TY - JOUR
T1 - Meat Consumption Does Not Explain Differences in Household Food Carbon Footprints in Japan
AU - Kanemoto, Keiichiro
AU - Moran, Daniel
AU - Shigetomi, Yosuke
AU - Reynolds, Christian
AU - Kondo, Yasushi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature project no. 14200135 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through its Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) 15H05341. We wish to thank Marco Springmann and Ken'ichi Matsumoto for valuable comments. K.K. Y.S. D.M. and Y.K. designed the research. K.K. and Y.S. conducted the analysis. K.K. prepared the figures. K.K. D.M. C.R. Y.S. and Y.K. wrote the manuscript. The authors declare no competing interests.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature project no. 14200135 and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through its Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (A) 15H05341 . We wish to thank Marco Springmann and Ken’ichi Matsumoto for valuable comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Authors
PY - 2019/12/20
Y1 - 2019/12/20
N2 - Many studies, including the EAT-Lancet Commission report, have argued that changing diets—in particular, shifting away from beef in favor of white meat and vegetables—can substantially reduce household carbon footprints (CFs). This argument implies that households with high CFs consume more meat than low-CF households. An observation of diet and CF across 60,000 households in Japan, a nation whose diet and demographics are in many ways globally indicative, does not support this. Meat consumption only weakly explains the difference between high- and low-CF households and is not localized to any particularly easily targeted group. We find that while nearly all households can reduce their CF by eating less meat, higher-CF households are not distinguished by excessive meat consumption relative to other households but rather have higher household CF intensity because of elevated consumption in other areas including restaurants, confectionery, and alcohol.
AB - Many studies, including the EAT-Lancet Commission report, have argued that changing diets—in particular, shifting away from beef in favor of white meat and vegetables—can substantially reduce household carbon footprints (CFs). This argument implies that households with high CFs consume more meat than low-CF households. An observation of diet and CF across 60,000 households in Japan, a nation whose diet and demographics are in many ways globally indicative, does not support this. Meat consumption only weakly explains the difference between high- and low-CF households and is not localized to any particularly easily targeted group. We find that while nearly all households can reduce their CF by eating less meat, higher-CF households are not distinguished by excessive meat consumption relative to other households but rather have higher household CF intensity because of elevated consumption in other areas including restaurants, confectionery, and alcohol.
KW - carbon footprint
KW - diet
KW - food
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089803251&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1016/j.oneear.2019.12.004
DO - 10.1016/j.oneear.2019.12.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85089803251
SN - 2590-3330
VL - 1
SP - 464
EP - 471
JO - One Earth
JF - One Earth
IS - 4
ER -