According to a study published in the journal Nature Food on March 8, food systems are responsible for one-third of human-caused GHG emissions.The authors found that 71 per cent of food-related global emissions in 2015 came from agriculture and associated land use and land-use change activities, while other emissions came from retail, transport, consumption, fuel production, waste management, industrial processes and packaging.
The study finds that CO2 accounts for roughly half of food-related emissions, while methane makes up 35 per cent –mainly from livestock production, farming and waste treatment. The findingsshow that emissions from the retail sector are rising and increased by 3-4times in Europe and the United States between 1990 and 2015.
The authors also find that “food miles”contribute less to food emissions than packaging. The authors add that 96 percent of the emissions from transporting food come from local or regional transport by road and rail, rather than international transport. The findings are derived from a global food emissions database (EDGAR-FOOD) developed by the study’s authors that estimate greenhouse gas emissions for the years 1990–2015, building on the Emissions Database of Global Atmospheric Research and complemented with land use/land-use change emissions from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations emissions database.
