Eight Things to Know Before Your Next Burger

1. Eating Beef is horrific for the environment.

Eating beef results in an enormous amount of carbon emissions, to the tune of around 2.7 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 100 gram serving (or around 214 calories of 90 percent lean beef). In fact, a drive from Middlebury to New York City actually releases less CO2 than getting a burger along the way.

2. Lamb is actually worse, in-terms of CO2 emissions, than beef. 

Producing lamb is estimated to release 34.2 percent more CO2 than beef for the same serving size. One of the main reasons is that the portion of edible flesh on lambs (42 percent by weight) is far lower than in cows (55 percent by weight), although the relative economic value of the meat from a single lamb is higher than beef, meaning there is an incentive for farmers to keep raising lamb. For any amount of protein harvested from lamb, the carbon emissions released will be more than eight times larger than the same amount of chicken would produce.

3. Pork is, relatively, more environmentally friendly than you might think.

In part because so much of each pig is edible (65 percent), CO2 emissions of pork production per weight of meat output are roughly four times less the same amount of beef, and only about two times more than chicken.

4. Locally raised meat, especially beef, does not drastically change environmental impact compared to non-local meat. 

According to the Environmental Working Groups, 90 percent of carbon emissions related to beef comefrom the production and disposal — or waste — of beef, which does not include its transportation, storage, or preservation. Locally raised beef may be good for Vermonters, but it is only slightly better for the climate.

5. Cheese is drastically worse for the environment than you thought, but yogurt and milk are fine.

For every kilogram of cheese produced about 9.82 kilograms of CO2 are released, which is only 36 percent less than beef’s emissions by weight. That is more than twice as bad for the environment as bacon (although that is if you are eating 100 grams of cheese, which is unlikely). Yogurt and milk, in contrast, have emissions comparable to broccoli, tomatoes and other crops. The primary reason behind this discrepancy is that it takes 10 pounds of milk to make 1 pound of cheese.

6. Only looking at the weight of wasted food in the dining halls tells us very little. 

The difference in the climate implications of an entirely wasted salad is less than the last bite of a hamburger. It is, however, useful to know the total weight if we can estimate the proportion of each type of ingredient that it is made up of (how much of the waste is London broil versus “bean greens”). A better way of doing this is simply measuring how much of what kind of ingredients are used by our dining halls. That said, it is an extremely noble cause: 15 percent of total beef emissions are a result of “avoidable waste”, compared to only around 1 percent for domestic transport and refrigeration.

7. Our binary conception of “vegetarianism” is irrational. 

Vegetarianism and Veganism are generally conceived as absolute categories: you are or you are not. This is misguided and not just because vegetarian burritos at Chipotle come with free guacamole. It is very hard to give up meat, but replacing half the meat on your plate with a plant-based protein every day is far more impactful than adopting “meatless Mondays.” If you cannot be a vegetarian because you cannot give up bacon, then just give up everything else. Or just give up beef and lamb and order instead, when possible, vegetarian, chicken or seafood options.

8. There are decreasing returns for replacing proteins. 

Although there is about a 20-kilogram difference in CO2 between beef emissions and chicken emissions per kilogram of meat produced, the difference between chicken emissions and tofu (which is similar to other plant based-foods) is only about 4.9 kilograms of CO2 emissions. This means that, although there are strong moral arguments for why eating tofu is preferable to killing chickens, environmentally speaking, you are getting around 80 percent of the benefit by switching from beef to chicken as compared to beef to tofu.

Feel free to reach out with questions regarding methodology, sources, or logic. Almost all of the CO2 emissions estimates for this piece come from the Environmental Working Group’s “Meat Eaters Guide (2011),” which is publicly available for free.