How Does Your Diet Contribute To Climate Change

140 countries, 140 diets, 140 different ways each of them contributes to climate change. A new US-study looked at what dietary changes need to happen across the globe to mitigate the effects of climate change.

October 16 marks World Food Day this year, a day celebrated every year by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

World Food Day is a call to make healthy and sustainable diets affordable and accessible for everyone, while nurturing the planet at the same time.

But how can this be achieved?

One way, according to a new study, would be to introduce different ways for countries across the world to adapt their diets.

Researchers at the US-based Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future looked at diets in 140 countries across the world and measured the ecological impact of their food production in order to identify ways to mitigate climate change.

The study, called "Country-specific dietary shifts to mitigate climate and water crises", found that an important first step would be to shift Europe and the United States away from a diet heavy in meat and dairy.

But study co-author, Martin Bloem, notes that the solutions needed are not one-size-fits-all.

"The situation for poorer countries is not the same as for high-income countries and the solutions for high-income countries are much more straight-forward," Bloem said.

Read more: The global injustice of the climate crisis

Symbolbild: Kühe in Österreich

"People in the West need to start eating less meat; that will already have quite some impact," says Bloem

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Could drinking less milk help save the planet?

Why meat and dairy are bad for the climate

Livestock are responsible for almost 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the FAO.

Cattle is the biggest culprit. Raised for both beef and milk, cows represent about 65% of the livestock sector's emissions, followed by pork (9%), buffalo milk (8%), and poultry and eggs (8%).

A byproduct of cow digestion is methane (CH4) and accounts for the majority of livestock emissions. The greenhouse gas is estimated to be at least 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

But livestock production is also responsible for other greenhouse gas emissions, such as nitrous oxide (N20) and carbon dioxide (CO2), mainly through the production of their feed, which often involves large applications of nitrogen-based fertilizers.

Infographic depicting the way our food system impacts the planet

The opposite approach to combat hunger?

But with over 800 million people still going hungry every day, impact on the climate cannot be the only guide for what people eat, the study points out.

Animal source foods, specifically milk and eggs, are in fact a valuable source of protein and nutrients like calcium, which are especially important for young children and pregnant women.

Read more: Pakistan struggling to eradicate malnutrition in children

"Some countries, such as Indonesia, India and most of the African countries may actually need to dramatically increase their greenhouse gas emissions and water use, because they have to combat hunger and stunting," Bloem said.

In these countries, there is still a 40% rate of stunting, a side effect of undernutrition that results in lower than average growth in children.

Martin Bloem Porträt

Martin Bloem is the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and co-authored the study

Stunting also has a major, long-term impact on the cognitive abilities of the children.

"It's irreversible by the age of two, so stunting has huge implications for the human capital in those countries. That's why it's very critical that we prevent stunting and we need animal source foods for that," Bloem said. "We cannot keep that out of the equation when talking about climate protection."

Another solution, according to Bloem, would be to fortify certain products, like cereal. This would help reduce the need to get nutrients through animal products. It's a practice already in use in many developed countries, but so far hasn't been applied in many poorer countries.

Fish could make all the difference

Diets in which protein came predominantly from low food chain animals – such as small fish and mollusks – were found to have nearly as low of an environmental impact as a vegan diet.

Children eating small fish

Poor countries in particular depend on small fish for their protein intake

"Small fish are really critical for poor people, particularly in Africa and Asia, as that's one of the main sources for protein and calcium, because the milk intake is very low in those countries," Bloem said.

"But 80% of all the fish produced nowadays actually comes from Asia and is imported in Europe and the US. And the feed for some of these bigger fish we import are actually those smaller fish, which means the poorer people have no more access to this vital source of protein and calcium."

Researchers also determined that a diet that reduced animal food consumption by two-thirds – termed by study authors as going "two-thirds vegan" – generally had a lower climate and water footprint than vegetarian diets that included eggs and diary, but not fish.

Where you get your food from matters

Researchers also found that local production wasn't always the best way to go from a climate perspective.

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It may be better for the environment to produce food in countries that have more efficient technology, says Bloem

Fastenspeisen Risottos mit Pilzen auf dem Holztisch

"We need to start being creative and create delicious dishes that don't include animal-based products," according to Bloem

The production of one pound (0.45 kilograms) of beef in Paraguay, for instance, contributes nearly 17 times more greenhouse gases than one pound of beef produced in Denmark. Often, this disparity came from deforestation to create grazing land, according to the study.

"So a food's country of origin can have enormous consequences for the climate," Bloem said.

"In Europe the soil is much more fertile, for instance, which makes the production there more efficient. So trade could actually be good for the climate if food is produced in places where the climate impact is the lowest," Bloem said, adding that this is the case even when emissions from transportation are factored in.

The study concludes that middle- and low-income countries need to be guided and supported by developed countries to avoid environmental mistakes the planet is already paying for.

"It needs to be a close collaboration between developed and developing countries. It's a joint problem. We are all in this together," Bloem said.

Another way industrialized countries could reduce their impact on the climate is reducing food waste — one-third of all food produced worldwide ends up in the bin, with Europeans on average throwing away 95 kilograms (209 lbs) of food per person, per year. In low-income African countries south of the Sahara, it's only 6 kilograms (13 lbs).

Infografic showing food waste worldwide

Context is key

But despite the findings, one key conclusion of the report is that there aren't always straight-forward answers, according to Bloem.

"That's why we conducted analyses in all these different countries so that you can see what the most optimal way is for each individual country – but also the entire world to deal with diets and health criteria, as well as climate and sustainability," he said.

In the end, the study came up with nine plant-forward diets, ranging from no red meat to pescatarian (a vegetarian diet that includes seafood), lacto-ovo vegetarian (a vegetarian diet that includes dairy and eggs), to vegan, which are to be presented to policymakers in each country.

At the same time, the study urges people in the Western world to do more.

Baby boomers in the developed world, for instance, on average spend less than 10% of their income on food, while the same generation in countries like Nigeria, Kenya or Bangladesh spends 50 to 60% of their income on food, according to Bloem.

"For us in the Western world, we can pay more for our food so that we can pay for the unintended consequences."

10 food choices that help the planet

Eating naturally

With everything from meat contamination scandals to concerns about agriculture's climate change impact in the news these days, more and more people are turning to a vegan diet. But, there are other ways to eat in an environmentally-friendly way too. Free-range meat products are now commonplace. Rarely, though, are cows raised in such a paradise as this alpine meadow.
10 food choices that help the planet

Vegan cuisine

In the 1970s and 80s, eating vegetarian, and especially vegan — abstaining from animal products completely, like milk and eggs — was not part of the mainstream. Nowadays, things are changing. Jonathan Safran Foer's book "Eating Animals" sparked thought about the meat people eat. More vegan restaurants are sprouting up all over the place; here are some dishes from 'Pêle-Mêle' in Berlin.
10 food choices that help the planet

Carbon and water impact

Eating vegan can reduce carbon footprints and water usage worldwide. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that the meat industry generates nearly one-fifth of human-made greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change. Scientists also say that 13,000 to 15,000 liters of water are needed to produce just one kilogram of beef.
10 food choices that help the planet

Pork with a smile

With the recent scandal surrounding Dutch horsemeat being sold as beef, more Europeans are now simply choosing to eat meat less. But, for those that can't do without, the "Meine kleine Farm" (My little farm) concept tries to achieve transparency with consumers. It aims to give each animal it sells as meat a proper identity.
10 food choices that help the planet

Knowing what you're getting

The Potsdam-based farm has a website showing the living conditions of the animals and giving customers a chance to vote online about which animal they want slaughtered next. Since they mainly sell to customers in the nearby region, the 'Meine kleine Farm' project also helps to keep transportation routes — and thus greenhouse gases — to a minimum.
10 food choices that help the planet

Local food at farmers' markets

Eating locally and in season also helps reduce greenhouse gases because it cuts out long transportation routes. Canadians Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon argued for local cuisine in their book, "100-mile diet: A year of local eating." The couple spent one year eating foods from within one hundred miles of their home. Self-preserved foods got them through the winter.
10 food choices that help the planet

Large-scale monocultures are vulnerable

The modern industrial agriculture practice of cultivating monocultures, such as corn and soy, can make the crops more susceptible to pests and diseases. This, in turn, promotes the widespread use of pesticides. Small-scale farmers, on the other hand, often promote crop diversity which makes plants naturally more robust, even in periods of drought.
10 food choices that help the planet

Berlin's Princess Garden

Cultivating one's own crops is possible even in big cities, as shown by the "Princess Garden" project right in the middle of Germany's capital, Berlin. Crops are grown and consumed locally, with food dishes offered as business lunches at an on-site café. The urban farmers here say gardening raises awareness about the environment and, since the garden is shared, they make friends along the way too.
10 food choices that help the planet

Reduce food waste, save resources

With Germans throwing away an estimated 20 million tons of food a year, food-sharing has become one of the latest environmentally-friendly trends. Restaurants or grocery stores donate still-edible food that they can no longer use to charity organizations. Foodsharing.de is an internet portal where people can swap food they won't be able to eat.
10 food choices that help the planet

Healthy benefits

Many dietary experts argue that a vegetarian or vegan diet can be good for your health too. Various studies show that a decrease in daily meat consumption may reduce the risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity.