Farmed fish vs Milk: carbon footprint

Farmed fish or Milk? Here's what each one costs the climate, measured per kilo over its whole life.

Farmed fish runs about 13.63 kg CO₂e a kilo. Milk runs 3.15.

Farmed fish is the heavier choice, about 4.3× Milk.

Swap Farmed fish for Milk and you cut about 10.48 kg a kilo, near 77% off.

Per kilo, that gap is a 61 km drive in a diesel car.

Farmed fish: Farmed fish and shrimp pay for feed, energy to run the ponds, and sometimes cleared mangroves.

Milk: Same cows, same methane. Milk and cheese carry it in every glass and slice.

Per-kilo numbers skip portion size and how the food was farmed, so take them as the shape of things, not the last word.

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Figures from OWID / Poore & Nemecek 2018, licensed CC-BY 4.0.
How we get these numbers: Methodology.