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Carbon footprints of foods

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by tochatihu, Dec 28, 2015.

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  1. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    These ideas are not new, but I find this to be a convenient compilation done with realistic and transparent methods.

    The Impacts - 2011 Meat Eaters Guide | Meat Eater's Guide to Climate Change + Health | Environmental Working Group

    I don't post their figurehead chart, hoping you will click the site. That is also transparent, on my part.

    You'll see beef is right up there, as we have been told for decades. Would not have predicted lamb results. It takes a lot of milk to make a kilo of cheese, and that shows.

    One could object that a single value cannot cover (for example) beef, which may or may not have been grown after local deforestation, and may or may not have been transported long distances. That is OK, but most beef production does involve a lot of carbon.

    Not my attempt to carbon-shame anybody into vegetarianism. I eat meat. It tastes good, and has high %protein. If your goal is 50 g protein per day, that would be a lot of tofu! Maybe you like other beans, including lentils.

    Potatoes/rice is an interesting pair. The former are often transported at harvest water content. The latter is mostly grown in low-oxygen soils that emit methane. They end up with similar footprints.

    Leads to questions; where is wheat? Where is corn?

    A useful extension of this study would be expressing the x axis as protein (nitrogen, Kjeldahl), because (unless you are very poor), calories are cheap. Another extension would be energy, which highlights oils (twice the E of carbohydrates).

    If we agree that the CO2e footprints are done well here, then somebody can bring this forward into actual questions of human nutrition, as opposed to their x axis of kg food consumed.
     
    #1 tochatihu, Dec 28, 2015
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  2. wjtracy

    wjtracy Senior Member

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    Interesting.
    Refresh my memory...what was FarmGate?

    I am pretty low CO2 with my strict peanut butter and jelly diet, although we need Concord grapes CO2.
     
    #2 wjtracy, Dec 29, 2015
  3. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    Thanks for posting the link. Would hope to see charts replacing kg of food with Calories, which is nutritionally the important metric.

    Vegans still are champions, but less pronounced, as most animal products are of higher energy density.

    For example, a kg of 85% lean ground beef has about 2500 Calories, while a kg of broccoli has only 340 Calories.
     
    #3 iplug, Dec 29, 2015
  4. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Before farmgate, CO2 (etc.) a re there or are from there. After the gate refers to additional processing, storage and transport. Would have to read the entire pdf to see about what happens at retail. Some food frozen, fridge, or just on shelf. I would think that would get hard to track, but they offer some numbers.

    I think it would be hard to improve on then, except for the per protein or per energy that we have already mentioned.

    I can't 'CO2 price' a PBJ sammich without wheat for the bread, so I'm stuck.
     
    #4 tochatihu, Dec 29, 2015
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  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    we need new food labeling and menu's. i like nuts.
     
    #5 bisco, Dec 29, 2015
  6. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    Calories and other nutritional information are relatively static. Carbon footprint information on labels would be a nice addition. But depending on changing sources, processing, etc., numbers could be rapidly changing and hard to pin down.

    Bisco, are you sure you are not a Californian expatriate?
     
    #6 iplug, Dec 30, 2015
  7. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    cali is my dream destiny. we got an inch of ice yesterday, and i threw my neck out this morning, almost taking a header.:eek: my wife's sis lives in sacramento, and i've been working on her for years, but the rest of the family is here.:unsure:
     
    #7 bisco, Dec 30, 2015
  8. dbcassidy

    dbcassidy Toyota Hybrid Nation, 8 Million Strong

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    Oh, man, hope you get better soon. I know about the ice, wife slipped and broke her ankle. Lets' all be careful. Then again, moving to a ice free climate doesn't sound bad.

    DBCassidy
     
    #8 dbcassidy, Dec 31, 2015
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  9. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    thanks man! sorry to hear it, all the best to her.(y) so it begins...
     
    #9 bisco, Dec 31, 2015
  10. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    Carbon footprint of food? Aka 'foodprint' ? ;)
     
    #10 hyo silver, Dec 31, 2015
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  11. mojo

    mojo Senior Member

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    Those bean eaters are causing Global Warming.And stinking up the planet.
     
    #11 mojo, Jan 7, 2016
  12. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    It is a common misconception that human flatulence is mostly methane. That was hydrogen gas y'all lit in your college dorms :)

    Now cows (ruminants more broadly) are plumbed differently and host microbes that would never manage in human intestines. There be methane, and apparently the main reason why lamb and cows are the winners here.

    Most lambs are raised in...Algeria. You are now trivia full for the day and can return to other activities.
     
    #12 tochatihu, Jan 7, 2016
  13. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Not quite trivia full. Other ruminants include deer (looking at you, Michigan and New York). And giraffes. And kangaroos. I don't know that any of those have been methane tested.
     
    #13 tochatihu, Jan 7, 2016
  14. iplug

    iplug Senior Member

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    Moving up the low hanging fruit tree so now more into such dietary things as it pertains to footprints of this thread.

    Not really vegan or vegetarian, but find meat represents a relatively small number of calories in my diet these days, of that mostly fish. Tree nuts are common (one of the best foods for calories : CO2 ratio).

    Anyone here try the Beyond Famous Star at Carl’s Jr. or Impossible Whopper from Burger King? Had the former a few weeks ago and latter today for the first time. Must say, pretty darn close to the actual meat product.
     
    #14 iplug, Aug 6, 2019
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  15. Andyprius1

    Andyprius1 Senior Member

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    My quandary, how does one totally get away from flour / high starch products.
     
    #15 Andyprius1, Aug 8, 2019
  16. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    fruits and veggies?
     
    #16 bisco, Aug 8, 2019
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  17. Andyprius1

    Andyprius1 Senior Member

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    The impossible ( Burger ) is almost everywhere on our store shelves now. It’s really pretty good but I still prefer real Beef. As a kid whenever I spotted some raw hamburger meat on he kitchen table, I was forced to filch a sample, the high % of fat didn’t hurt me.
     
    #17 Andyprius1, Aug 8, 2019
  18. Andyprius1

    Andyprius1 Senior Member

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    That all goes without saying. I consume plenty of those. But as was mentioned, PB & J doesn’t spread too well on my digits. So it’s: Sardines and Saltines, Eggs and toast. LOX, Cream Cheese and flour ( bagels ) etc.
     
    #18 Andyprius1, Aug 8, 2019
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  19. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    i have always had a weight problem, but it has never been because of certain foods i can't give up.

    mine has always been a boredom/eat to keep busy problem.

    i don't know why, but for the last 3 years, i have been able to lose and keep off 42 extra pounds without much effort.
     
    #19 bisco, Aug 8, 2019
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  20. Andyprius1

    Andyprius1 Senior Member

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    and... the worst situation is the food manufac are constantly “improving” thier products to our disadvantage.
    Our flour is not the same as it was in 1945. More processing, refining, heating etc The most important point in any food processing is: No spoilage, that means, more chemicals added, strange and offensive chemicals.
    Does the product still look good, hold up? and basically improve profits. that is the “HAUPTPUNKTE “
     
    #20 Andyprius1, Aug 8, 2019
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