Environmental Impact of Food Production

by Madeline Palaszewski

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara took an in-depth look at the environmental pressures of global food production. Researchers mapped out pressures of global production for all foods on land and in the ocean.

With industrialized farming and complex supply chains, the true environmental impact is hard to assess. “Everyone eats food and more and more people are paying attention to the planetary consequences of what they eat,” said UC Santa Barbara marine ecologist Ben Halpern.

By ranking foods on factors like greenhouse gases or water pollution, scientists have made good progress on assessing the environmental impacts of various foods. According to their research, published in Nature Sustainability, almost half of all environmental pressures from food production come from just five countries. India, China, the United States, Brazil, and Pakistan account for almost half of all food productionrelated environmental pressures.

Methods of production and food type factor into the research. For instance, due to technology that reduces greenhouse gases, the United States is more than twice as efficient as India at producing soy. “We need this comprehensive information to make more accurate decisions about what we eat,” said Halpern.

More information on their research can be found in the journal Nature Sustainability.