The carbon footprint of fresh carrots
Fresh carrots emits about 0.707 kg CO₂e per kg. Below is where that figure actually comes from — every stage of the chain, not a single headline number.
- Processing
- 0.408 kg
- 58%
- Turning the raw product into food: milling, refining, slaughter, curing.
- Transport
- 0.276 kg
- 39%
- Moving it from farm to processor to shop.
- Packaging
- 0.023 kg
- 3%
- Producing the packaging it reaches you in.
How it is grown changes the number by 53%
These are 3 separately assessed production systems for the same product. Emissions are farm-gate — the part the grower controls — and range from 0.043 to 0.092 kg CO₂e. A label on a shelf almost never tells you which one you are holding.
- Carrot, conventional, main season, Aquitaine, with water footprint, at farm gatelowest0.043
- Carrot, conventional, national average, at farm gate0.063
- Carrot, organic, Lower Normandy, at farm gate0.092
kg CO₂e per kg, cradle to farm gate. Farm-gate figures exclude processing, packaging and transport, so they sit below the full total above.
Lower-carbon alternatives
Each emits less than half as much as fresh carrots.
Similar products
Common questions
- How much CO2 does fresh carrots produce?
- About 0.707 kg CO₂e per kg, measured across the supply chain. That is roughly the same as driving 4 km in an average petrol car.
- What drives the footprint of fresh carrots?
- Processing is the largest contributor at 0.408 kg CO₂e, about 58% of the total. Transport is only 0.276 kg — which is why what you eat matters far more than how far it travelled.
- Does how fresh carrots is produced change its footprint?
- Yes, substantially. Across 3 production methods in this dataset the farm-gate emissions range from 0.043 to 0.092 kg CO₂e — a difference of 53%.
- Where does this data come from?
- The WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates peer-reviewed life-cycle assessments. This product's figures come from Frankowska et al..
Figures from the WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates published life-cycle assessments; this product's data originates from Frankowska et al., for UK. Real values vary by farm, region and method — treat these as the shape of the problem, not a measurement of any one item on your shelf.
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