The carbon footprint of groundnuts
Groundnuts emits about 2.714 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of shell free, roasted nut. Below is where that figure actually comes from — every stage of the chain, not a single headline number.
- Farm
- 1.576 kg
- 58%
- Emissions on the farm itself — livestock methane, fertiliser, fuel, manure.
- Land Use Change
- 0.485 kg
- 18%
- Carbon released when forest or grassland is cleared to produce it.
- Processing
- 0.411 kg
- 15%
- Turning the raw product into food: milling, refining, slaughter, curing.
- Transport
- 0.133 kg
- 5%
- Moving it from farm to processor to shop.
- Packaging
- 0.109 kg
- 4%
- Producing the packaging it reaches you in.
How it is grown changes the number by 36%
These are 5 separately assessed production systems for the same product. Emissions are farm-gate — the part the grower controls — and range from 2.824 to 4.433 kg CO₂e. A label on a shelf almost never tells you which one you are holding.
- Walnut, dried inshell, varieties with lateral fructification, conventional, at farm gatelowest2.824
- Walnut, dried inshell, conventional, national average, at farm gate3.695
- Walnut, dried inshell, national average, at farm gate3.798
- Walnut, dried inshell, traditional varieties, conventional, at farm gate3.985
- Walnut, dried inshell, traditional varieties, organic, at farm gate4.433
kg CO₂e per 1 kg of shell free, roasted nut, 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 groundnuts.
Similar products
Common questions
- How much CO2 does groundnuts produce?
- About 2.714 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of shell free, roasted nut, measured across the supply chain. That is roughly the same as driving 16 km in an average petrol car.
- What drives the footprint of groundnuts?
- Farm is the largest contributor at 1.576 kg CO₂e, about 58% of the total. Transport is only 0.133 kg — which is why what you eat matters far more than how far it travelled.
- Does how groundnuts is produced change its footprint?
- Yes, substantially. Across 5 production methods in this dataset the farm-gate emissions range from 2.824 to 4.433 kg CO₂e — a difference of 36%.
- 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 Poore & Nemecek (2018).
Figures from the WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates published life-cycle assessments; this product's data originates from Poore & Nemecek (2018), for global. 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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