Would you believe that the beef you are badly craving is enough to destroy our planet?
In its attempts to educate customers on how their food choices affect the environment and help solve issues concerning the climate, Swedish major food company, Felix, has launched the “Climate Store” where food products are given prices depending on their carbon dioxide emissions.
The prices of the products sold in the "Climate Store" are based on their climate impact—the more carbon dioxide produced when creating the product, the more expensive it would be. Customers who shop at the store follow a climate-based currency and pay for their goods using "carbon dioxide equivalents" (CO2Eqs).
According to the company, in order to cut down by half the people’s impact on the climate, customers should maintain a budget not exceeding 18.9 kilograms of CO2Eqs in a week.
“It will be exciting to see how customers react to trading with the CO2Eq currency and see if they manage to stay within their weekly budget. I think it will be an eye-opener for many, to see how certain choices affect what you can afford to get in the same lunch bag,” Thomas Sjöberg, marketing manager at Felix said.
To inform the customers which of the food products have less impact on the environment, the company is planning to put labels on its items with their “Low Climate Impact” symbol in categories.
The company’s new concept of a grocery store aims to highlight the relation of the food that we eat and its impact on the climate, increasing awareness and teaching the people how to make informed decisions on their food choices.
Greenhouse gas emissions
According to the article published by Our World in Data, food production is responsible for one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting for 26% of the total production.
The data from the meta-analysis study conducted by Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek in the year 2018 discusses the four key elements when trying to quantify food GHG emissions—livestock and fisheries, crop production, land use, and supply chains.
Thirty-one percent of food emissions have been attributed to the livestock and fisheries which encompass the farm production and raising of animals to produce meat, eggs, and dairy products, manure management, pasture management, and fuel consumption from fishing vessels.
Moreover, another 27% of food emissions were obtained from crop production for direct human consumption and animal feed. The remaining emissions come from land usage for cropland and pasture accounts for 24% and the supply chain for food processing, transporting, and packaging contributes 18% of GHG release.
Beef has the largest carbon footprint
The findings from the study led by Poore and Nemecek also revealed that meat and other animal products are accountable for 58% of food-related GHG regardless of contributing 20% of the calories we consume.
The study examined animal-based products and found out that beef has severe and damaging impacts on the environment, containing 51 kilograms of CO2eqs excluding methane and 100 kilograms including methane.
On the other hand, the carbon dioxide equivalents of plant-based foods such as root vegetables, apples, potatoes, bananas, peas, and maize can be more than 10 times lower than animal products.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reiterates the recommendations of the study on how individuals can help reduce their carbon footprint by eating a more locally-produced and plant-based diet and consuming less meat, milk, cheese, and butter.
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