Our dietary choices have an impact on the environment and even the best choices can cause carbon emissions. Traditional rice farming, which floods fields with water every year, releases methane, a carbon-equivalent (CO2e) gas that has a global warming potential 28 times greater than CO2. Author Mike Berners-Lee explains: Carbon footprint of everything, 1 kilogram of rice produces 2.2 lbs. CO2e under average production conditions translates to 1.69 pounds. per dry cup of rice you cooked.
Still, rice is a great option for a more sustainable diet. „Globally, it supplies 20 percent of the world's food energy in exchange for 20 percent of its carbon dioxide emissions,“ Berners-Lee writes. The good news is that new farming methods that reduce emissions are being adopted in the United States and Asia, making them part of virtually every diet.
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