A new study reveals that the carbon footprint of eating beef in the United States varies a lot depending on where you live. Researchers found that a burger in Houston has a bigger environmental impact than one in San Francisco, and beef in Dallas produces more emissions than in Chicago. The difference comes mostly from the type of cows the meat comes from, not how far the meat has traveled.
The study, published in Nature Climate Change, looked at about 3,500 cities and traced the path of beef from feed to grocery stores. It turns out the biggest factor affecting greenhouse gas emissions is whether the beef comes from cows raised specifically for meat or from dairy cows that are no longer producing milk. For example, in Midwestern cities like Chicago, more beef is sourced from dairy cows, which leads to a lower carbon footprint because some emissions are counted as part of milk production. On the other hand, Texas cities like Houston and parts of California rely more on cows raised just for beef, making their footprint bigger.
The city with the largest carbon footprint per pound of beef is Higginsville, Missouri. By contrast, Auburn, Indiana has the lowest. In fact, someone eating beef in Auburn would need to eat almost five times as many servings to match the emissions of one serving in Higginsville.
The study also found that the carbon impact depends on where the feed for the cows is grown. Corn grown in dry states like Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas requires a lot more water and fertilizer, which adds to greenhouse gas emissions. This makes beef feed more carbon intensive than feed for other animals like pigs, whose corn comes mostly from wetter states like Iowa and Minnesota.
The researchers used a model from the University of Minnesota that tracks feed production, livestock raising, and slaughter locations. However, the model assumes meat takes the shortest and cheapest route from farm to store, which might not always be true in real life.
Despite these differences, the main advice remains the same: eating less beef helps reduce your carbon footprint. Switching to pork or chicken is generally better for the environment because these meats produce fewer emissions.
Overall, emissions from meat eaten in U.S. cities are higher than those of some medium-sized countries like the UK or Italy. In some places, the impact of meat consumption is similar to the emissions from running a home. So cutting back on beef can be an affordable and effective way for people to shrink their carbon footprints—and it could save you money, too.