In an article published in The Economist, it has been empahsised that cattle are a large producer of greenhouse gases. Few dishes whet more palates than a juicy cut of beef. One poll in 2014 found that steak was Americans\u2019 favourite food. Unfortunately, by cooking so many cows, humans are cooking themselves, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The impact of food on greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions can slip under the radar. In a survey in Britain last year, the share of respondents saying that \u201cproducing plants and meat on farms\u201d was a \u201csignificant contributor\u201d to climate change was the lowest among ten listed activities. Yet two papers published this year in\u00a0Nature Food<\/em>\u00a0find that food, especially beef, creates more\u00a0ghg<\/small>s than previously thought. Forgoing steaks may be one of the most efficient ways to reduce your carbon footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2019 the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that the global food system was responsible for 21-37% of\u00a0GHG\u00a0emissions. This March researchers from the European Commission and the\u00a0un<\/small>\u2019s Food and Agriculture Office released a study with a central estimate near the top of this range. It attributed 34% of\u00a0GHGS produced in 2015 to food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This elevated share stems in part from accounting choices. The paper assigns the full impact of deforestation to the agriculture that results from it; includes emissions after food is sold (such as from waste and cooking); and counts non-food crops like cotton. But even when the authors excluded embedded emissions from sources like transport and packaging, they still found that agriculture generated 24% of ghg<\/small>s. According to the World Resources Institute, a research group, cars, trains, ships and planes produce a total of 16%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another recent paper, by Xiaoming Xu of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and eight co-authors, allocates this impact among 171 crops and 16 animal products. It finds that animal-based foods account for 57% of agricultural\u00a0ghg<\/small>s, versus 29% for food from plants. Beef and cow\u2019s milk alone made up 34%. Combined with the earlier study\u2019s results, this implies that cattle produce 12% of\u00a0GHG\u00a0emissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To read this complete article, please click the link below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n