Is cheese an overlooked climate culprit?

This article was first published on forskning.no.

If you want to eat sustainably, meat is challenging.

Red meat in particular has high CO2 emissions.

But what about cheese, butter and other dairy products? Most of the cheeses on the kitchen table come from cows. Isn’t that bad for the carbon footprint?

We received this good question from Nina, one of the readers of Forskning.no’s Danish sister newspaper Videnskab.dk.

We forward the question to two researchers: Sisse Fagt, senior adviser in nutrition at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU Food Institute), and Alice Grønhøj, associate professor in consumer behavior at Aarhus University.

Is cheese worse than meat?

Before you get the scientists’ final answer to whether cheese is an overlooked climate culprit, we will first look at how much cheese actually pollutes.

Cheese is a broad food category: There is a big difference between brie, cream cheese, feta cheese, yellow cheese and so on.

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Cream cheese does not require much processing or milk, which gives it a relatively low carbon footprint. The hard yellow cheese, on the other hand, is a major climate culprit per kilo.

Yellow cheese leads to emissions of up to 8-9 kilograms of CO 2 for every kilogram of cheese produced. The figure is 5.5 for chicken, 4.6 for pork, 13.9 for beef and 21.4 for lamb, according to figures from Aarhus University.

Cheese is thus one of the worst climate culprits, kilo for kilo.

But there are big differences in consumption. Even if you are a cheese lover, it is probably rare that you eat 200 to 300 grams of cheese in a day. A beef lover, on the other hand, can easily eat a steak that size, points out Sisse Fagt.

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– We eat far too much meat compared to dairy products, she says.

The meat steals the show

In 2019, Sisse Fagt and the DTU Food Institute investigated CO2 emissions based on total consumption, rather than per kilo.

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– The consumption of cheese makes up just over 9 per cent, beef alone 15 per cent. Meat makes up 30 per cent overall, says Fagt.

She believes it is obvious that it is the meat that should be reduced in the first place.

– Cheese doesn’t get away too easily right now. We should insert the shock where consumption is highest, says Fagt.

It is worth noting that dairy products also have high emissions, around 8 per cent. This amounts to 18-19 per cent of the total CO2 emissions in the study.

The figures are several years old, which can lead to uncertainty. However, Alice Grønhøj does not believe that meat consumption has changed significantly in recent years.

– There are many people who have an intention to change their eating habits. They are aware that it is a good idea, but it is difficult to make it happen in everyday life, she says and points to a study in which she and her colleagues have investigated the barriers a “normal” family with children faces when they want to change to a smaller meat.

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One-track campaign

The authorities’ recommendation is crystal clear: Eat less meat and more vegetables. But if cheese and dairy products compete with meat, perhaps you should invest more in dairy products.

Sisse Fagt agrees.

– Actually, we should limit all animal products and eat more vegetables, she says.

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But she does not think cheese is an overlooked climate culprit. It is reasonable that the media focus mostly on meat.

– It is difficult to reach out with too many messages at the same time, says Fagt.

Therefore, she can well understand that the authorities mainly focus on our meat habits, although in principle they could have included all animal production – including dairy products.

Alice Grønhøj believes that the focus on meat shows how difficult it really is for us to act in accordance with good intentions.

– We have not come as far as we should when it comes to either health or the climate, she says.

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Several translated climate sinners

So the answer is: Yes, cheese is a climate culprit, and it is probably also overlooked.

The researchers hope we will eat eat less of all animal products. Instead, we should eat more vegetables, fruit, legumes and nuts.

Sisse Fagt also points out that other climate culprits such as alcohol, sweets and coffee can also be omitted. In contrast to cheese, these are foods that are not beneficial to health, but which can be advantageously cut out.

© Videnskab.dk. Translated by Lars Nygaard for forskning.no. Read the original article at Videnskab.dk.