Choose low-emission meats - Go Climatarian

How to choose
low-emission meats

Choose lower-emission meats: fish, chicken, duck, kangaroo, pork. Despite where you get your beef or lamb from, substituting with chicken and pork will reduce your carbon emissions.

Meat	GHG emissions per 1 kg food
Beef (beef herd)	60
Lamb & Mutton	24.5
Beef (dairy herd)	14
Prawns (farmed)	11.8
Pig Meat	7.61
Fish (farmed)	5.98
Poultry Meat	5.69
Kangaroo	4.1
Duck	3.09

If you want to eat red meat, then:

Reduce your intake of animal products. Eat red meat (beef, lamb, or goat) a few times a month or limit it to special occasions.

Eat smaller portions. Many of us consider meat as the star of every meal. Try it the other way around and only add a small portion of meat, if you can’t leave it out completely.

Kangaroo meat

Kangaroo meat can act as a substitute for beef and veal on the dinner plate. Not only is kangaroo meat lean with less fat, compared to other types of red meat, kangaroos also produce less methane, with many researchers advocating increasing its consumption.

To find more information about kangaroo meat, visit:

CHOICE: The ethics of eating kangaroo meat

Fish meat

Can we eat fish and fight climate change too? The negative impacts of fish consumption vary depending on the species of fish being produced and harvested.

Bottom trawling is a type of commercial fishing that can severely damage and disrupt marine habitats. Low-input aquaculture and non-trawling fishing have the least environmental impact, with aquaculture without recirculation being the best option for relieving pressure on overfishing.

If you choose carefully, you can still enjoy seafood and fish. If buying from the supermarket, check the packaging to ensure seafood is sustainably sourced. If you can, reduce your seafood consumption.

What else can you do to eat less red meat?

Learn How

References

Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018). Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987-992. Sourced from Hannah Ritchie (2020) – “Environmental impacts of food production”. Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: ‘https://ourworldindata.org/environmental-impacts-of-food‘ [Online Resource].

Clune, S.; Crossin, E., & Verghese, K. (2017). Systematic review of greenhouse gas emissions for different fresh food categories. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 766-783.

Ratnasiri, S., & Bandara, J. (2017). Changing patterns of meat consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in Australia: Will kangaroo meat make a difference? PLOS ONE, 12(2), e0170130.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0170130.

Madsen, J., & Bertelsen, M. F. (2012). Methane production by red-necked wallabies (Macropus rufogriseus). American Society of Animal Science. 90, 1364–1370, http://dx.doi.org/10.2527/jas.2011-4011.

Clark, M., & Tilman, D. (2017). Comparative analysis of environmental impacts of agricultural production systems, agricultural input efficiency, and food choice. Environ. Res. Lett. 12, 064016.

Tao, L. S. R., Lui, K. K. Y, Lau, E. T. C., Ho, K. K. Y., Mak, Y. K. Y., Mitcheson, Y. S., & Leung, K. M. Y. (2018). Trawl ban in a heavily exploited marine environment: Responses in population dynamics of four stomatopod species. Scientific Reports. 8, 17876

How to choose low-emission meats