Greenhouse gas emissions of common foods

Food kg CO₂eq / 100g protein kg CO₂eq / 1,000 kcal
Tree nuts 0.26 0.07
Peanuts 1.23 0.56
Wheat & rye 1.29 0.59
Corn 1.79 0.38
Oats 1.91 0.95
Tofu 1.98 1.17
Potatoes 2.71 0.63
Eggs 4.21 3.24
Poultry 5.70 5.34
Fish (farmed) 5.98 7.61
Rice 6.27 1.21
Pork 7.61 5.15
Milk 9.50 5.25
Cheese 10.8 6.17
Lamb 19.9 12.5
Beef 49.9 36.4

Land use of common foods

Food m² / 100g protein m² / 1,000 kcal
Tofu 2.2 1.3
Corn 3.1 0.65
Wheat & rye 3.2 1.4
Peanuts 3.5 1.6
Fish (farmed) 3.7 4.7
Rice 3.9 0.76
Potatoes 5.2 1.2
Eggs 5.7 4.4
Oats 5.9 2.9
Poultry 7.1 6.6
Tree nuts 7.9 2.1
Pork 11 7.3
Milk 27 15
Cheese 40 23
Beef 164 119
Lamb 185 117

Water use of common foods

Table note: Scarcity-weighted water use accounts for local water stress, counting water withdrawn from already strained sources — like drought-prone regions or overdrawn aquifers — more heavily than water withdrawn where it’s abundant. A gallon used in a water-rich region and a gallon used in a water-scarce one can have different real-world consequences, even though both count equally toward plain freshwater withdrawal totals.

Source: Our World in Data: freshwater: protein | freshwater: calories | scarcity-weighted: protein | scarcity-weighted: calories
Food Freshwater (L) / 100g protein Freshwater (L) / 1,000 kcal Scarcity-weighted (L) / 100g protein Scarcity-weighted (L) / 1,000 kcal
Tofu 93 55 3,196 1,887
Poultry 381 357 8,186 7,664
Corn 227 48 11,435 2,402
Oats 371 184 14,451 7,162
Potatoes 348 81 16,201 3,763
Eggs 521 401 16,206 12,488
Beef 728 532 17,419 12,723
Fish (farmed) 1,619 2,062 18,229 23,225
Peanuts 708 319 23,605 10,655
Wheat & rye 531 242 27,365 12,479
Pork 1,110 751 41,327 27,978
Milk 1,904 1,047 59,958 32,977
Rice 3,167 610 69,826 13,450
Lamb 901 569 70,927 44,771
Cheese 2,539 1,448 81,907 46,731
Tree nuts 2,531 672 140,778 37,380

Table A.1 Annual contribution of animal agriculture to global emissions

Emission category FAO Poore Xu
Food production emissions from animal foods 56–58% 57%
Global emissions from food production 26% 35%
Global emissions from animal foods 14.5% 14.8%* 20.0%*
Carbon opportunity cost (COC) 8.1 Gt CO2
Global emissions from animal foods plus COC 28%
*Calculation not included by authors