#7: Carnivores and They’re Huge Footprints

Your carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions you produce or use. It historically began during the industrial revolution, when Americans began burning an immense amount of oil, coal, and gas. These are the main three causes behind the carbon dioxide concentration we have in our atmosphere.

Not only do all these burning emissions effect the earth, so does our diet. On shrinkthatfootprint.com, they have an article that compares the footprints of five basic American diets. They’re analysis is based on food production emissions alone. It is shocking discovering how much of what we digest impacts the world’s health. Food systems alone count for almost a quarter of all human emissions. Broken down, 12% is from agricultural production, 9% from farming induced deforestation, and 3% from a simple thing like refrigeration. 

How does our diet affect our carbon footprint?

A specific part of our diet is the main cause, that is meat. Beef supply alone accounts for almost half or our footprint, it’s a little over 1.5 t CO2e annually. When this is occurring, you are considered a meat lover. Meat lovers have a total of 3.3 t CO2e per year. Average meat eaters have about 2.5 t CO2e per year. Just by eating no beef, your carbon dioxide emissions could be down to 1.9 annually! Vegetarians drop to a 1.7 t CO2e and Vegans are at a whopping 1.5 t CO2e per year. 

Global warming is real and by changing our diet alone could impact it. I’m not pressuring you to cut meat out completely but, think about how much you consume in a week. Do you eat meat every day? Try cutting down to once or twice a week. It won’t only benefit you but it will help the world. If everyone ate less meat, then farmers and industries wouldn’t be producing so much of it. 

My boyfriend and I have been trying this the last few months. Instead of eating meat once or twice a day, we slowly adapted our diet to be more green. We bake tofu on the weekends and meal prep for 5 days of the week. We’ll eat a burger once or twice a month; no more In & Out twice a week. We were approaching the 3.3 mark. Thankfully, we decided to make a dietary change and my body and mind are happier for it. My personal goal is to not go over 1.9 t CO2e a year. By achieving this, I know my little efforts will add up to a big change.