Governments and scientists are funding studies into new farming methods, genetically engineered crops etc which might allow us to feed an overgrown population on our overworked planet. But unless you’re a scientist or making policies, not much you can do about that.
So what can you do right here right now? The answer – take responsibility for your food choices.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) has started to calculate the carbon impact of food by considering the food’s full “lifecycle”—including the water and fertilizer to grow feed crops, transportation of the food and even the amount of food that’s wasted.
The main advice that came out of this study is eat less meat and avoid wasting it. 20% of edible meat ends up being tossed. In fact the average family throws away about 10kg of edible food each month. That may not sound like a lot but picture it multiplied by millions of households and piling up in landfills.
Going meatless can reduce water pollution, waste and greenhouse gases, and save energy, land and water. But I know vegetarianism is not for everyone. So if you are eating meat, what are your best choices.
Eco-friendly meat
Every year we raise and eat 65 billion animals, that's nine animals for every person on the globe, and it's having a major impact on our planet. Nearly a third of the Earth's ice-free land surface is already devoted to raising the animals we either eat or milk.
Roughly 30% of the crops we grow are fed to animals. The latest UN Food and Agriculture Organisation reports suggest livestock are responsible for 14.5% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions - the same amount produced by all the world's cars, planes, boats and trains.
If that wasn't scary enough, meat consumption is predicted to double in the next 40 years as people globally get wealthier. So how will the world cope? And what meat should we eat if we want to be eco-friendly carnivores? Is it better to buy beef or chicken, free range or factory farmed?
The worst offenders are the grass-eating, methane-producing animals such as cows and sheep. Cows release the equivalent of 16kg of carbon dioxide for every kilo of meat produced. Sheep are only slightly better producing 13kg of CO2 for every kilo of meat.
Pigs and chickens, which eat a more mixed diet, fare better. So if you are worried about your carbon footprint you are much better off eating chicken at 4.4kg of CO2 per kilo of meat, than beef. And, perhaps uncomfortably for some, the most eco-friendly chickens (in terms of carbon emissions only) may not be organic or free-range, but those that are raised intensively in energy efficient indoor farms. Interesting thought Huh!?
Mussels and farmed fish take relatively little energy to rear as do Plant proteins as you’ll see in the list below of the foods that give you the most protein content compared to the CO2 emissions to produce the food. Basically the higher on the list, the more "eco-friendly" the protein source is.
Food
Protein (g) per CO2 output (kg)
Peanut Butter
100
Dry Beans
100
Lentils
100
Nuts (mixed)
86.96
Canned tuna
49.18
Greek Yogurt
45.45
Tofu
40
Chicken
39.13
Eggs
27.08
Whey Protein Powder (as milk byproduct)
22.22
Cheese
18.52
Milk
17.89
Pork
17.36
Yogurt
17.27
Farmed Salmon
16.81
Turkey
15.6
Broccoli
14
Beef
9.63
Rice
9.63
Tomatoes
8.18
Whey Protein Powder (production)**
6.98