The carbon footprint of potatoes
Potatoes emits about 0.331 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fresh produce. Below is where that figure actually comes from — every stage of the chain, not a single headline number.
- Farm
- 0.193 kg
- 58%
- Emissions on the farm itself — livestock methane, fertiliser, fuel, manure.
- Transport
- 0.094 kg
- 28%
- Moving it from farm to processor to shop.
- Packaging
- 0.045 kg
- 14%
- Producing the packaging it reaches you in.
Land Use Change is negative (-0.001 kg) for this food — growing it stores more carbon in soil and vegetation than the change releases. That credit is already subtracted from the 0.331 kg total.
How it is grown changes the number by 22%
These are 5 separately assessed production systems for the same product. Emissions are farm-gate — the part the grower controls — and range from 0.058 to 0.074 kg CO₂e. A label on a shelf almost never tells you which one you are holding.
- Starch potato, conventional, national average, at farm gatelowest0.058
- Ware potato, conventional, variety mix, national average, at farm gate0.063
- Ware potato, conventional, for fresh market, other varieties, at farm gate0.064
- Ware potato, conventional, for industrial use, at farm gate0.064
- Ware potato, conventional, for fresh market, firm flesh varieties, at farm gate0.074
kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fresh produce, 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 potatoes.
Similar products
Common questions
- How much CO2 does potatoes produce?
- About 0.331 kg CO₂e per 1 kg of fresh produce, measured across the supply chain. That is roughly the same as driving 2 km in an average petrol car.
- What drives the footprint of potatoes?
- Farm is the largest contributor at 0.193 kg CO₂e, about 58% of the total. Transport is only 0.094 kg — which is why what you eat matters far more than how far it travelled.
- Does how potatoes is produced change its footprint?
- Yes, substantially. Across 5 production methods in this dataset the farm-gate emissions range from 0.058 to 0.074 kg CO₂e — a difference of 22%.
- 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 Clune et al. (2017).
Figures from the WRAP UK Food & Drink Emission Factor Database v2.0, which aggregates published life-cycle assessments; this product's data originates from Clune et al. (2017), 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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