Different types of meat can have drastically different carbon footprints. Obviously, different animals have different factors, such as varying diets, some are ruminators, and not all species require the same amount of land. That leads to the question: which types of meat have the greatest and lowest impact on global warming?

The following chart depicts different food products from 38,000 farms from 118 countries. The data is from 2018 and shows emissions including and excluding methane per kilogram.

There has been debate on whether or not methane emissions should be considered when discussing in terms of carbon dioxide. Methane has 28 times the warming impact over 100 years than carbon dioxide, but decays faster than CO2, which can stay in the atmosphere for centuries.

Here is another graph, comparing emissions from 100 grams of protein instead of per kilogram.

Beef’s immense impact is apparent in both graphs, whether or not methane is taken into account. While it is a staple to the American diet, these graphics display substitutes that are much more friendly to the environment. It’s interesting to see how types of protein can have such varying footprints.

As discussed in my last Synopsis, eating meat has an extremely negative impact on the environment. Knowing that, I wanted to research which meats had the worst impact, so I can know what to stay away from. I couldn’t find a ton of data on this subject, so it was relatively short. Most of it is pretty straight-forward, so there wasn’t much to break down.

This information is so helpful for those who want to decrease their personal footprint without forcing them to go entirely vegan or vegetarian. I believe making small changes should be encouraged; people shouldn’t be forced to pick between making no changes or altering their life in major ways, potentially sacrificing their happiness.

Knowing this data can help me make small steps, so I can have the best of both worlds; make decisions that decrease my footprint but not my quality of life. Little changes, like if I’m out with friends, I’d substitute chicken or a plant-based alternative instead of beef, opposed to getting them with beef or not getting anything at all.

Hopefully you learned something from this wrap-up. I’ve genuinely been enjoying researching these topics. I’m thinking the next synopsis will be about seaweed? Stay tuned to learn with me!

Ritchie, Hannah. “The Carbon Footprint of Foods: Are Differences Explained by the Impacts of Methane?” Our World in Data, 10 Mar. 2020, https://ourworldindata.org/carbon-footprint-food-methane.