food and meat accounts for a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions

• Our food system as a whole accounts for 1/3 of our total GHG emissions (Crippa et al., 2021)
  • 60% of that comes from meat and dairy, despite them providing just 18% of calories and 37% of protein (Poore and Nemecek 2018))
  • 32-40% of annual human-caused methane (CH4) emissions come from animal agriculture. ^{[1] [2]}
• Dairy accounts for the largest fraction of veggie's GHG emissions
• Going vegan is good for the environment
• A consequence of this is that Modest meat reduction can have significant environmental benefits
• Conversely, Better livestock practices will not offset emissions from livestock

livestock farming is the largest source of human-caused methane emissions, accounting for 32% of the total and 0.5°C of warming since pre-industrial times. Animal farming accounts for 78% of agricultural methane emissions

Livestock emission % by animal

Cattle are 65% of the livestock sector's emissions, evenly split between beef and dairy cattle. Pigs, poultry, buffaloes and small ruminants have much lower emission levels, with each representing between 7 and 10 percent of sector emissions^[3]

If cattle were able to form their own country, they would rank 3rd behind China and the United States among the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters.^{[4] [5]}

• China (2019): 12.1 billion tonnes CO2e
• United States (2019): 5.8 billion tonnes CO2e
• Cattle (~2010): 5.0 billion tonnes CO2e

References