Jonathan Foley
Appearances
TED Talks Daily
TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown
We find that agriculture, land use, and the food system as a whole contribute about 22% of global emissions. Let's look under the hood and see what's involved in this. The first is deforestation. That's about half of all those food emissions at 11% of global emissions. To put that in perspective, the entire U.S. economy emits 10 to 11%. Deforestation is even bigger.
TED Talks Daily
TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown
Second is methane from livestock. Now, we hear a lot of jokes about what cows do and all that kind of thing, but the science is actually really clear. Livestock are a huge emitter of methane, and methane is a very big driver of climate change, and we have to make that connection.
TED Talks Daily
TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown
Third is basically industrial farming methods, especially overusing chemicals like fertilizers and treating soil really badly. We have to think about that too. And then finally, we have rice production, another methane producer at around 2%. But that's not all. Beyond these direct emissions of food, that 22%, there are some indirect ways the food system emits greenhouse gas as well.
TED Talks Daily
TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown
For example, discarded food might end up in a landfill somewhere, rotting and producing methane. And then we have to think about all the energy and materials it takes to grow food, and then later to process, transport, package and prepare it.
TED Talks Daily
TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown
So when we look at these data, it tells us that, yes, food releases 22 percent of greenhouse gases directly, but when we add all the other sources, it grows to something like 34 percent, roughly a third of all the greenhouse gases on Earth. In other words, we cannot solve climate change unless we also address the problems of food alongside fossil fuels and energy. We also need to look at diets.
TED Talks Daily
TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown
Now, this one gets a little bit tricky, and people don't like to talk about it, but we're going to need to, because it turns out some foods end up emitting a lot more greenhouse gases than others. What do they all have in common? They're all animal products. Beef at the top of the list is literally off the chart.
TED Talks Daily
TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown
So this is kind of a big deal, and that's one of the reasons among many that shifting diets towards more plant-rich options is a good idea for climate.
TED Talks Daily
TED Explores: Food for the Future | TED Countdown
When we think about the environment and climate change and things like that, we usually think about smokestacks and tailpipes and burning fossil fuels, and that's fair. But it turns out agriculture and our food system are actually one of the biggest things we've ever done to the planet. And it's only number two to fossil fuels when it comes to climate change.