‘G20 food habits add to carbon footprint’

PARIS: If everyone alive ate steaks and dairy the way Brazilians and Americans do, we would need an extra five planets to feed the world, said the first report to compare carbon emissions from food consumption in G20 nations.

Among the world’s top economies, only the per capita carbon “food-prints” in India and Indonesia are low enough to ensure the Paris climate target of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, said the Diet for a Better Future report.

In China, the average diet - on a planetary scale - would exceed the 1.5C threshold by nearly twofold. Producing food for the Earth’s 7.7 billion people is responsible for a quarter of the global carbon emissions.

About 40% of that comes from livestock production and food waste, and the rest from rice production, fertiliser use, land conversion and deforestation to accommodate commercial crops.

“Individuals in a handful of countries are eating way too much of the wrong foods,” said Brent Loken, lead author.