The water footprint and carbon footprint of a burger and its analogues of plant origin

Abstract

Food production has become one of the most outstanding social, environmental and economic challenges of the last century. In order to promote the incorporation of sustainable prepared dishes into the agrifood market, the present project aims to assess the environmental performance of three different burgers: a beef burger certified as “IGP Ternera de Navarra”, a mixed burger (50% beef and 50% vegetable - soy, beans and rice) and a vegetable burger (soy, beans and rice) by comparing the water use efficiency and the CO2 emissions relative to their nutritional value. The environmental indicators used to perform the current study were the Water Footprint (WF), the Carbon Footprint (CF) and their respective nutritional productivity indexes. The water needed to produce the beef burger was 1.8 times greater than the quantity needed to produce the mixed burger and 21 times greater in the case of the vegetable one. In turn, regarding the CF, the beef burger emitted approximately 2 times more kgCO2e along the supply chain when compared to the mixed burger; and 13 times more than the vegetable one. However, when taking into account the approximate carbon fixation values of grasslands, the beef burger seemed to offset its emissions by far. More research is needed on this issue. The vegetal burger appeared to be richer in carbohydrates and proteins than the meat and mixed burgers. The vegetal burger therefore was more sustainable in terms of water use and carbon emissions and more nourishing than the meat and mixed options. The mixed burger shows intermediate environmental and nutritional values.