The True Cost of a Burger

A recent UK study evaluating the carbon footprint of 61 categories of food reveals that a switch to a vegetarian or vegan diet would dramatically reduce carbon emissions. Here's an excerpt from a Science Daily article about the study:

"The report 'Relative greenhouse gas impacts of realistic dietary choices' published in the journal Energy Policy says that if everyone in the UK swapped their current eating habits for a vegetarian or vegan diet, our greenhouse gas emissions savings would be the equivalent of a 50 per cent reduction in exhaust pipe emissions from the entire UK passenger car fleet or 40m tonnes.

"... Fresh meat had the highest emissions of all, but meat and cheese had generally high greenhouse gas costs. These emissions were largely caused by methane from rumination, slurry and farm yard manure and nitrous oxide from fertilizer."

Read more here.

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education
Author of Most Good, Least Harm, Above All, Be Kind, and The Power and Promise of Humane Education
My TEDx talk: “The World Becomes What You Teach"

Like our blog? Please share it with others, comment, and/or subscribe to the RSS feed.