Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Article
  • Published:

Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods

Abstract

Agriculture and land use are major sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but previous estimates were either highly aggregate or provided spatial details for subsectors obtained via different methodologies. Using a model–data integration approach that ensures full consistency between subsectors, we provide spatially explicit estimates of production- and consumption-based GHG emissions worldwide from plant- and animal-based human food in circa 2010. Global GHG emissions from the production of food were found to be 17,318 ± 1,675 TgCO2eq yr−1, of which 57% corresponds to the production of animal-based food (including livestock feed), 29% to plant-based foods and 14% to other utilizations. Farmland management and land-use change represented major shares of total emissions (38% and 29%, respectively), whereas rice and beef were the largest contributing plant- and animal-based commodities (12% and 25%, respectively), and South and Southeast Asia and South America were the largest emitters of production-based GHGs.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: GHG emissions from different subsectors of plant- and animal-based food production/consumption.
Fig. 2: GHG emissions from the productions of plant-based food, animal-based food and others.
Fig. 3: GHG emissions from the productions of top-contributing commodities.
Fig. 4: GHG emissions from food production at the country scale.
Fig. 5: GHG emissions due to import and export of plant- and animal-based food in different regions.

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The results for CO2, CH4 and N2O from the plant- and animal-based food are available at the ISAM website http://climate.atmos.uiuc.edu/Food_Emissions. The results for individual plant- and animal-based commodities are available upon request.

Code availability

All codes are available upon request.

References

  1. How to Feed the World in 2050 (FAO, 2019); http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/wsfs/docs/expert_paper/How_to_Feed_the_World_in_2050.pdf

  2. Herrero, M. et al. Biomass use, production, feed efficiencies, and greenhouse gas emissions from global livestock systems. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 20888–20893 (2013).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. IPCC Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change (eds Edenhofer, O. et al.) (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

  4. Tubiello, F. in Encyclopedia of Food Security and Sustainability vol. 1 (eds Ferranti, P., Berry, E. M. & Anderson, J. R.) 196–205 (Elsevier, 2019).

  5. Poore, J. & Nemecek, T. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 360, 987–992 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Mbow, C. et al. in Climate Change and Land: An IPCC Special Report on Climate Change, Desertification, Land Degradation, Sustainable Land Management, Food Security, and Greenhouse Gas Fluxes in Terrestrial Ecosystems (eds Shukla, P. R. et al.) Ch. 5, 437–550 (IPCC, 2019).

  7. Rosenzweig, C. et al. Climate change responses benefit from a global food system approach. Nat. Food 1, 94–97 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Friedlingstein, P. et al. Global carbon budget 2019. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 11, 1783–1838 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Tubiello, F. N. et al. Carbon emissions and removals by forests: new estimates 1990–2020. Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss. 2020, 1–21 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Syakila, A. & Kroeze, C. The global nitrous oxide budget revisited. Greenhouse Gas Measure. Manage. 1, 17–26 (2011).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Saunois, M. et al. The global methane budget 2000–2017. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 12, 1561–1623 (2020).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. IPCC 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, 2006).

  13. Carlson, K. M. et al. Greenhouse gas emissions intensity of global croplands. Nat. Clim. Change 7, 63–68 (2017).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Gerber, P. J. et al. Tackling Climate Change through Livestock: A Global Assessment of Emissions and Mitigation Opportunities (FAO, 2013).

  15. Searchinger, T. D., Wirsenius, S., Beringer, T. & Dumas, P. Assessing the efficiency of changes in land use for mitigating climate change. Nature 564, 249–253 (2018).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Jain, A. K. & Yang, X. Modeling the effects of two different land cover change data sets on the carbon stocks of plants and soils in concert with CO2 and climate change. Global Biogeochem Cycles 19, https://doi.org/10.1029/2004gb002349 (2005).

  17. Emissions—Agriculture, FAOSTAT Online Database (2019); http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data

  18. Bond-Lamberty, B. et al. JGCRI/gcamdata: GCAM Data System Version 1.0 (2019); https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1249932

  19. Jain, A. K., Meiyappan, P., Song, Y. & House, J. I. CO2 emissions from land-use change affected more by nitrogen cycle, than by the choice of land-cover data. Glob. Chang. Biol. 19, 2893–2906 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Meiyappan, P. & Jain, A. K. Three distinct global estimates of historical land-cover change and land-use conversions for over 200 years. Front. Earth Sci. 6, 122–139 (2012).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  21. Hurtt, G. C. et al. Harmonization of global land-use change and management for the period 850-2100 (LUH2) for CMIP6. Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss. 2020, 1–65 (2020).

    Google Scholar 

  22. Production, FAOSTAT Online Database (FAO, 2019); http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data

  23. Zalles, V. et al. Near doubling of Brazil’s intensive row crop area since 2000. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 116, 428–435 (2019).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Food Balance, FAOSTAT Online Database (FAO, 2019); http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data

  25. Trade, FAOSTAT Online Database (FAO, 2019); http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data

  26. Pendrill, F. et al. Agricultural and forestry trade drives large share of tropical deforestation emissions. Glob. Environ. Change 56, 1–10 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Emissions—Land Use, FAOSTAT Online Database (FAO, 2019); http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data

  28. Monfreda, C., Ramankutty, N. & Foley, J. A. Farming the planet: 2. Geographic distribution of crop areas, yields, physiological types, and net primary production in the year 2000. Global Biogeochem. Cycles 22, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007gb002947 (2008).

  29. Janssens-Maenhout, G. et al. EDGAR v4.3.2 Global Atlas of the three major greenhouse gas emissions for the period 1970–2012. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 11, 959–1002 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  30. Kyle, G. P. et al. GCAM 3.0 Agriculture and Land Use: Data Sources and Methods (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 2011).

  31. Wolf, J. et al. Biogenic carbon fluxes from global agricultural production and consumption. Global Biogeochem Cycles 29, 1617–1639 (2015).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Heuzé, V., Tran, G., Bastianelli, D., Archimede, H. & Sauvant, D. Feedipedia: An Open Access International Encyclopedia on Feed Resources for Farm Animals (2013); https://www.feedipedia.org/

  33. Krausmann, F., Erb, K. H., Gingrich, S., Lauk, C. & Haberl, H. Global patterns of socioeconomic biomass flows in the year 2000: a comprehensive assessment of supply, consumption and constraints. Ecol. Econ. 65, 471–487 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Meiyappan, P., Jain, A. K. & House, J. I. Increased influence of nitrogen limitation on CO2 emissions from future land use and land use change. Global Biogeochem Cycles 29, 1524–1548 (2015).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  35. Shu, S., Jain, A. K. & Kheshgi, H. S. Investigating wetland and nonwetland soil methane emissions and sinks across the contiguous United States using a land surface model. Global Biogeochem Cycles 34, e2019GB006251 (2020).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Yang, X. J., Wittig, V., Jain, A. K. & Post, W. Integration of nitrogen cycle dynamics into the Integrated Science Assessment Model for the study of terrestrial ecosystem responses to global change. Global Biogeochem Cycles 23, https://doi.org/10.1029/2009gb003474 (2009).

  37. Yevich, R. & Logan, J. A. An assessment of biofuel use and burning of agricultural waste in the developing world. Global Biogeochem Cycles 17, https://doi.org/10.1029/2002gb001952 (2003).

  38. Wang, R. et al. High-resolution mapping of combustion processes and implications for CO2 emissions. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 13, 5189–5203 (2013).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  39. Global Livestock Environmental Assessment Model Version 2.0 Description (FAO, 2018); http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/gleam/docs/GLEAM_2.0_Model_description.pdf

  40. Food Balance Sheets: A Handbook (FAO, 2001).

  41. Cassidy, E. S., West, P. C., Gerber, J. S. & Foley, J. A. Redefining agricultural yields: from tonnes to people nourished per hectare. Environ. Res. Lett. 8, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034015 (2013).

  42. Borken-Kleefeld, J. & Weidema, B. Global default data for freight transport per product group https://www.ecoinvent.org/files/transport_default_20130722.xlsx (2013).

  43. Kinnon, A. Guidelines for Measuring and Managing CO2 Emission from Freight Transport Operations (European Chemical Industry Council, 2011).

  44. Mueller, N. D. et al. Closing yield gaps through nutrient and water management. Nature 490, 254–257 (2012).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  45. West, P. C. et al. Leverage points for improving global food security and the environment. Science 345, 325–328 (2014).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  46. Inputs, FAOSTAT Online Database (FAO, 2019); http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data

  47. Xu, R. T. et al. Increased nitrogen enrichment and shifted patterns in the world’s grassland: 1860–2016. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 11, 175–187 (2019).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  48. Zhang, B. et al. Global manure nitrogen production and application in cropland during 1860–2014: a 5arcmin gridded global dataset for Earth system modeling. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 9, 667–678 (2017).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  49. Agri-Environmental Indicators, FAOSTAT Online Database (FAO, 2019); http://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research is partly supported by the US Department of Energy (number DE-SC0016323). The map figures in the main text and the Supplementary Information were created using Matplotlib Basemap Toolkit of Python.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

X.X. and A.K.J. designed the framework of this study, collected data and analysed the results. X.X., P. Sharma, S.S. and T.-S.L. performed the model simulations. P.C., F.N.T., P. Smith and N.C. contributed to the interpretation and implication of the results. X.X. and A.K.J. wrote the paper with inputs from all coauthors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Atul K. Jain.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Food thanks Sarah Bridle, Timothy Robinson and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary methods, discussion, Figs. 1–10 and Tables 1–17.

Reporting Summary

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Xu, X., Sharma, P., Shu, S. et al. Global greenhouse gas emissions from animal-based foods are twice those of plant-based foods. Nat Food 2, 724–732 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00358-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00358-x

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing