US EditionRevealing the 'carbon hoofprint' of meat consumption for American cities
Study maps greenhouse gas emissions from beef, pork, and chicken supply chains across 3,500 U.S. cities, revealing large variations in carbon footprints linked to regional production.
- On October 20, 2025, a new study published in Nature Climate Change mapped meat supply-chain emissions for every city in the contiguous United States and estimated total emissions at 329 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year.
- Using the FoodS3 platform, researchers applied an eight-year development period to simulate livestock and crop movements, leveraging the University of Minnesota's data and models.
- City maps show per-capita carbon hoofprints vary widely, with 868 cities including Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Houghton, Michigan, consuming more meat but having below-average hoofprints; Los Angeles, California's beef is processed in 10 counties and sourced from livestock raised in 469 counties with feed from 828 counties.
- Combining household and policy changes could shrink the country's urban carbon hoofprint by half, with city governments sponsoring anaerobic digesters at hog farms, the researchers recommend.
- Experts describe the study as highlighting that `This has huge implications for how we gauge the environmental impact of cities, measure those impacts and ultimately develop policies to reduce those impacts,` said Benjamin Goldstein, assistant professor at Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability.
19 Articles
19 Articles
America’s Meat Habit Produces More Carbon Than an Entire Country
If you eat meat, your dinner plate might be responsible for as much carbon as your entire home’s electricity bill. That’s according to a groundbreaking study from the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota, published in Nature Climate Change. The study traced the greenhouse gas emissions behind beef, pork, and chicken all the way from farm to city. The researchers created what they call a “carbon hoofprint” for more than 3,500 US…
The amounts of dead animals consumed in US cities alone provide a five times higher CO2 emissions than all of Austria, according to a new study.
Researchers Mapped the Carbon Cost of Meat in Every US City - WorldNL Magazine
The meat industry is a significant contributor to climate change, with livestock supply chains accounting for roughly 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Per capita meat consumption in the U.S. is among the highest in the world, with Americans eating significantly more meat than the global average. To gain a clearer picture of how meat consumption drives greenhouse gas emissions across the country, researchers calculated and mapped the “ca…
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