Beef consumption needs to drop 50 %

According to a study of Swedish technical university Chalmers, we can only reach the European Union’s climate goals to lower the emission of harmful gases by 50 % in 2050, if we cut our beef consumption in half.

Food waste has minimal impact

The study presents several cases, but it will be nigh unavoidable to cut back on our beef and sheep meat consumption by about 50 %. On the other hand, tackling food waste would only be minimally helpful to the climate: the most optimistic case states that lower food waste would only help lower harmful gas emissions by 1 to 3 %. However, livestock represents about 75 % of all food-related harmful gases.

A University of Virginia study shows that consumers might consider changing their eating habits if products had labels explaining what the product’s environmental impact actually is. This way, consumers can compare products to see which has the biggest negative impact.