“To achieve carbon neutrality, you have to eat a lot less meat”

Meat weighs heavily in our global greenhouse gas emissions: 15% of the total. More and more of us on the planet are eating meat, and have been eating more and more of it at every meal for a century. The food for these animals comes from the other side of the globe, the meat is often consumed in the form of an industrially processed product… Why does meat contribute so much to global warming? Can we limit its impact? Should we limit our meat consumption, and if so, how?

To answer these questions, this episode of the “Human Heat” podcast, broadcast on December 6, 2022 on Lemonde.frgives the floor to Carine Barbier: economist and research engineer at the CNRS, she is a specialist in the impact of food on the climate.

Why does meat production and consumption emit so many greenhouse gases?

In the greenhouse gas emissions linked to our food, the main part comes from meat. There are two types of animals in meat, ruminants and what are called “monogastrics”, that is to say pigs and poultry. Ruminants have a particular digestion system, which causes them to emit methane through their burps. And methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, having 28 times the global warming power of CO₂.

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If we place it in a general context, from agricultural production to our plate, food in France represents approximately 25% of our greenhouse gas emissions. So this is a very major element. And, within this 25%, approximately two-thirds are emissions linked to agricultural production itself, if we also take into account what are called “inputs”, i.e. say fertilizers, pesticides, everything you need, including animal feed to produce these foodstuffs.

Is it the same for all types of meat? Is there a specificity for cattle, for sheep, therefore for ruminants, because they emit more methane?

A kilo of beef that we will buy for a large family will emit approximately 14 kilos of greenhouse gases, 14 kilos of “CO₂ equivalent”, which weights the CO₂methane and nitrous oxide (N₂O). On the other hand, 1 kilo of pork will emit three times less, regarding 4 kilos of greenhouse gases, and poultry another half, regarding 2 kilos of greenhouse gases. In these figures, we have both the emissions from ruminants, but also the emissions linked to the feeding of these farm animals.

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