Published 2026-05-25 · data 2021 · percent of global GHG emissions
Food is about a third of emissions
Farm, land use, refrigeration, and waste — the full food system warms the planet.
About a third of global greenhouse gas emissions come from the food system — farming, land use, refrigeration, and waste all warm the planet. This Inagrid splits 2021 global emissions into the food share and everything else, making the scale of what we eat visible at a glance.
1 cell = 0.1 percent of global GHG emissions (0.1% of greenhouse gas emissions) · 1,000 cells
Context
Crippa et al., publishing in Nature Food in 2021, estimate that the global food system accounts for roughly 34% of all greenhouse gas emissions — covering the full chain from farm production and land use to refrigeration and waste.
The remaining 66% comes from energy, industry, and other activities outside the food system. Because food's footprint spans farms, land, cooling, and waste, shrinking it means changes well beyond agriculture.
Food is something everyone on the planet takes part in daily, which makes its emissions share both large and hard to shift — diets, farming practices, and waste handling all sit inside that 34%.
Crippa et al. Nature Food 2021: food system ~34% of emissions.
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Credit this grid as Inagrid — https://inagrid.com/e/2026-05-25-food-emissions-share