When you think of the main factors that contribute to global climate change, what comes to mind? Fossil fuels and gas vehicles or water usage from recent developments in artificial intelligence might come to mind. What many may not consider in the pie chart of greenhouse gas emissions is our food.
Production of food, primarily agriculture and its land use, accounts for nearly a third of total human-caused emissions. With such a large impact on our environment, I wanted to see our individual impact and what we could possibly change to be more sustainable. After tracking the emissions of every meal I ate, what I learned surprised me.
What do I eat in a week?
Here’s my confession: I don’t love vegetables. My diet is primarily meat, which will automatically bring my emissions up. Throughout the week that I tracked, I had about two meals a day, with either chicken or beef being in nearly every single one of my meals.
At UMass Amherst, we have five dining halls on campus. I ate from the dining hall a total of eight times. Some of those meals included burgers, chicken katsu with rice, stir fry, and sushi. The other six meals were from a mix of eating out and cooking various quick-preparation foods at the dorm. I had food from restaurants such as McDonald’s, Subway, and a local hibachi spot for my friend’s birthday. At my dorm, I prepped the typical college meals such as ramen and frozen chicken nuggets. I know, I know. Super nutritious.
What are my emissions for the week?
Our World In Data is a scientific publication that shows different data, like food production emissions, in easily readable bar graphs and pie charts. Using their “Environmental Impacts of Food Production” chart, I broke down my incredibly well rounded diet into how it has impacted the planet. For reference, the foods with the highest emissions were beef and lamb at 99.48 and 39.72 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of the meat respectively. Comparing it to other actions in our lives, an hour of driving a gas-powered passenger vehicle produces from 4.5 to 9 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions. With my diet, I averaged about 11 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions every day.
I converted the weight of each food item I consumed into kilograms and calculated the rough weight of greenhouse gas emissions. For example, a burger with 4 ounces of beef converts to 0.11 kilogram. Then, multiply that by the 99.48 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions produced by a typical kilogram of beef to figure out just exactly how much your food produced. I did that for all my meals for the week and here’s how they turned out.
Day 1:
Burger from Dining Hall: 11.15 kg
Chicken Katsu from Blue Wall: 2.1 kg
Day 2:
Turkey Sandwich from Subway: 1.65 kg
Stir Fry: 2.8 kg
Frozen Yogurt: .7 kg
Day 3:
Chicken Nuggets: 2.5 kg
Ramen: 1 kg
Sushi: 2.5 kg
Day 4:
McDonalds Burger: 9.6 kg
Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadilla from Dining Hall: 4.3 kg
Day 5:
Subway Turkey Sandwich: 1.65 kg
Sushi: 2.5 kg
Mango Sticky Rice: .85 kg
Day 6:
Hibachi Steak Combo: 14 kg
Rice, Pork Belly, and Eggs: 9 kg
Day 7:
Ramen: 1.5 kg
Assortment of Rice, Chicken, and Potatoes from Dining Hall: 5 kg
As you can see, my higher days were the ones where I consumed beef, with my absolute highest day topping out at a whopping 23 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions. I had treated myself to a steak hibachi that day for my friend’s birthday, and that topped with my regular diet of some assortment of chicken and rice completely exploded my emissions.
My lower days were from a combination of generally eating less and having less beef in my meals. I had 5 kilograms of emissions on my lowest day, with my meals consisting of a turkey sandwich, some sushi, and a mango sticky rice dessert from the dining hall. And before you start judging me for my terribly inconsistent diet, let it be known that this was conducted around midterm season.
But overall, with all seven days of eating, I had contributed to a massive 72.8 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions. I went ahead and rounded that number up to 73 kilograms to account for the small snacks and drinks that I probably forgot about in my midst of frantic last-minute studying.
What are my takeaways?
With my one week of eating, I totaled out to the equivalent of a one-way economy flight from London to Paris, around 200 miles of driving in a passenger car, or burning about 87 pounds of coal.
This already sounds concerning on its own, but it’s even more worrisome when you realize that my eating is in addition to all the other things I do that contribute to climate change. Every mile I drive in my run-down Toyota Camry, every time I leave the lights on a little too long, every time I choose to call an Uber instead of walking; all of these have emissions as well.
Seeing my impact and directly how each piece of my diet contributes to that impact, I think that going forward, I will try my best to limit my meat consumption. And if any of you readers want to try this experiment out for yourself, you can visit this website and see how your own diet impacts the environment. You may learn a lot more than you expect.