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Data

Share of global greenhouse gas emissions from food

About this data

Source
Crippa et al. (2021) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
March 10, 2021
Date range
1990–2015
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Crippa et al. – Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions

Crippa et al. (2021) quantify the greenhouse gas emissions of the food system from 1990 to 2015. This includes not only direct emissions from agriculture, but also land use change and supply chain emissions (transport, packaging, food processing, retail, consumer cooking, refrigeration and waste).

Greenhouse gas emissions are quantified on the basis of their 100-year global warming potential (GWP100) using emission factors from the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (AR5).

Emissions by country are quantified on the basis of food production, not consumption. This means they do not account for international trade.

Retrieved on
March 10, 2021
Retrieved from
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00225-9
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D. et al. Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nature Food (2021).

Crippa et al. (2021) quantify the greenhouse gas emissions of the food system from 1990 to 2015. This includes not only direct emissions from agriculture, but also land use change and supply chain emissions (transport, packaging, food processing, retail, consumer cooking, refrigeration and waste).

Greenhouse gas emissions are quantified on the basis of their 100-year global warming potential (GWP100) using emission factors from the IPCC 5th Assessment Report (AR5).

Emissions by country are quantified on the basis of food production, not consumption. This means they do not account for international trade.

Retrieved on
March 10, 2021
Retrieved from
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00225-9
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Crippa, M., Solazzo, E., Guizzardi, D. et al. Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nature Food (2021).

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Share of global greenhouse gas emissions from food”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Crippa et al.. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260512-085513/grapher/share-global-food-emissions.html [online resource] (archived on May 12, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Crippa et al. (2021) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Crippa et al. (2021) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of global greenhouse gas emissions from food” [dataset]. Crippa et al., “Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions” [original data]. Retrieved May 12, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260512-085513/grapher/share-global-food-emissions.html (archived on May 12, 2026).

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