It’s no secret that consuming meat is not a sustainable choice at all: a study published in Nature Climate Change quantified the carbon footprint relating to meat consumption in over 3,500 US cities, discovering that the production, preparation and transport of meat leads to the emission of 329 million tonnes of CO2 annually (for comparison, just think that Italy emits 313 million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year).
The interesting aspect of the analysis is that this enormous amount could easily be halved without having to completely give up steaks and burgers.
Producers and consumers. The researchers examined data for 3,531 US cities, finding that they consumed a total of 11 million tons of meat – 4.6 million tons of chicken, 3.7 million tons of beef and 2.7 million tons of pork.
Going into detail, it emerged that most of the emissions came from the place of production of the meat, which often did not coincide with the place of consumption: 868 cities, for example, had a per capita consumption above average but a carbon footprint linked to meat production below average. «This has huge implications for how we evaluate, measure and try to reduce the environmental impact of cities,” explains Benjamin Goldstein, coordinator of the study.
It doesn’t take much. The good news is that it would be enough to change consumption habits slightly to see notable reductions in the carbon footprint linked to meat: halving food waste would, for example, allow emissions to be reduced by 16%.
Furthermore, establishing a “meat-free Monday” would mark a -14%; choosing to replace half of the beef consumed with pork or chicken would mean emitting 29% less CO2 (33% by switching only to chicken). Combining all three of these good habits would mean halving emissions without too much effort and without completely giving up meat.
