The environmental impact of Brazilian adults’ diet

Abstract

Over the last years, dietary environmental impact and sustainable diets have been responsible for worldwide concern, especially in developed countries. Brazil is among the world’s largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters and the country does not have any specific food consumption measures to achieve the promise made at COP21. The main objective of our paper is analyzing the contribution of the Brazilian diet in terms of carbon, water and ecological footprint. We collected data in the National Dietary Survey for food intake and life cycle assessment literature database to estimate the composition of the current diet in Brazil. We used independent t tests and ANOVA tests to understand the differences among sociodemographic and income characteristics related to Brazilian adults’ diet. The environmental impact related to the Brazilian diet is very high, with beef consumption contributing to the largest share. Male household heads, with medium and low income, aged between 18 and 45 years old, with intermediate or less education level, who lives in rural areas in Midwest and Northeast regions were associated with higher environmental impact. Therefore, measures related to demand have great potential to reduce the environmental impact in Brazil.