Methodology
To find the foods with the worst environmental impact, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the research article, “Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers,” published in Science magazine in 2018. Researchers covered only 43 food products and data is for 2013. Foods are ranked by greenhouse gas emissions in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents per kilogram of food product.
We also added from the research GHG emissions per nutritional unit as noted (100 g protein, 1000 kcal, etc.). Land use is the area occupied to produce 1 kg of product, in meter squared a year. Freshwater withdrawals include several sources and are measured in liters per 1 kg of food product.
