Climate Corner: What’s food got to do with it?

Apr 26, 2025

Linda Eve Seth

Anyone with a sincere interest in mitigating Climate Change, may wonder what they can do on a personal level. Admittedly, few of us can individually impact industry or businesses sufficiently to resolve the issue or even change it in a noticeable way. But there are things we can do in our own lives that can add to the good works being done by the Green Party, Greta Thunberg, Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, and other climate warriors working on The Big Picture.

In the conversation regarding climate change and sustainability, we often see focus being placed on plastic bags and single-use straws, electric vehicles and roof-mounted solar panels, lawn sprinklers and shorter showers. It is encouraging that these discussions are happening and that people are taking steps to lower their carbon emissions, yet, most people who continue to eat meat, may not be aware that their addiction to hamburgers is currently causing the world to burn. Meat and dairy production is responsible for nearly 30% percent of all global greenhouse gas emissions. An effective step toward reducing climate change is literally on your plate.

Food production is a significant source of global greenhouse gases. Animal agriculture — particularly the cultivation of beef and dairy cows — is the leading culprit. Americans consume an average of 200 pounds of meat per person per year. It takes a lot of land to grow food for the animals that are intended for human consumption. The growing need for grazing lands leads to deforestation, which eliminates habitat for wild animals and the trees that would otherwise remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and keep moisture in the ground, further exacerbating climate change.

In the U.S. an average family of four emits more greenhouse gases because of the meat they eat than from driving two cars — but it is cars, not steaks, that regularly come up in discussions about global warming. Food needs to be grown and processed, transported, distributed, prepared, consumed, and sometimes disposed of. Each of these steps creates additional greenhouse gases and contributes to climate change.

The third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions related to food are caused by:

* methane from cattle’s digestive processes,

* nitrous oxide from fertilizers used for crop production,

* carbon dioxide from cutting down forests for the expansion of farmland,

* other agricultural emissions from manure management, rice cultivation, burning of crop residues, and the use of fuel on farms.

An additional, smaller share of the offending emissions is related to refrigeration and transport of food, including industrial processes such as the production of paper, plastic, and aluminum for packaging, and the management of food waste.

While a reduction of food-linked emissions can likely be achieved by increasing agricultural efficiency, reducing food waste, limiting excess consumption, increasing yields, and reducing the emission intensity of livestock production, these efforts would not have the same impact as a global transition to a plant-rich diet.

A vegan or plant-based diet can grow 10,000 times as many calories on one acre of land as growing an animal. That’s why eating less meat and dairy is a meaningful way to curb individual environmental impact.

Replacing animal agriculture and shifting to a plant-based diet could drastically curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to numerous recent studies. Filling your daily diet with more plants and fewer animal products has more impact on the environment than taking shorter showers or switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, say scientists at UCLA.

If the world were to end all meat and dairy production and transition to a plant-based food system over the next 15 years, it would prevent enough greenhouse gas emissions to effectively cancel out emissions from all other economic sectors for the next 30 to 50 years. Reducing meat and dairy production isn’t just a nice idea to avert the worst effects of climate change, it is an important part of the global toolbox.

The impact of our dietary choices on climate change is often underestimated. But, if everyone became vegetarian by 2050, research suggests that — largely thanks to the elimination of red meat — food-related emissions would drop by about 60%.

Wanna make a difference? Then, listen to your mother and eat more vegetables if you CARROT all.

Until next time, be kind to your Mother Earth.

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Linda Eve Seth SLP, M Ed. is a mother, grandmother, vegan, concerned citizen and member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.