New scientific paper published on the environmental impact of nutrition in Germany

corsus congratulates life cycle assessment experts Ulrike Eberle (PhD) and Nico Mumm on the publication of their scientific paper on the „Reduction potential of German environmental food impacts due to a planetary health diet“¹ in the renowned Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. The paper is based on the results of the project ‘Environmental Impacts of Food’, which was carried out on behalf of WWF Germany.

The results, based on the statistical consumption basket, show that every person in Germany today consumes an average of around 2,650 kcal per person per day. This is around 25% more than the average recommended by the German Nutrition Society.

The environmental impact of food is enormous: 216 million tonnes of greenhouse gases are emitted every year – roughly as much as all emissions from the transport sector in Germany. The production of food takes up 16.6 million hectares of land worldwide. This is approximately half the area of Germany. 75 per cent of this land alone is used to produce animal-based foods such as milk and dairy products, meat and sausage as well as eggs. It also has an impact on biodiversity of 12.3 BVI*m2*a. This corresponds to the same impact as 3.7 million square metres of completely sealed land. Furthermore, 2.4 billion m3 of water (approximately the amount of water in Lake Chiemsee) is used to irrigate agricultural crops, resulting in a scarcity-weighted water footprint of 118.6 km3 world equivalents.

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Impact contribution of four food categories for the status quo

The results confirm the findings of previous studies on climate impacts, direct land use changes and land use and add new findings on the effects on water scarcity and biodiversity.

In addition, the results show the potential for reduction through changes in eating habits. An exciting result is that all analysed environmental impacts, including impacts on biodiversity, are predominantly dependent on the share of animal foods in the diet, with the exception of water consumption and the water footprint. This is mainly caused by plant-based foods (including animal feed). It is influenced in particular by the origin of the plant products, but also by the water requirements of the plants themselves. It is clear that the products and origins on which current food consumption is based should be reconsidered in terms of water consumption and the scarcity-weighted water footprint, as citrus fruits from Spain (36%), almonds (USA: 9%, Spain: 2%) and peaches (Spain: 7%, Italy: 1%) account for by far the largest share of the footprint. A change in consumption habits could bring about a significant reduction in the water footprint here.

We would like to thank the WWF for funding the study, in particular Tanja Dräger de Teran, and the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment for the opportunity to publish it.

¹ Eberle, U.; Mumm, N. (2024): Reduction potential of German environmental food impacts due to a planetary health diet, Int J Life Cycle Assess, published online: 24 July 2024, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-024-02352-4