individually, we possess the ability to decrease our carbon footprint through one simple lifestyle change - easy right? And what's great is the growing awareness of this, with the UN, for instance, encouraging us to reduce our meat consumption. Small changes in our diets can make a difference: an average lower consumption in beef, pork, whole milk, chicken and orange juice between 2005 and 2014 resulted in the average American's GHG emissions associated with their diet to drop.
Some food for thought indeed.
The livestock sector accounts for a hefty 18 percent of total anthropogenic GHG emissions, which originate from enteric fermentation, feed production, manure management, and energy consumption... This handy diagram from FAO explains this:
Significantly, CH4 and N2O are more potent than CO2 and consequently, have a greater warming potential: these GHG are predominately associated with livestock, with the sector contributing to 37 percent of CH4 and 65 percent of N2O total emissions. Unsurprisingly, shifting to a more plant-based diet is likely to reduce your carbon footprint: a study by Scarborough et al. (2013) found that the average GHG emissions associated with a typical 2,000 calorie diet for four diet groups were as follows:
- 7.19 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents per day (kgCO2e/day) for high meat-eaters (>100g/day)
- 5.63 kgCO2e/day for medium meat-eaters (50-99g/day)
- 4.67 kgCO2e/day for low meat-eaters (<50g/day)
- 3.91 kgCO2e/day for fish eaters
- 3.81 kgCO2e/day for vegetarians
- 2.89 kgCO2e/day for vegans
However, this study does not discuss the impact of the type of meat you consume on your carbon footprint; GHG emissions emitted by livestock vary between species. Here's another handy FAO diagram that shows this well:
Cattle emit 62 percent of GHG emissions from the sector; per calorie, beef produces five times more GHG emissions than pork or chicken, and 11 times more GHG emissions that potatoes, wheat and rice. Someone who eats predominately white meat will therefore have a lower carbon footprint than
someone who eats predominately red meat (when only comparing dietary habits). Interestingly, the tips I found from the NGOs failed to mention this, which I find significant since being aware of this and considering it could really affect how green you're being. Simply changing beef mince to turkey mince in a Sunday spag-bol could be quite beneficial for the planet.
someone who eats predominately red meat (when only comparing dietary habits). Interestingly, the tips I found from the NGOs failed to mention this, which I find significant since being aware of this and considering it could really affect how green you're being. Simply changing beef mince to turkey mince in a Sunday spag-bol could be quite beneficial for the planet.
Dietary changes could therefore play a key role in climate change mitigation; with a global transition to less meat, CH4 and N2O emissions could drop substantially. If planning on cutting down, the variation in emissions emitted by species must be considered to make those changes to your carbon footprint most effective. Individually, we possess the ability to decrease our carbon footprint through one simple lifestyle change - easy right? And what's great is the growing awareness of this, with the UN, for instance, encouraging us to reduce our meat consumption. Small changes in our diets can make a difference: an average lower consumption in beef, pork, whole milk, chicken and orange juice between 2005 and 2014 resulted in the average American's GHG emissions associated with their diet to drop.
Some food for thought indeed.
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