A study by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University has compared the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of 1,000 calories of different foods. Emissions from transporting lettuces turned out to be three times higher than those from transporting pork. The study found that switching to a balanced diet including more fruit, vegetables, dairy products and seafood produced six per cent more greenhouse gas emissions overall than a typical American’s current meat-rich diet. “People are eating less meat because they want to,” said Dr. David Ludwig, director of New York University’s Center for Human Nutrition.
A study by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University has compared the greenhouse gas emissions from the production of 1,000 calories of different foods. Emissions from transporting lettuces turned out to be three times higher than those from transporting pork. The study found that switching to a balanced diet including more fruit, vegetables, dairy products and seafood produced six per cent more greenhouse gas emissions overall than a typical American’s current meat-rich diet. However, Antony Froggatt, senior research fellow at Chatham House, which recently recommended a meat tax to tackle global warming stated that, “The study confirms that meat, poultry and egg food groups as a whole are relatively high sources of greenhouse gases compared to vegetable, grains, pulses and sugars.”