Food
Life Cycle Analysis
A technique that estimates the impacts of a good or service looking at the entire life span of the product from creation to disposal or recycling.
For example, our transportation examples look at fuel use but we haven’t considered the energy to make the material for the car or the energy to assemble the car.
Carbon Sources
- Methane (composting, ruminants)
- Fossil fuel tractor emissions
- Transportation emissions
- Refrigeration emissions
- Deforestation
Life Cycle Analysis tells us the relative contributions of each of these sources of carbon.
Carbon Intensity of Food
Life Cycle Analysis finds carbon intensity ranging from approximately 1 gram carbon dioxide equivalent per food calorie to 15 (g CO2eq/kcal).
Resources
University of Michigan Carbon Footprint Factsheet
Figure 1 on page 23 shows relative contribution of post-production (transportation) and production emissions.