Know your Food's Carbon Emissions?

Though there's been much focus on how much energy it requires to get your food from the farm to the supermarket, recent analysis by Brighter Planet shows that 71 percent of total food miles come from how consumers travel to and from the store.

Read more: The Eco-Diet Isn't Just About Food Miles

Yup, the same Brighter Planet American Foodprint study says that delivery of food to supermarkets?the part of food miles most often focused on in terms of eating local?is actually just 7 percent of total lifecycle emissions from food transportation.

Read more: Eat Locally and Ease Climate Change

According to calculations in a Washington Post article, farmers using small trucks can delivery 3,200lbs of food for every gallon on fuel expended. Tractor trailers can only delivery 100lbs of food for every gallon of fuel.

Read more: 10 Reasons to Eat Local Food

Getting yourself to the market in an eco-friendly way (walking, biking, public transit, etc...) plus eating as much locally-produced food as possible reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but food miles are less than a quarter of the total carbon emissions on your plate.

Read more: 7 Low-Cost, Low-Emissions Foods

The type of food you eat and how it's produced is the single largest component in your dinner's carbon footprint, 40 percent of the total. Cooking is 29 percent, how it's packaged is 5 percent, emissions associated with food disposal and retail are just 3 percent each.

Perhaps it's no surprise, but red meat has the highest greenhouse gas emissions of this group: 11 grams of CO2 equivalent per calorie. Fish comes in next (8 grams), dairy has 6.5 grams, poultry is 6 grams. Vegetables are about the same as poultry; fruits, grains and vegetables are all lower, in the 3-4 grams CO2e per calorie range.

Read more: UN Expert Says Eat Less Meat to Reduce CO2 Emissions

Red meat forms the single highest part of the average American diet, 25 percent. Coming in after that are fat and sugars, at 21%, then dairy products and grains, each at 17 percent Fruits and vegetables are a mere 10%. In total, animal products are 50 percent.

Read more: New Study Says, You're Dead Meat if You Eat Red Meat

On the basis of grams of CO2 emitted per calorie, a vegan diet is about 33 percent lower in emissions that the average American omnivore diet. That meat-heavy diet emits 4.3 grams of CO2 per calorie. A vegetarian diet is about 21 percent lower than meat-eating.

Read more: Steak 'n Bake? 51 percent of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Now Come From Meat and Dairy Industry

Aluminum cans have radically higher lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions than either plastic bottles (4x higher) or glass bottles (9x higher). When it comes to plastic bottles, not all are created equal. Those likes ones used for milk have lower emissions than those used for soda and other single-serving beverages, though still double those of glass.

Read more: Which Milk Containers Has the Lowest Carbon Emissions?

Paper bags have a bit over three times the greenhouse gas emissions as plastic ones, measure in grams of CO2 equivalent per kilogram of packaging. On the positive side, paper bags are definitely win when in comes to biodegradability. When will a plastic bag biodegrade if it ends up in a landfill, on the side of the road, or in a waterway? Never.

Read more: Paper Bags or Plastic Bags? Everything You Need to Know