The DOI matches its Crossref record; 37 of the 38 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Greenhouse Gas Emission Estimates of U.S. Dietary Choices and Food Loss
Abstract
Summary: Dietary behavioral choices have a strong effect on the environmental impact associated with the food system. Here, we consider the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with production of food that is lost at the retail and consumer level, as well as the potential effects on GHG emissions of a shift to dietary recommendations. Calculations are based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) food availability data set and literature meta‐analysis of emission factors for various food types. Food losses contribute 1.4 kilograms (kg) carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 ‐eq) capita −1 day −1 (28%) to the overall carbon footprint of the average U.S. diet; in total, this is equivalent to the emissions of 33 million average passenger vehicles annually. Whereas beef accounts for only 4% of the retail food supply by weight, it represents 36% of the diet‐related GHG emissions. An iso‐caloric shift from the current average U.S. diet to USDA dietary recommendations could result in a 12% increase in diet‐related GHG emissions, whereas a shift that includes a decrease in caloric intake, based on the needs of the population (assuming moderate activity), results in a small (1%) decrease in diet‐related GHG emissions. These findings emphasize the need to consider environmental costs of food production in formulating recommended food patterns.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Past investigators have highlighted the land, irrigation water, greenhouse gas, and reactive nitrogen burdens of producing animal-sourced foods, especially beef.[44, 45]”
From Relationship between food waste, diet quality, and environmental sustainability (2018) · cites this paper as [45]
Citations
Cites
Solutions for a cultivated planet
Foley, J. A., Ramankutty, N., Brauman, K. A., Cassidy, E. S., Gerber, J. S., Johnston, M., Mueller, N. D., O’Connell, C., Ray, D. K., West, P. C., et al. (2011) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature10452 · Cited by 8,476
(2011) · FAO eBooks · Cited by 3,368
Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks
Hockstad, L., & Hanel, L. (2018) · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · doi:10.15485/1464240 · Cited by 2,863
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010
(2011) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.49-0615 · Cited by 1,571
UNEP – United Nations Environment Programme
Maier, J. (2010) · Brill | Nijhoff eBooks · doi:10.1163/ej.9789004180048.i-962.612 · Cited by 1,461
Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010
Marshall, T. A. (2011) · The Journal of the American Dental Association · doi:10.14219/jada.archive.2011.0248 · Cited by 1,401
Kummu, M., de Moel, H., Porkka, M., Siebert, S., Varis, O., & Ward, P. J. (2012) · Science of The Total Environment · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.08.092 · Cited by 1,300
Food-Miles and the Relative Climate Impacts of Food Choices in the United States
Weber, C. L., & Matthews, H. S. (2008) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es702969f · Cited by 1,150
Garnett, T. (2011) · Food Policy · doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2010.10.010 · Cited by 1,048
The Progressive Increase of Food Waste in America and Its Environmental Impact
Hall, K. D., Guo, J., Dore, M., & Chow, C. C. (2009) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007940 · Cited by 748
Americans Do Not Meet Federal Dietary Recommendations
Krebs-Smith, S. M., Guenther, P. M., Subar, A. F., Kirkpatrick, S. I., & Dodd, K. W. (2010) · The Journal of Nutrition · doi:10.3945/jn.110.124826 · Cited by 711
Total and per capita value of food loss in the United States
Buzby, J. C., & Hyman, J. (2012) · Food Policy · doi:10.1016/j.foodpol.2012.06.002 · Cited by 660
Hobbs, F. (2004) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-012641955-9/50041-2 · Cited by 619
Quantifying food losses and the potential for reduction in Switzerland
Beretta, C., Stoessel, F., Baier, U., & Hellweg, S. (2013) · Waste Management · doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2012.11.007 · Cited by 584
Potential contributions of food consumption patterns to climate change
Carlsson‐Kanyama, A., & González, A. D. (2009) · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.3945/ajcn.2009.26736aa · Cited by 563
(2013) · Cited by 490
Quantifying Carbon Footprint Reduction Opportunities for U.S. Households and Communities
Jones, C. M., & Kammen, D. M. (2011) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es102221h · Cited by 450
Archer, E., Hand, G. A., & Blair, S. N. (2013) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0076632 · Cited by 415
Heller, M., Keoleian, G. A., & Willett, W. C. (2013) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es4025113 · Cited by 389
Self-citationWasted food, wasted energy: The embedded energy in food waste in the United States
Cuéllar, A. D., & Webber, M. E. (2010) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es100310d · Cited by 306
Diet and the environment: does what you eat matter?
Marlow, H. J., Hayes, W. K., Soret, S., Carter, R. L., Schwab, E. R., & Sabaté, J. (2009) · American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · doi:10.3945/ajcn.2009.26736z · Cited by 301
Health, United States, 2012; with special feature on emergency care
Holmes, J. S., & Madans, J. H. (2013) · Cited by 288
Assessing the sustainability of the US food system: a life cycle perspective
Heller, M., & Keoleian, G. A. (2003) · Agricultural Systems · doi:10.1016/s0308-521x(02)00027-6 · Cited by 281
Self-citationEnvironmental Impacts of Dietary Recommendations and Dietary Styles: Germany As an Example
Meier, T., & Christen, O. (2012) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/es302152v · Cited by 280
Resource Revolution: Meeting the world's energy, materials, food, and water needs
Dobbs, R., Oppenheim, J., Thompson, F. M. L., Brinkman, M. L. J., & Zornes, M. (2011) · Cited by 272
Cool Farming : Climate impacts of agriculture and mitigation potential
Bellarby, J., Foereid, B., Hastings, A., & Smith, P. (2008) · Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) · Cited by 253
The climate change and economic impacts of food waste in the United States
Venkat, K. (2011) · International Journal on Food System Dynamics · doi:10.18461/ijfsd.v2i4.247 · Cited by 250
Mitigating the greenhouse gas emissions embodied in food through realistic consumer choices
Hoolohan, C., Berners-Lee, M., McKinstry-West, J., & HEWITT, C. N. (2013) · Energy Policy · doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.09.046 · Cited by 212
The future of food — Scenarios and the effect on natural resource use in agriculture in 2050
Odegard, I., & van der Voet, E. (2013) · Ecological Economics · doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.10.005 · Cited by 163
Buzby, J. C., Wells, H. F., Axtman, B., & Mickey, J. (2009) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · doi:10.22004/ag.econ.58313 · Cited by 115
Luxus consumption: wasting food resources through overeating
Blair, D., & Sobal, J. (2006) · Agriculture and Human Values · doi:10.1007/s10460-004-5869-4 · Cited by 92
Dietary Assessment of Major Trends in U.S. Food Consumption, 1970-2005Preprint
Wells, H. F., & Buzby, J. C. (2008) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · doi:10.22004/ag.econ.58641 · Cited by 76
Fazeni‐Fraisl, K., & Steinmüller, H. (2011) · Energy Sustainability and Society · doi:10.1186/2192-0567-1-6 · Cited by 51
The Fat of the Land: Linking American Food Overconsumption, Obesity, and Biodiversity Loss
Cafaro, P., Primack, R. B., & Zimdahl, R. L. (2006) · Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics · doi:10.1007/s10806-006-9008-7 · Cited by 35
Modeling the Agri‐Food Industry with Life Cycle Assessment
Notarnicola, B., Tassielli, G., & Renzulli, P. A. (2012) · doi:10.1002/9781118528372.ch7 · Cited by 33
Consumer-Level Food Loss Estimates and Their Use in the ERS Loss- Adjusted Food Availability DataPreprint
Muth, M. K., Karns, S., Nielsen, S. J., Buzby, J. C., & Wells, H. F. (2011) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · doi:10.22004/ag.econ.184307 · Cited by 33
Oswer, & Orcr (2016) · Cited by 16
Flagged first, then by citations
1 of the 38 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Kranert M., 2012, Ermittlung der weggeworfenen Lebensmittelmengen und Vorschläge zur Verminderung der Wegwerfrate bei Lebensmitteln in Deutschland [Determination of discarded food quantities and suggestions for reducing the disposal rate of food in Germany], Institut für Siedlungswasserbau, Wassergüte‐und Abfallwirtschaft
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Aleksandrowicz, L., Green, R., Joy, E. J. M., Smith, P., & Haines, A. (2016) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0165797 · Cited by 1,135
Missing food, missing data? A critical review of global food losses and food waste data
Xue, L., Liu, G., Parfitt, J., Liu, X., Van Herpen, E., Stenmarck, Å., O’Connor, C., Östergren, K., & Cheng, S. (2017) · Environmental Science & Technology · doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b00401 · Cited by 690
Quantifying the potential for climate change mitigation of consumption options
Ivanova, D., Barrett, J., Wiedenhofer, D., Macura, B., Callaghan, M., & Creutzig, F. (2020) · Environmental Research Letters · doi:10.1088/1748-9326/ab8589 · Cited by 728
Multi-indicator sustainability assessment of global food systems
Chaudhary, A., Gustafson, D. I., & Mathys, A. (2018) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-018-03308-7 · Cited by 545
Relationship between food waste, diet quality, and environmental sustainability
Conrad, Z., Niles, M. T., Neher, D. A., Roy, E. D., Tichenor, N. E., & Jahns, L. (2018) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0195405 · Cited by 360
Metadata
- Authors
- Heller, M. C., & Keoleian, G. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Corresponding author
- Heller, Martin C.
- Venue
- Journal of Industrial Ecology
- Published
- 2014-09-04
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 391-401
- ISSN
- 1088-1980 (ISSN-L)
- 1530-9290
- OpenAlex
- W1557062754
- Semantic Scholar
- 17a57888c71bd1d785be73b3a276365214ecaae3
- Cited by
- 329
- References
- 38
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 32 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 35 · 2020: 38 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 35 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 16.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Industrial Ecology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Keywords
- greenhouse gas emissions, food systems, food loss, food choice, carbon footprint, beef, dietary recommendations, energy intake, emission factors, environmental impact of food production
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
