The carbon footprint of poultry meat
Poultry Meat emits about 8.169 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.
- Land Use Change
- 3.508 kg
- 43%
- Carbon released when forest or grassland is cleared to produce it.
- Feed
- 2.452 kg
- 30%
- Growing, processing and shipping the crops the animals eat.
- Farm
- 0.928 kg
- 11%
- Emissions on the farm itself — livestock methane, fertiliser, fuel, manure.
- Processing
- 0.607 kg
- 7%
- Turning the raw product into food: milling, refining, slaughter, curing.
- Transport
- 0.381 kg
- 5%
- Moving it from farm to processor to shop.
- Packaging
- 0.293 kg
- 4%
- Producing the packaging it reaches you in.
How it is grown changes the number by 84%
These are 8 separately assessed production systems for the same product. Emissions are farm-gate — the part the grower controls — and range from 2.707 to 17.103 kg CO₂e. A label on a shelf almost never tells you which one you are holding.
- Broiler; Bleu Blanc Coeur, at farm gatelowest2.707
- Broiler, conventional, at farm gate3.505
- Broiler, national average, at farm gate3.725
- Broiler, Label Rouge, at farm gate5.286
- Chicken, organic, system n°2, at farm gate6.276
- Chicken, organic, system n°1, at farm gate6.297
- Cull hen, organic, system n°1, at farm gate17.103
- Cull hen, organic, system n°2, at farm gate17.103
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 poultry meat.
Similar products
Common questions
- How much CO2 does poultry meat produce?
- About 8.169 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 48 km in an average petrol car.
- What drives the footprint of poultry meat?
- Land Use Change is the largest contributor at 3.508 kg CO₂e, about 43% of the total. Transport is only 0.381 kg — which is why what you eat matters far more than how far it travelled.
- Does how poultry meat is produced change its footprint?
- Yes, substantially. Across 8 production methods in this dataset the farm-gate emissions range from 2.707 to 17.103 kg CO₂e — a difference of 84%.
- 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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