It has been suggested beef production is bad for the environment, but researchers out of the Weizmann Institute of Science have put an actual cost on the industry and say beef takes the highest toll when compared with other animal-derived foods.
Led by Ron Milo of the institute’s Department of Plant Sciences, a team of researchers compared the five main sources of protein in the American diet (dairy, beef, poultry, pork and eggs) to see which product has the least environmental impact. Their idea was to calculate the environmental costs of each food source per nutritional unit: a calorie or gram of protein.