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Earth Day 2012: The Most Harmful Foods For The Environment

10 Foods With The Biggest Carbon Footprints
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With Earth Day on the horizon and April's designation as Earth Month, the next few weeks marks the time when people are thinking about their own roles in helping the environment. The good news is there are options that don't involve chaining yourself to a sequoia; it can be as simple as taking a look at what's on your plate.

When people think of "green" foods, their first inclination may be to reach for that head of broccoli in their vegetable crisper, and they wouldn't be wrong in doing so. That's because vegetables outrank their meat counterparts in terms of their environmental impact.

Food's environmental impact lies in measuring in its carbon footprint -- the amount of greenhouse gases involved in the process, from growing the food to how it ends up on your plate. And while the easiest culprit to spot is the exhaust coming from cars and trucks, there are plenty of other polluting perpetrators, like the energy it takes to process and manufacture the food.

Below is a list of the top 10 food offenders in terms of the carbon footprint they leave behind. Story continues below:

Number 10: Potatoes

Top 10 Environmentally Unfriendly Foods

TEXT VERSION OF SLIDESHOW HERE

In the past, environmentalists have cited "food miles" as the unit by which to measure a food's impact on the environment. Their argument was the further a piece of food travelled, the more its harm to the environment. But the concept has come under scrutiny, with others nothing it's how the food is made, not how far it travels that contributes to its carbon footprint.

"The concept of food miles is unhelpful and stupid. It doesn't inform about anything except the distance travelled," said Dr Adrian Williams, of the National Resources Management Centre at Cranfield University in an interview with The Observer.

Another offender of greenhouse gases, according to the Foundation, lies in people's palate for meat. Roughly one-fifth of the total greenhouse gases produced comes from livestock production, which isn't surprising, considering 70 per cent of all agricultural land use is devoted to livestock production and makes up for 30 per cent of the land surface of the planet.

SLIDESHOW TEXT VERSION:

  • 10. Potatoes: At 2.9 kg of greenhouse gases produced for ever kg eaten, potatoes are the most environmentally unfriendly vegetable out there.
  • 9. Eggs: For every kilogram of eggs consumed, 4.8 kg of greenhouse gases are produced.
  • 8. Canned Tuna: With 6.1 kg of greenhouse gases produced for every kg of canned tuna, this item makes the list because two-thirds of its carbon footprint comes from product emissions.
  • 7. Chicken: From McNuggets to a cordon bleu, chicken in all of its parts make up roughly one-third of the world's meat intake.
  • 6. Turkey: Sure it's great for holiday meals, but it might be harder to give thanks this Thanksgiving after learning that one kilogram of turkey contributes to 10.9 kg of greenhouse gases.
  • 5. Farmed Salmon: Fans of seafood are in a tough position. Eating wild salmon is frowned upon due to overfishing, but farmed salmon, which is designed to help wild salmon repopulate, comes with a carbon footprint of 11.9kg /kg of salmon.
  • 4. Pork: It's the most popular type of meat consumed by the world, according to the United Nations.
  • 3. Cheese: It may surprise you that the third highest producer of greenhouse gases isn't an animal or vegetable, it's cheese.
  • 2. Beef: With 27 kg of carbon dioxide and methane produced for every kilogram eaten, beef would be the runner up if there ever was a largest carbon footprint pageant.
  • 1. Lamb: Lambs are cute. The 39.2 kg of greenhouse gases it takes to eat one kilogram? Not as cute.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please note, the sourcing information for the statistics in the slideshow above has been updated. It previously referenced The 9 Billion, a site quoting the primary source, the Environmental Working Group.

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