{
  "sources": [],
  "title": "Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers",
  "url": "https://thebalanceofhealth.com/sources/poore-nemecek-2018-reducing-food-environmental-impacts",
  "publisher": "The Balance of Health",
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "record": {
    "status": "reviewed",
    "id": "src-poore-nemecek-2018",
    "slug": "poore-nemecek-2018-reducing-food-environmental-impacts",
    "title": "Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers",
    "authors": [
      "Joseph Poore",
      "Thomas Nemecek"
    ],
    "organisation": "University of Oxford; Agroscope",
    "publication": "Science",
    "year": 2018,
    "url": "https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaq0216",
    "doi": "10.1126/science.aaq0216",
    "sourceType": "peer-reviewed-study",
    "studyType": "meta-analysis",
    "topicIds": [
      "climate",
      "land-use",
      "water",
      "pollution"
    ],
    "pillarIds": [
      "environment"
    ],
    "geography": "Global (119 countries)",
    "population": "Approximately 38,700 farms and 1,600 processors covering 40 food products",
    "sampleSize": "~570 life-cycle assessment studies",
    "keyFindings": [
      "Food production accounts for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions and uses around 43% of ice- and desert-free land.",
      "Impacts vary enormously between foods: per unit of protein, beef from dedicated herds produces many times the emissions of legumes.",
      "Impacts also vary widely between producers of the same food, but even low-impact animal products generally exceed the impact of plant substitutes."
    ],
    "supportsClaimIds": [
      "claim-beef-emissions-vs-plants",
      "claim-livestock-land-share",
      "claim-less-meat-reduces-emissions"
    ],
    "challengesClaimIds": [],
    "limitations": [
      "Life-cycle assessments depend on system boundaries and allocation choices; results are averages with wide ranges.",
      "Data coverage is uneven across regions; some low-income farming systems are under-represented."
    ],
    "fundingAndConflicts": "Academic funding reported; no industry conflicts declared in the paper.",
    "quality": "strong",
    "qualityRationale": "Large, transparent meta-analysis in a leading journal, widely replicated in later work."
  }
}