Sidd, The abstract from the paper makes a proposal to measure each farms emissions and suggest ways each producer might improve. It also suggests each consumer have the ability to choose those products with the least impacts and if I might interject support those producers that employ low emissions food production. (Labeling emission density of caloric production ... I guess)
Abstract
Food’s environmental impacts are created by millions of diverse producers. To identify solutions that are effective under this heterogeneity, we consolidated data covering five environmental indicators; 38,700 farms; and 1600 processors, packaging types, and retailers. Impact can vary 50-fold among producers of the same product, creating substantial mitigation opportunities. However, mitigation is complicated by trade-offs, multiple ways for producers to achieve low impacts, and interactions throughout the supply chain. Producers have limits on how far they can reduce impacts. Most strikingly, impacts of the lowest-impact animal products typically exceed those of vegetable substitutes, providing new evidence for the importance of dietary change. Cumulatively, our findings support an approach where producers monitor their own impacts, flexibly meet environmental targets by choosing from multiple practices, and communicate their impacts to consumers.
I would love to see those last four words etched in stone somewhere but in more ways than one we are so willing deceived . Seems simple enough to just avoid beef and dairy and any labeling would make that very clear. What's the chances of that ?
Without trying to be self righteous pigs & chickens look rather benign. As a challenge I would like to compete against other producers especially if it meant someone was accuslly willing to buy food from a farm that was a carbon sink rather than a source... I mean buy food at a premium.
Publishing the methodology of how you measure such things to any farmer willing to read and pursue improving their impacts might be a good start. But alas we are fire walled . If anyone out there could publish this studies methodology on how they measured the individual impacts of those forty thousand farms I would appreciate it.