Dark chocolate vs Rice: carbon footprint
Dark chocolate46.65kg CO₂e / kg
vs
Rice4.45kg CO₂e / kg
Dark chocolate or Rice? Here's what each one costs the climate, measured per kilo over its whole life.
Dark chocolate runs about 46.65 kg CO₂e a kilo. Rice runs 4.45.
Dark chocolate is the heavier choice, about 10× Rice.
Swap Dark chocolate for Rice and you cut about 42.2 kg a kilo, near 90% off.
Per kilo, that gap is a 247 km drive in a diesel car.
Dark chocolate: Cocoa is tied to deforestation, so a chocolate bar hides a surprisingly heavy footprint.
Rice: Modest. Fertiliser, the field itself, and a bit of milling.
Per-kilo numbers skip portion size and how the food was farmed, so take them as the shape of things, not the last word.
More match-ups
Figures from OWID / Poore & Nemecek 2018, licensed CC-BY 4.0.
How we get these numbers: Methodology.