{"id":21754,"date":"2023-09-04T09:00:17","date_gmt":"2023-09-04T13:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=21754"},"modified":"2023-08-16T13:57:18","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T17:57:18","slug":"carbon-footprints-vegan-proteins-vs-animal-proteins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2023\/09\/04\/carbon-footprints-vegan-proteins-vs-animal-proteins\/","title":{"rendered":"Carbon Footprints: Vegan Proteins Vs. Animal Proteins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS<\/p>\n

In our recent article<\/a> on the carbon footprints of vegan vs. meat pizza, we relied on the average<\/em> carbon emissions \u2013 expressed as kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents \u2013 associated with the production of each pizza component, whether it be broccoli or bacon. These values were based in large part on the 2018 article by Poore & Nemecek titled Reducing food\u2019s environmental impacts through producers and consumers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Using estimates based on averages was the easiest way to deal with huge amounts of data from more than 38,000 farms in 119 countries. We cannot fault the investigators for choosing this way to present their findings.<\/p>\n

However, a closer look at the data reveals major differences from farm to farm. We created a table that shows the wide variations \u2013 and which leads us to draw a few important conclusions that our pizza calculations don\u2019t reveal. These numbers refer to the kilograms of CO2eq<\/sub> emitted per 100 grams of protein. The median<\/a> (middle value in a range) is in the last column. This table is based on the graphical analysis by Our World in Data<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Protein Source<\/strong><\/td>\nLowest kgCO2eq<\/sub><\/strong><\/td>\nHighest kgCO2eq<\/sub><\/strong><\/td>\nMedian kgCO2eq<\/sub><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Beef<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n105<\/td>\n25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Pork<\/td>\n4.5<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n6.5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Chicken<\/td>\n2.4<\/td>\n12<\/td>\n4.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cheese<\/td>\n4.5<\/td>\n14<\/td>\n8.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Tofu<\/td>\n1.1<\/td>\n3.5<\/td>\n1.6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Beans<\/td>\n0.2<\/td>\n2.2<\/td>\n0.65<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Peas<\/td>\n0.1<\/td>\n0.8<\/td>\n0.36<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Nuts<\/td>\n-2.2<\/td>\n2.4<\/td>\n-0.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The major general conclusion from this table is that all four plant proteins \u2013 even when their production yields comparatively higher emissions than more efficient methods of producing them \u2013 are generally associated with fewer carbon emissions than animal proteins produced by the lowest-emitting (most efficient) method. This is true all over the world considering all food production systems.<\/p>\n

Based on this conclusion, we see that even \u201csustainable\u201d meat (produced with the fewest carbon emissions) is not<\/em> as carbon-friendly as even the least<\/em> efficiently produced plant proteins in every case except two (chicken vs. nuts or tofu). \u201cSustainable\u201d meat is certainly never carbon-friendlier than the most efficiently produced plant proteins.<\/p>\n

We also learn from this table that:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. In the case of high efficiency production (second column), dairy cheese has a higher carbon footprint than chicken and the same as pork.<\/li>\n
  2. The trees nuts grow on often absorb more carbon emissions than nut production creates, resulting in nuts\u2019 negative carbon footprint.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS In our recent article on the carbon footprints of vegan vs. meat pizza, we relied on the average carbon emissions \u2013 expressed as kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents \u2013 associated with the production of each pizza component, whether it be broccoli or bacon. These values were based in large part on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21756,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21754\/revisions\/21756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}