# Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers

The Balance of Health
Canonical: https://thebalanceofhealth.com/sources/poore-nemecek-2018-reducing-food-environmental-impacts
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

## 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.

## Original sources