Climate change and foodClimate change and foodClimate change and foodClimate change and foodMuch focus on climate change is on e.g. transportation and industry

emissions. Recent research has shown though, that the food we eat, and in particular meat, cause more greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2),

methane, nitrous oxide than either transportation or industry*

*2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Emissions from food

0,27km

0,32 km

0,43 km

1,17 km

4,05 km

15,79 km

CO2-equivalent emissions from producing ½ Pound (227 grams) of this food:

h/t Think Progress. Featured photo: Photo: cc 2009, LWY via Wikimedia Commons.

Emissions trends from agriculture

http://www.unep.org/pdf/unep-geas_oct_2012.pdf:

Production of meat is a major contributor to climate changeResearch shows that the livestock sector is one of the top two or three most

significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems e.g. (Steinfeld et al.

2006).

• Emission of methane (CH4) from enteric fermentation (a gas which has 23 times the impact of carbon dioxide).

• Nitrous oxide (N2O) from excreted nitrogen, as well as from chemical nitrogenous (N) fertilizers used to produce the feed for the many animals.

• Deforestation due to raising livestock (80% of deforested land in Brazil is used for cattle farming).

• Desertification

• Excretion of polluting nutrients

• Overuse of freshwater

• Inefficient use of energy, diverting food for use as feed and emission of GHGs (Janzen 2011).

Effects of livestock

• Livestock accounts for almost 1/6 of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions

• An area of the world’s rainforests 2/3 the size of the UK is destroyed each year to create grazing land

• Over 2/3 of global agricultural land is used to grow crops for animals in feed lots while a billion people go hungry

RSA, Climate change: my beef with the collective action problem, Quinn, 2014

Emissions of a hamburger

The FAO report found that current production levels of meat contribute between 14 and 22 percent of the 36 billion tons of "CO2-equivalent" greenhouse gases the world produces every year. It pointed out that producing half a pound of hamburger releases as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as driving a 3,000-pound car nearly 10 miles.

Source http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-greenhouse-hamburger/2009

Beef and lamb production– the biggest polluters

Cattle are by far the largest contributors to global enteric CH4 emissions, as they are the most numerous and have a much larger body size relative to other species and require many times more land, feed and fossil energy to produce. Emissions from livestock constitute nearly 80 per cent of all agricultural emissions.(Steinfeld et al. (2006) and McMichael et al. (2007)

Trends in meat consumption

Trends in meat supply for selected countries/regions

Meat consumption is growing fast in most parts of the world (except in Europe). Both as an effect of growing population, and as a result of increased income that is closely related to increased meat consumption. One of the fastest growing meat consuming regions is Asia, particularly China.

Food waste

More than a third of all of the food that's produced on our planet never reaches a table. It's either spoiled in transit or thrown out by consumers in wealthier countries, who typically buy too much and toss the excess. This works out to roughly 1.3 billion tons of food, worth nearly $1 trillion at retail prices http://www.unep.org/pdf/unep-geas_oct_2012.pdf:

We can do something!

• Governments can enact food safety standards where they don't exist. This will enable the system to properly transport and store perishable foods like meat, fish, dairy, and produce. It will also ensure that more food is safe for consumption.

• Industry can innovate and scale technologies so they are affordable in the developing economies. Industry can also serve a useful role by raising awareness of the impacts of food wastage.

• Individuals can change their food habits, eat less meat, as is a recommendation from health organisations, and select more environmentally friendly produce.

We can all reduce, reuse and recycle

Individuals, restaurants, industry, institutions,

workplaces etc. can all contribute to reduce

waste.

http://www.somersetwaste.gov.uk/

A healthier, more environmentally and cost effective future

Although food is not the biggest source of emissions, it is where people could make the biggest and most cost-effective savings, by wasting less food and eating less meat. Environmental Science & Technology, DOI: 10.1021/es102221h.

Reducing meat consumption is a growing trend, driven by health and environmental

considerations. A switch to a ‘healthy diet’ as recommended by Harvard Medical School

– which still includes eating meat, fish and eggs – would reduce GHG emissions from

food production by 36%.