What’s the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger? I recently wrote a post about the water footprint of products that we eat, drink, wear or use. The story, however, doesn’t end there.
If you think beyond the carbon footprint of cooking a cheeseburger, cheeseburger emissions include (among other things):
- feedstock for the cattle
- growing the lettuce
- growing the wheat for the bun
- milking the cattle, processing the milk into cheese
- processing the cattle into beef
- transporting all the ingredients to market
- refrigeration for the cheeseburger ingredients, and
- cow manure as well as cow farts, a significant source of methane
Jamais Cascio of Open the Future, calculates there are 3.6-6.1 kg of CO2-equivalent per burger. Depending on whether you believe the statistics that say we eat one hamburger per week or three hamburgers — that means hamburgers generate somewhere between 65,250,000 to 195,750,000 metric tons of CO2 per year in the United States.
To put the amount of CO2 emissions into perspective, cheeseburger emissions total more than all the SUV’s (approximately 16 million) in the United States.
Now multiply that by seemingly everyday ordinary things that we eat and you get the picture that every action we take has an impact on the world around us.
Watch The Carbon Footprint of a Cheeseburger video.
Resource: Open the Future: The Cheeseburger Footprint
Related Post: Water Footprint
Enjoy this post? Get more like it. 
Subscribe in a reader or by Email.
Welcome to Verda Vivo. My name is Daryl Warner Laux.
So what you’re saying, is SUVs don’t matter. Is that right?
If only we thought of how every bite we eat impacts the planet, and in all the different ways… and by planet, I mean each of us.
I don’t believe I implied that SUVs don’t matter. Simply to say that cheeseburgers generate emissions of between 65,250,000 to 195,750,000 metric tons of CO2 per year isn’t really helpful. The comparison to SUVs is simply to put this large number into perspective. That a cheeseburger or an SUV adds up to a lot of CO2 if multiplied by millions. ~ Daryl
Ashley Sue, Exactly. Sometimes it’s hard to know which are the best choices. I keep learning all the time and try to make good choices – like no beef. ~ Daryl
Exactly, you got it right Daryl, what we do matters on climate change.
this is why we have to eat less – at a time of globesity, this is a really good idea – and drive less…
Solving one problem would enable us to solve others because everything is intertwined…
Keep up the good work !
It’s possible to micro-analyse everything like this – and no doubt we’ll be shocked at the impact of everything (even Cat farts). However, a small improvement in efficiency for the biggest emitters will make a HUGE difference.
Doc, One of the ways we can make a huge impact is to change the way we eat. From my post, What’s Wrong With What We Eat:
An estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production.
Livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation.
Nearly 800 million people on earth suffer from hunger or malnutrition while the majority of corn and soy feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. The growing demand for ethanol will only serve to increase the price of grains, squeezing the poor out of the picture.
Growing grain for animal feed contributes to 75 percent of all water-quality problems in our nation’s rivers and streams.
Half the antibiotics in the U.S. are administered to cattle which has resulted in antibiotic-resistant bacteria that threaten the usefulness of medicines that treat people.
Grain-fed animals contribute to health problems because of over-consumption – heart disease, some types of cancer, diabetes.
Animal cruelty is a small but growing concern as the horrors of raising animals in confinement are publicized.
Eating less meat seems like it would make a big impact. ~ Daryl
yup, yup, yup : eat less (red) meat is important as it requires a looot of place for food. poultry can be fed with our food waste (remnants of our plates…)
My grand parents did so for many years, it’s a sound way to eat meat without spending too much space or money.
As for me, I begun decreasing my meat intake alltogether; If I had to estimate it, I would say 15-20 percent.
(and I am no huge fan of ham, except Parma… ^^ )
Enjoy your weekend !
Edouard, I agree. I can’t remember the last time I bought beef at the grocery store. We eat mostly fish and poultry – small portions with lots of veggies. I’m learning what and how to harvest fruit in the desert – prickly pears were my first venture! ~ Daryl