Lots of interesting discussions & questions came up from this.
There are too many to reply to all, but I'm reading them all & will try to answer in future articles & visualizations in the coming weeks/months (so thank you!)
Short thread looks at a few points:
1/
There are too many to reply to all, but I'm reading them all & will try to answer in future articles & visualizations in the coming weeks/months (so thank you!)
Short thread looks at a few points:
1/
Key question that came up was: can we look at this in terms of grams or protein or calories?
I pulled together all the data in our article here: ourworldindata.org/environmental-…
You find land use, GHG emissions, water use and eutrophication by kg, 100g protein, & 1000kcals.
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I pulled together all the data in our article here: ourworldindata.org/environmental-…
You find land use, GHG emissions, water use and eutrophication by kg, 100g protein, & 1000kcals.
2/
Another question was on whether it’s fair to use averages.
Distribution of impacts is important, but overall message does not change.
Poore & Nemecek look at full range (from lowest-to-highest impact), and differences between foods still much larger than transport impacts.
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Distribution of impacts is important, but overall message does not change.
Poore & Nemecek look at full range (from lowest-to-highest impact), and differences between foods still much larger than transport impacts.
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More work on the range of impacts, not only comparing lowest and highest impact, but also the distribution of *how much* of global production has a given footprint is something I’m working on for upcoming articles & visualizations.
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The one exception to the ‘transport has a relatively low impact on emissions’ is air-freight.
This does have a large impact. We should avoid it where we can.
But a surprisingly small amount of food travels by air – just 0.16% of food miles.
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This does have a large impact. We should avoid it where we can.
But a surprisingly small amount of food travels by air – just 0.16% of food miles.
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Doesn’t transport become more important in relative terms for low-carbon foods?
Yes! Message is not that you shouldn't source these foods locally.
If you already eat low-carbon & want to go further, great.
But if your diet is high-carbon, focus on *what* you eat first.
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Yes! Message is not that you shouldn't source these foods locally.
If you already eat low-carbon & want to go further, great.
But if your diet is high-carbon, focus on *what* you eat first.
6/
Finally, there are other reasons why people would want to eat locally.
This only looks at GHG emissions.
I try to provide this information clearly for those who want to reduce their carbon footprint and want to understand how best to do so.
/end
This only looks at GHG emissions.
I try to provide this information clearly for those who want to reduce their carbon footprint and want to understand how best to do so.
/end
