Beef, Cheese, Chocolate: These Are the Most Carbon Intensive Foods

Grilled steak served with fresh vegetables and pepper sauce, presenting a colorful and appetizing meal.

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The struggle to reduce global carbon emissions centers around fossil fuels, electricity, and transportation. While large-scale emitters like planes, ships, and factories tend to dominate the climate conversation, one of the biggest drivers of global warming may be sitting on your plate.

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Our food system – from farming to land use to packaging to retail – accounts for more than a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. As the climate crisis intensifies, experts warn that cutting emissions from food production is essential. In setting agricultural priorities it is important for consumers to know the environmental impact of the foods they eat.

Red meat has the largest carbon footprint, requiring more feed per edible kilogram of meat and producing far more methane than poultry or plant-based options. Cheese ranks near the top, requiring milk from ruminant animals and energy-intensive refrigeration. Chocolate, tied to deforestation and long global supply chains, also ranks highly. A closer look at the data reveals the most carbon intensive foods.

To identify the foods with the highest climate impacts, Climate Crisis 247 reviewed data compiled from peer-reviewed studies, including Poore & Nemecek (2018) and Clark et al. (2022), aggregated by Our World in Data. Food products were ranked based on greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram. Emissions are based on farm-stage inputs such as fertilizer, land and water use, energy, animal feed, and agrochemicals. All greenhouse gases – including carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide – were standardized into carbon dioxide equivalents for comparison.