The carbon footprint of Milk
Carbonle#23 of 43🥛Carbon footprintMilk
3.15kg CO₂e / kg
Same as a 18 km drive · 7× a kilo of apples
carbonle.pidak.cz
A kilogram of Milk works out to about 3.15 kg CO₂e (kg CO₂e / kg).
That lands it #23 of the 43 foods on Carbonle, middle of the pack.
The number is a farm-to-shop average. It counts land use, growing, feed, processing, transport, retail and packaging, with methane folded in as its CO₂ equivalent.
Call it 7 times a kilo of apples (0.43 kg).
Growing a kilo throws off about as much CO₂ as a 18 km drive in a diesel car.
Same cows, same methane. Milk and cheese carry it in every glass and slice.
Eat it freely. This is the kind of food a low-carbon plate is built on.
Compare with
Head-to-head
Figures from OWID / Poore & Nemecek 2018, licensed CC-BY 4.0.
How we get these numbers: Methodology.