Project information
Project manager
Stefan Gössling
Other project members
Andreas Humpe, Munich University of Applied Sciences; Ya-Yen Sun, University of Queensland
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University
Timetable
1 September 2024–30 December 2025
Subject
Tourism studies (Department of Marketing and Tourism Studies, School of Business and Economics)
More about the project
Global food production causes 26 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 13.7 Gt of carbon dioxide. The largest share of this (61%) falls on production at the farm, with transportation, packaging, distribution and retail adding to overall food-related emissions. Depending on the efficiency of the supply chain, as well as food waste and losses, the carbon intensity of each meal eaten varies.
Previous studies have estimated that one third of the edible food produced is wasted during the food supply chain, amounting to 1.3 billion tons per year. Less understood are emissions arising from consumption, i.e. consumption in “at home” versus “in restaurants, food service and hospitality” (RFH) contexts. The share of meals eaten in restaurants is large and growing, with a large number of food service types involved in food preparation. This has implications for emissions because of differences in the amount and quality of the food consumed, the food waste generated, as well as cooking, storage and transport routines. Eating in RFH also affects norms of production and consumption.
It has been long recognized that different foods vary significantly in their greenhouse gas intensity, measured per kilogram of food or per calorie. This can depend on a wide range of factors. For example, meats are generally more carbon-intense because animals need significant input energy of plant calories. Animals, and in particular cows, also contribute to emissions of greenhouse gases through digestion, specifically methane. Researchers have calculated lifetime emissions of a cow at about 72 kilogram methane, which is, in terms of global warming, equivalent to 1.7 tons carbon dioxide. Other factors that increase the carbon intensity of foodstuffs can be their seasonality, with in particular production in heated greenhouses significantly increasing emissions.
The project is part of the research in Linnaeus Knowledge Environment: Sustainable Tourism.
Staff
