Carbon Footprint of Cheese Calculator: Manufacturing, Cheese Type, Location

Carbon Footprint of Cheddar

Once you understand the steps that go into the life cycle of cheese, you can calculate its carbon footprint. You may need to use a carbon footprint of cheese calculator.

The table below shows the total carbon footprint of cheddar cheese.⁶

Unit Process	Average for Cheddar Cheese (CO2e/kg)
1. Impact of milk production	1.2
2. Impact of cream removal	1.2
3. Shipping	1.203
4. Processing plant	8.3
5. Shipping distance to retail	8.377
6. Total Carbon Footprint of Cheddar Cheese	8.377

Sustainable Cheese and Neutral Cheeses

If you are a cheese lover and you are feeling guilty about its environmental impact, you should consider switching to sustainable cheese and neutral cheeses. Experts recommend switching to plant-based cheese which can cut your associated climate impact of cheese by half.

Vegetarian cheese is also suitable for cheese lovers who are lactose intolerant. Additionally, they are a nutritious and delicious option.

Vegan cheese has different varieties available. They are made completely with plant products such as vegetables, soy, seeds, and nuts.

They can in a wide variety of textures and flavors and produce significantly less GHG than their dairy counterparts.

The process of creating vegan cheese varies depending on the cheese, however, they are usually made with a variation of the following steps:

1. Soaking: Seeds and nuts are often soaked to make them softer for the coming processes.
2. Blending: After soaking the seeds, nuts, and vegetables, they are usually blended with other ingredients such as probiotics, spices, and water to create a creamy texture.
3. Fermenting: To get the cheesy tangy flavor, some vegan cheeses get fermented. In this process, probiotics are added to the mixture which sits at room temperature for a certain period.
4. Shaping: Once the mixture is ready, the cheese is then shaped into slices, and blocks depending on the type of cheese being made.
5. Aging: Some people prefer aging the cheese to create a stronger texture and flavor.

The different types of vegan cheese include:

1. Vegetable cheese: This is created by blending vegetables such as carrots and potatoes with other ingredients like garlic, lemon juice, and yeast. Then flavor is added to the mixture to make it taste like cheese.
2. Soy cheese: This is created by blending seasonings, vinegar, water, and cooked soybeans. The mixture is then shaped and pressed into slices and blocks.
3. Nut cheeses: This cheese is usually created by blending seasonings, probiotics, water, and of course nuts. The mixture is then fermented to create a cheesy and tangy flavor.

It goes without saying that planting more trees will help offset the carbon footprint produced by cheese and other dairy products. Through a beef and dairy carbon offset tree planting program, trees can sequester your carbon emissions reducing or removing it completely from the atmosphere.

Food and Climate Change

Is there a relationship between food and climate change? The short answer is yes.

What you eat and the process that goes into getting that food in your mouth not only affects your health but also the environment. Most food in the market today goes through processing, transportation, distribution, preparation, consumption, and sometimes disposal.

Every single step mentioned here creates greenhouse gas (GHG)⁷ which contributes to climate change by trapping the heat of the sun in the atmosphere.

In fact, almost one-third of greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans stem from food.¹ The food carbon footprint is very alarming.

Most of the food-related GHG comes from land use and agriculture and this includes but is not limited to:

• The digestive process in cattle produces methane, a very potent GHG.
• The manufacturing and use of nitrous oxide in fertilizers (used in crop production) also produce GHGs.
• Cutting down forests for farmland expansion reduces carbon dioxide sequestration.
• Manure management, burning of crop residue, rice cultivation, the use of fuels in farms, and other agricultural activities also cause GHG emissions.

Besides these major greenhouse gas emitters in the agricultural processes, a smaller share of GHG emissions from food is caused by:

• Management of food waste
• Industrial processes such as the production of packaging materials such as aluminum and paper
• Transport and preservation of food such as refrigeration

Carbon Footprint of Cheese: Difference Between Foods With High Climate Impact and Climate-Friendly Food

You can measure the climate impact of food in terms of the intensity of their GHG emissions. This intensity is expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents or CO₂e.

This measurement includes the CO₂ that every calorie, gram of protein, or kilogram of food produces.

The truth about food emissions is that animal-based food, particularly, farmed shrimp, dairy, and red meat are generally associated with the highest GHG emissions. Several reasons contribute to this high emission they include:

• The production of meat often needs extensive grasslands that are often created by deforestation which releases the CO₂ stored by forests and prevents further carbon sequestration.
• Sheep and cows usually create methane as they digest plants and grass.
• The waste of domestic animals such as cows on pasture, and chemical fertilizers used for growing crops create nitrous oxide which is another GHG.
• Shrimp farms are built in areas on the coast which were previously mangrove forests that used to absorb high carbon amounts. Most of the carbon footprint of prawns and shrimp results from stored carbon released into the atmosphere when mangrove forests are destroyed to create shrimp farms.

On the other hand, plant-based foods such as lentils, nuts, peas, beans, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables usually use less water, land, and energy and have lower GHG intensities compared to animal-based foods.

The tables below show the carbon footprint of different food products.⁸ You can compare emissions based on weight (per kilogram of food) or using nutritional units (per 1,000 kilocalories or per 100 grams of protein) which show you how efficiently each type of food supplies protein or energy.

Table 1: GHG Emissions per Kilogram of Food²

Food	GHG Emission per kg of Food (kgCO2e)
Nuts	0.4
vegetables	0.7
Fruit	0.9
Breads and Pastas	1.6
Legumes	2.0
Tofu	3.2
Milk	3.2
Nuts and grains	3.6
Eggs	4.7
Poultry	9.9
Pork	12.3
Fish	13.6
Cheese	23.9
Shellfish	26.9
Lamb	39.7
Beef	70.6

Table 2: GHG emissions per 100 g of protein²

Food	GHG emission per 100g of protein (kgCO2e)
Nuts	0.3
Legumes	0.9
Breads and pastas	2.0
Tofu	4.2
Rice and grains	4.8
Poultry	5.7
Fish	6.0
Vegetables	6.8
Pork	7.6
Milk	9.5
Fruit	10.4
Cheese	10.8
Shellfish	18.2
Lamb	19.9
Beef	35.5

Table 3: GHG emissions per 1,000 kilocalories²

Food	GHG emissions per 1,000 kilocalories (kgCO2e)
Nuts	0.10
Legumes	0.50
Bread and pastas	0.60
Tofu	1.20
Fruit	1.50
Eggs	3.20
Vegetables	3.30
Pork	5.15
Milk	5.25
Poultry	5.30
Cheese	6.20
Fish	7.60
Lamb	12.5
Beef	25.9
Shellfish	26.1

The three tables above show a clear difference between food with high climate impact and climate-friendly food. For instance, the carbon footprint of eggs and the carbon footprint of tofu is significantly less than the carbon footprint of cheese and beef.

The value of the emissions highlighted in the tables is in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents (kgCO₂e). This value takes into account carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses such as nitrous oxide and methane.

These other GHG are converted into carbon dioxide equivalents with the same potential for global warming.

Is Dairy Bad for the Environment?

The production of milk takes place everywhere in the world. The global demand for dairy products increases daily because of urbanization, rising incomes, population growth, and the Westernization of diets in nations such as India and China.

The increase in demand for dairy products creates pressure on natural resources such as soil and freshwater.

The global population of dairy cows is approximately 270 million. The production of milk affects the environment in several ways and varies according to the practices of feed growers and dairy farmers.

Cows bred solely for dairy and their manure create greenhouse gas emissions which lead to climate change. Moreover, if fertilizers and manures are handled poorly they can degrade local water resources.

Not to mention feed production and dairy farming that are unsustainable can cause the loss of areas that are ecologically important such as forests, wetlands, and prairies.

The demand for feed crops such as soy, alfalfa, and corn has led to the conversion of natural habitats to agricultural land. Additionally, daily operations in a dairy farm can cause soil degradation and water pollution when feed crop and manure production are poorly managed.

Is dairy bad for the environment? The short answer is, Yes!

Some effects of dairy farms include:

• Air: Some dairy activities lead to airborne ammonia emissions which damage downstream habitats causing loss of species diversity. Moreover, odor and particulate matter resulting from on-farm activities can destroy air quality.
• Water: Dairy farms consume large water volumes because of various activities such as managing manure, watering cows, growing feeds, and processing products. This fertilizer and manure runoff from dairy farms can pollute close water resources.
  They can facilitate the growth of algae in local waterways which reduces oxygen for aquatic animal and plant life.
• Habitat: Currently, more than two-thirds of the agricultural land in the world is used for maintaining livestock including dairy and beef cows. Additionally, one-third of all the land in the world suffers desertification as a result of overgrazing, deforestation, and poor agricultural practices.⁹
  In some areas, dairy cows contribute to healthy habitats because of well-managed grazing.
• Soil health: Livestock farming is a significant contributor to global soil erosion. Conversion of forests into feed crop production areas or pasture, soil compaction from cattle hooves and overgrazing causes loss of organic matter and topsoil and this takes decades or centuries to replace.
  In contrast, if manure application and grazing are well-managed, it can improve the health of the soil in croplands and pastures.

Dairy Carbon Footprint

The carbon footprint of milk is quite significant because of its source. GHG emissions associated with the production of milk result from various activities involved in the life cycle of the dairy supply chain.

These activities include:

• Use of fossil fuel when producing fodder and feed for the animals
• Use of agricultural inputs such as manure and fertilizers
• Enteric fermentation
• Processing of concentrates in plants used in cattle feed
• Manure management

Post-farm activities such as the processing of milk into various dairy products, packaging, transportation of these products as well as waste and disposal.

Therefore, when measuring the dairy carbon footprint, it’s important to consider all these activities, from cradle-to-grave. This carbon footprint sums up the total GHG emitted throughout the lifecycle of milk.

The most common GHGs in this life cycle include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane. From the tables above, you can see that milk alone contributes about 3.2 CO₂e/kg and is among the highest carbon emitters among foods.

Plant Milk vs Cow Milk Environmental Impact

Since dairy contributes significantly to GHG emissions, people are looking into plant-based alternatives. There’s a wide range of plant-based milk alternatives available and they include but are not limited to:¹⁰

• Almond
• Oat
• Soy
• Coconut

One common question is weighing the environmental impact of plant milk vs cow milk. The tables below show the plant milk vs cow milk environmental impacts across various metrics such as water use, GHG emissions, and land use.

A liter of each milk is compared side by side.

The following tables measure the impact of a liter of milk across various demographics. The impacts span across the supply chain including packaging, transport, processing, on-farm production, and land usage.

Table 1: Land use³

Milk	Land Use per Square Meters
Rice milk	0.34
Almond milk	0.50
Soy milk	0.66
Oat milk	0.76
Dairy milk	0.95

Table 2: Greenhouse gas emissions³

Milk	Carbon Emission (CO2e/kg)
Almond milk	0.70
Oat milk	0.90
Soy milk	0.98
Rice milk	1.15
Dairy milk	3.15

Table 3: Freshwater use in liters³

Milk	Freshwater Used (Liters)
Soy milk	27.80
Oat milk	48.24
Rice milk	269.81
Almond milk	371.46
Cow milk	628.20

It is evident that cow milk has a significantly higher impact than plant-based counterparts across all metrics. From the table above, cow milk uses ten times more land and two to twenty times as much water than the other alternatives.

Therefore, it’s safe to infer that switching to plant-based milk will significantly reduce the environmental footprint of your diet.

What Is Cheese: Is Cheese Meat?

Cheese is a food with many contradictions.¹¹ Mostly, people wonder whether it’s healthy or not and whether they should include it in their daily diet or consider it an indulgence.

But what is cheese really? And what is its relationship with meat?

Is cheese meat?

First and foremost, cheese is not meat. It’s a dairy product.

People make natural cheese with salt, meat, rennet enzyme, and good bacteria.⁴ The history of cheese goes back more than 4,000 years.

It started its journey from Asia to Europe and eventually reached America. Most reports say that cheese is one of the foods that were found on board the Mayflower.

Centuries after its inception, Swiss immigrants established Midwestern Wisconsin as a cheese production hub. Today, in the United States alone, more than one-third of milk is used to produce cheese.

In 2022, the US made about 13.25 billion pounds of cheese. It’s safe to infer that cheese is a major part of the American diet as the average American consumes about 40 pounds annually.

Cheese is divided into eight categories. They include:

1. Blue: Gorgonzola and others
2. Hard: Parmesan
3. Soft and ripened: Brie
4. Pasta filata: Mozzarella
5. Soft and fresh: Ricotta
6. Processed: American cheese
7. Semi-Soft: Havarti
8. Semi-hard: Cheddar

It’s important to understand that when cheese is made sustainably, like on a home farm, these footprints are significantly eliminated. Locally grown and crafted cheeses are much better for the planet than large, commercial brands.

Understanding the carbon footprint of cheese, and its benefits, can help consumers make informed dietary decisions, which can impact their personal carbon footprint. 

Frequently Asked Questions About Carbon Footprint of Cheese