United Nations Development Programme
Agriculture accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and as a result, large changes must be made to stay in line with the 1.5⁰C plan. If we don’t act now, agriculture may continue to have the third largest net emissions by land use in the world!
Click on the Farms & Food mission image to see what the percentages of net emissions by land use were for each section.
Source: IEA (2019)
The food sector accounts for 22% of emissions.
How can you make it greener?
Climate-friendly farming techniques can reduce a large amount of greenhouse gasses emitted through farming. Conservation agriculture tries not to disrupt the soil that is used for growing crops as little as possible. This allows the crops to grow more efficiently. This means there are less machines emitting CO₂ used throughout the growth process. Agroforestry integrates planting trees and shrubs with crops. This helps limit soil erosion, allows more water to reach crops, and improves soil quality. As a result, more food can be produced and healthier soil can remove and store more CO₂ from the atmosphere.
Buying from and supporting a small farm can decrease greenhouse gas emissions. This is due to sustainable intensification. Small farmers have to be more efficient to grow crops on less land, and as a result, they use fewer resources. Despite being sustainable and the ability to achieve a larger supply of crops for the land used, small farms may not always use climate-friendly techniques that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Planting one type of crop per farm requires a lot of land in order to feed everyone. This could lead to increases in deforestation which would reduce the amount of CO₂ taken out of the atmosphere. This is because when trees are cut down they are no longer able to lower the amount of CO₂ in the air.
How can we improve our food systems?
Approximately ⅓ of all food produced is wasted and leads to 1.9 to 2.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO₂) emitted per year. Eliminating food waste would help for two reasons. First, when food is wasted, it eventually begins to rot. This emits methane into the atmosphere. One gigatonne of methane is equivalent to 28 gigatonnes of CO₂. Second, if we only grew the amount of food that we needed, there would be a large reduction in greenhouse gas emissions because less land and fewer resources would be used to grow the food in the first place.
Buying local produce can reduce greenhouse gas emissions because the food travels a shorter distance. Transportation of produce through planes and trucks does emit greenhouse gasses, but not as much as is emitted from food wastage. As a result, there are larger reductions to be made in decreasing the amount of food wasted.
Using a bigger refrigerator will use more energy and encourages you to buy more. As a result, it leads to more greenhouse gas emissions. It also does not decrease the amount of food wasted in most places.
If cattle were their own nation they would be the 3rd largest emitter!
What's the solution?
Livestock emits the largest amount of greenhouse gasses out of all food sources, roughly 7.1 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO₂) per year. This is because livestock, such as cattle, emit a large amount of methane. As a result, switching away from a meat-based diet to a plant-based diet can reduce a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
Buying locally sourced meat can reduce emissions since the meat is traveling a shorter distance. However, emissions from raising livestock, like cattle, is much greater than the emissions due to its transportation. As a result, buying meat locally does not have as significant of an effect as promoting plant-based diets.
Raising more livestock would increase greenhouse gas emissions because there would be more animals (like cattle) to emit methane.
Farming with chemicals causes pollution. What will you do?
Climate-friendly farming techniques can reduce a large amount of greenhouse gasses emitted through farming. Conservation agriculture tries not to disrupt the soil that is used for growing crops as little as possible. This allows the crops to grow more efficiently. This means there are less machines emitting CO₂ used throughout the growth process. Agroforestry integrates planting trees and shrubs with crops. This helps limit soil erosion, allows more water to reach crops, and improves soil quality. As a result, more food can be produced and healthier soil can remove and store more CO₂ from the atmosphere.
Educating farmers on climate impacts may lead them to make better decisions based on changing climates. This may also lead farmers to make decisions that can slow the increase in temperature. However, unless education is paired with specific tools, encouragement or requirements, using climate-friendly techniques will lead to a larger reduction in greenhouse gas emissions than just educating farmers on climate impacts.
Using more chemicals will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions and can hurt ecosystems. It can harm the soil, plants and animals and then harm the humans through a process called biomagnification.
Wasted food is responsible for 8% of global emissions.
How will you address this?
Approximately ⅓ of all food produced is wasted and leads to 1.9 to 2.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO₂) emitted per year. Eliminating food waste would help for two reasons. First, when food is wasted, it eventually begins to rot. This emits methane into the atmosphere. One gigatonne of methane is equivalent to 28 gigatonnes of CO₂. Second, if we only grew the amount of food that we needed, there would be a large reduction in greenhouse gas emissions because less land and fewer resources would be used to grow the food in the first place.
Improving the transportation of food can allow food to arrive in better conditions, which may lead to more people consuming the food being transported rather than wasting it. This does not ensure, however, that food will be wasted less, and as a result, it does not lower greenhouse gas emissions as much as actually reducing food wastage does.
Using more plastic will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions and will only further harm our ecosystems. This could happen by more plastic reaching animals’ habitats and then killing or harming animals when they accidentally eat plastic or get caught in plastic.
Eating less meat is better for the planet. What will you do?
Livestock emits the largest amount of greenhouse gasses out of all food sources, roughly 7.1 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (GtCO₂) per year. This is because livestock, such as cattle, emit a large amount of methane. As a result, switching away from a meat-based diet to a plant-based diet can reduce a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
Helping farmers grow more crops on the land that they already have will allow more people to be fed. This will allow less land to be turned into farmland, meaning there will be more natural habitats and fewer greenhouse gasses emitted. Livestock, however, emits the most greenhouse gas emissions, so even if more crops were grown on land, it would not decrease greenhouse gas emissions as much as eating less meat.
Reducing the price of meat will encourage more meat to be consumed and increase the demand for meat. As a result, more livestock would be raised and therefore would increase greenhouse gas emissions because there would be more animals (like cattle) to emit methane.
