Beef actually wasn't at the top - surprise! Lamb edged it out.
But only because a lamb produces less edible meat relative to
the animal's overall weight. So the emissions are concentrated
in those little chops. Generally, beef and lamb are the Humvees
of food because the animals' digestive functions make a lot of
methane, a greenhouse gas with 20 times the potency of carbon
dioxide. They also are fed a lot of corn that is often heavily
fertilized and spritzed with pesticide, which adds to the
emission load. Need I mention manure? These studies make me
wince because environmentalists may have an ax - or a butcher's
knife - to grind. Still, it made me wonder. What's the best way
to lower the impact of food? To be sure, agriculture accounts
for only about 7 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas
emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency. Even though report author Kari Hamerschlag said that
number counts only production and not the full life cycle, far
more comes from transportation and ele