The carbon footprint of mutton & goat meat
Mutton & Goat Meat emits about 33.524 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fat and bone-free meat and edible offal. Below is where that figure actually comes from — every stage of the chain, not a single headline number.
- Farm
- 27.026 kg
- 81%
- Emissions on the farm itself — livestock methane, fertiliser, fuel, manure.
- Feed
- 3.283 kg
- 10%
- Growing, processing and shipping the crops the animals eat.
- Processing
- 1.54 kg
- 5%
- Turning the raw product into food: milling, refining, slaughter, curing.
- Transport
- 0.679 kg
- 2%
- Moving it from farm to processor to shop.
- Land Use Change
- 0.648 kg
- 2%
- Carbon released when forest or grassland is cleared to produce it.
- Packaging
- 0.348 kg
- 1%
- Producing the packaging it reaches you in.
How it is grown changes the number by 79%
These are 5 separately assessed production systems for the same product. Emissions are farm-gate — the part the grower controls — and range from 11.455 to 54.918 kg CO₂e. A label on a shelf almost never tells you which one you are holding.
- Lamb, conventional, Roquefort system, at farm gatelowest11.455
- Lamb, organic, system n°2, at farm gate27.351
- Lamb, organic, system n°1, at farm gate32.568
- Lamb, conventional, indoor production system, at farm gate42.42
- Lamb, organic, system n°3, at farm gate54.918
kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fat and bone-free meat and edible offal, 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 mutton & goat meat.
Similar products
Common questions
- How much CO2 does mutton & goat meat produce?
- About 33.524 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fat and bone-free meat and edible offal, measured across the supply chain. That is roughly the same as driving 197 km in an average petrol car.
- What drives the footprint of mutton & goat meat?
- Farm is the largest contributor at 27.026 kg CO₂e, about 81% of the total. Transport is only 0.679 kg — which is why what you eat matters far more than how far it travelled.
- Does how mutton & goat meat is produced change its footprint?
- Yes, substantially. Across 5 production methods in this dataset the farm-gate emissions range from 11.455 to 54.918 kg CO₂e — a difference of 79%.
- 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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