Environmental impact of food

With the production of food for human consumption comes an environmental

cost.

The demand for food, energy, and water continues to rise with the increase in
the world’s population, leading to increased stress on our planet.

While the demand for these resources can’t be avoided altogether, it’s
important to become educated about them to make more sustainable
decisions surrounding food.

Agricultural land use

One of the main modifiable factors when it comes to agriculture is land use.

With half of the world’s habitable land now being used for agriculture, land use
plays a big role in the environmental impact of food production (1).

More specifically, certain agricultural products, such as livestock, lamb,

mutton, and cheese, take up the majority of the world’s agricultural land (2).

Livestock account for 77% of global farming land use, when grazing pastures
and land used to grow animal feed are taken into consideration (2).

That said, they only make up 18% of the world’s calories and 17% of the
world’s protein (2).

As more land is used for industrial agriculture, wild habitats are displaced,
disrupting the environment.
On a positive note, agricultural technology has drastically improved
throughout the 20th and into the 21st centuries (3Trusted Source).

This improvement in technology has increased crop yield per unit of land,
requiring less agricultural land to produce the same amount of food (4).

One step we can take toward creating a sustainable food system is avoiding
the conversion of forest land to agriculture land (5).

You can help by joining a land preservation society in your area.

Greenhouse gases

Another major environmental impact of food production is greenhouse gases,

with food production making up about one-quarter of global emissions (2).

The main greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous
oxide, and fluorinated gases (6).

Greenhouse gases are one of the major purported factors responsible

for climate change (7Trusted Source, 8, 9Trusted Source, 10, 11Trusted
Source).

Of the 25% that food production contributes, livestock and fisheries account
for 31%, crop production for 27%, land use for 24%, and the supply chain for
18% (2).

Considering that different agricultural products contribute varying amounts of

greenhouse gases, your food choices can greatly affect your carbon footprint,
which is the total amount of greenhouse gases caused by an individual.

Keep reading to find out some ways in which you can reduce your carbon
footprint while still enjoying many of the foods you love.