What we eat, and how that food is produced, affects our health but also the environment.

Food needs to be grown and processed, transported, distributed, prepared, consumed, and sometimes disposed of. Each of these steps creates greenhouse gases that trap the sun’s heat and contribute to climate change. About a third of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions is linked to food.
 

The largest chunk of food-related greenhouse gases comes from agriculture and land use. This includes, for instance:

• methane from cattle’s digestive process,
• nitrous oxide from fertilizers used for crop production,
• carbon dioxide from cutting down forests for the expansion of farmland,
• other agricultural emissions from manure management, rice cultivation, burning of crop residues, and the use of fuel on farms.
   

A much smaller share of the greenhouse gas emissions of food are caused by:

• refrigeration and transport of food,
• industrial processes such as the production of paper and aluminum for packaging,
• the management of food waste.