Green
Ranked: The Foods With the Largest Environmental Impact
The Environmental Impacts of Food Production
Food and agriculture have a significant impact on our planet, particularly in terms of carbon emissions, water withdrawals, and land use.
To visualize how different food items contribute to this environmental impact, the above graphic ranks foods based on their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and water withdrawals, using data from Poore and Nemecek and Our World in Data.
The Carbon Giants
Based on carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) measurements, beef comes in first place as the food with the largest carbon footprint, emitting an astounding 99 kilograms of CO2e per kilogram of the final meat product.
CO2e emissions are a standardized measure that express the warming impact of various greenhouse gases—such as methane and nitrous oxide—in terms of the amount of CO2 that would have the same warming effect.
The production of beef is extremely resource-intensive, demanding substantial land, water, and energy resources. Cows also produce methane during their digestive processes, a gas that has a warming potential 27–30 times higher than that of CO2 over a 100-year time period.
Food item | CO2e emissions per kilogram |
---|---|
Beef (beef herd) | 99.48 kg |
Dark Chocolate | 46.65 kg |
Lamb & Mutton | 39.72 kg |
Beef (dairy herd) | 33.30 kg |
Coffee | 28.53 kg |
Prawns (farmed) | 26.87 kg |
Cheese | 23.88 kg |
Fish (farmed) | 13.63 kg |
Pork | 12.31 kg |
Poultry | 9.87 kg |
Eggs | 4.67 kg |
Rice | 4.45 kg |
Peanuts | 3.23 kg |
Cane Sugar | 3.20 kg |
Tofu | 3.16 kg |
Milk | 3.15 kg |
Oatmeal | 2.48 kg |
Tomatoes | 2.09 kg |
Wine | 1.79 kg |
Maize | 1.70 kg |
Wheat & Rye | 1.57 kg |
Berries & Grapes | 1.53 kg |
Bananas | 0.86 kg |
Potatoes | 0.46 kg |
Apples | 0.43 kg |
Nuts | 0.43 kg |
Root Vegetables | 0.43 kg |
Citrus Fruit | 0.39 kg |
Following beef on the list is dark chocolate, albeit not very closely.
Most of dark chocolate’s emissions come from land use changes—such as deforestation— which alters the balance of GHG emissions and reduces the Earth’s capacity to absorb CO2.
All in all, however, the data shows us that animal products are generally more emission-intensive than plant-based foods.
Water Use in Food Production
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) states that more than two-thirds of the world’s freshwater withdrawals are used for food production.
Interestingly, the trend that we saw when considering the carbon footprints of foods also applies when it comes to water use. Among the top 10 most water-intensive foods in the world, 70% are of animal origin, highlighting that animal products aren’t only more carbon-intensive but also more water-intensive than plant products.
Food item | Water withdrawal per kilogram |
---|---|
Cheese | 5,605 liters |
Nuts | 4,134 liters |
Fish (farmed) | 3,691 liters |
Prawns (farmed) | 3,515 liters |
Beef (dairy herd) | 2,714 liters |
Rice | 2,248 liters |
Peanuts | 1,852 liters |
Lamb & Mutton | 1,803 liters |
Pork | 1,796 liters |
Beef (beef herd) | 1,451 liters |
Peanuts, rice, and nuts (which include hard-shelled fruits such as hazelnuts, chestnuts, and walnuts) make up the plant-based outliers in the list.
Making More Sustainable Food Choices
Eating locally sourced foods is often posed as a solution for lowering our ecological impact, leading to the growing popularity of concepts such as “The 100 Mile Diet.”
An analysis done by Our World in Data, however, shows us that what we eat makes more of a difference in lowering our environmental footprints than where our food comes from.
More specifically, the data highlights that transportation accounts for just 5% of global food emissions. Land use change and farming activities, on the other hand, account for a much more significant portion.
As such, redirecting our attention from the distance food travels to the emissions associated with its production can yield better outcomes in our efforts to make more sustainable food choices.
Environment
The Most Polluted Cities in the U.S.
What are the most polluted cities in the U.S. according to data from the American Lung Association’s 2024 State of the Air Report?
The Most Polluted U.S. Cities in 2024
According to the World Health Organization, air pollution is responsible for 7 million deaths annually, and could cost the global economy between $18–25 trillion by 2060 in annual welfare costs, or roughly 4–6% of world GDP.
And with predictions that 7 in 10 people will make their homes in urban centers by mid-century, cities are fast becoming one of the frontlines in the global effort to clear the air.
In this visualization, we use 2024 data from the State of the Air report from the American Lung Association to show the most polluted cities in the United States.
What is Air Pollution?
Air pollution is a complex mixture of gases, particles, and liquid droplets and can have a variety of sources, including wildfires and cookstoves in rural areas, and road dust and diesel exhaust in cities.
There are a few kinds of air pollution that are especially bad for human health, including ozone and carbon monoxide, but here we’re concerned with fine particulate matter that is smaller than 2.5 microns, or PM2.5 for short.
The reason for the focus is because at that small size, particulate matter can penetrate the bloodstream and cause all manner of havoc, including cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and chronic pulmonary disease.
The American Lung Association has set an annual average guideline of 9 µg/m³ for PM2.5, however, the World Health Organization has set a much more stringent limit of 5 µg/m³.
The 21 Worst Polluted Cities in the U.S.
Here are the top 21 most polluted cities in the U.S., according to their annual average PM2.5 concentrations:
Rank | City, State | Annual average concentration, 2020-2022 (µg/m3) |
---|---|---|
1 | Bakersfield, CA | 18.8 |
2 | Visalia, CA | 18.4 |
3 | Fresno, CA | 17.5 |
4 | Eugene, OR | 14.7 |
5 | Bay Area, CA | 14.3 |
6 | Los Angeles, CA | 14.0 |
7 | Sacramento, CA | 13.8 |
8 | Medford, OR | 13.5 |
9 | Phoenix, AZ | 12.4 |
10 | Fairbanks, AK | 12.2 |
11 | Indianapolis, IN | 11.9 |
12 | Yakima, WA | 11.8 |
13 | Detroit, MI | 11.7 |
T14 | Chico, CA | 11.6 |
T14 | Spokane, WA | 11.6 |
15 | Houston, TX | 11.4 |
16 | El Centro, CA | 11.1 |
17 | Reno, NV | 11.0 |
18 | Pittsburgh, PA | 10.9 |
T19 | Kansas City, KS | 10.8 |
T19 | Las Vegas, NV | 10.8 |
Note: The American Lung Association uses Core Based Statistical Areas in its city and county rankings, which have been shortened here to the area’s principal city, or metro area in the case of the Bay Area, CA.
Six of the top seven cities are in California, and four in the state’s Central Valley, a 450-mile flat valley that runs parallel to the Pacific coast, and bordered by the Coast and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges. As a result, when pollution from the big population centers on the coast is carried inland by the wind—cities #5 and #6 on the list—it tends to get trapped in the valley.
Bakersfield (#1), Visalia (#2), and Fresno (#3) are located at the drier and hotter southern end of the valley, which is worse for air quality. The top three local sources of PM2.5 emissions in 2023 were farms (20%), forest management / agricultural waste burning (20%), and road dust (14%).
Benefit to Economy
While the health impacts are generally well understood, less well known are the economic impacts.
Low air quality negatively affects worker productivity, increases absenteeism, and adds both direct and indirect health care costs. But the flip side of that equation is that improving air quality has measurable impacts to the wider economy. The EPA published a study that calculated the economic benefits of each metric ton of particulate matter that didn’t end up in the atmosphere, broken down by sector.
Sector | Benefits per metric ton |
---|---|
Residential Woodstoves | $429,220 |
Refineries | $333,938 |
Industrial Boilers | $174,229 |
Oil and Natural Gas Transmission | $125,227 |
Electricity Generating Units | $124,319 |
Oil and Natural Gas | $88,838 |
At the same time, the EPA recently updated a cost-benefit analysis of the Clean Air Act, the main piece of federal legislation governing air quality, and found that between 1990 and 2020 it cost the economy roughly $65 billion, but also provided $2 trillion in benefits.
Benefit to Business
But that’s at the macroeconomic level, so what about for individual businesses?
For one, employees like to breathe clean air and will choose to work somewhere else, given a choice. A 2022 Deloitte case study revealed that nearly 70% of highly-skilled workers said air quality was a significant factor in choosing which city to live and work in.
At the same time, air quality can impact employer-sponsored health care premiums, by reducing the overall health of the risk pool. And since insurance premiums averaged $7,590 per year in 2022 for a single employee, and rose to $21,931 for a family, that can add up fast.
Consumers are also putting their purchase decisions through a green lens, while ESG, triple-bottom-line, and impact investing are putting the environment front and center for many investors.
And if the carrot isn’t enough for some businesses, there is the stick. The EPA recently gave vehicle engine manufacturer Cummins nearly two billion reasons to help improve air quality, in a settlement the agency is calling “the largest civil penalty in the history of the Clean Air Act and the second largest environmental penalty ever.”
Learn how the National Public Utilities Council is working toward the future of sustainable electricity.
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