Ranked: Which Foods Use the Most Land?
Key Takeaways
- Lamb and mutton top the ranking at about 1,806 square feet of land per pound, followed by beef from beef herds at 1,593 square feet.
- Dark chocolate ranks fourth, requiring more land per pound than beef sourced from dairy herds.
- Lamb and mutton require roughly 96 times as much land per pound as wheat and rye, the lowest-ranked food in the dataset.
Producing food requires land for crops, livestock grazing, and animal feed, but the amount needed varies dramatically by food type.
This visualization ranks 15 foods by the amount of land required to produce one pound of product. The data for this graphic comes from Poore & Nemecek (2018), with the data processed by Our World in Data.
Lamb and Beef Dominate Land Use
Ruminant meats occupy the top two positions in the ranking. Lamb and mutton require roughly 1,806 square feet of land per pound, while beef from dedicated beef herds requires nearly 1,593 square feet.
| Rank | Food | Land use, ft²/lb |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lamb & Mutton | 1,805.6 |
| 2 | Beef (beef herd) | 1,592.7 |
| 3 | Cheese | 428.6 |
| 4 | Dark Chocolate | 336.7 |
| 5 | Beef (dairy herd) | 211.1 |
| 6 | Coffee | 105.6 |
| 7 | Pig Meat | 84.8 |
| 8 | Tree Nuts | 63.3 |
| 9 | Poultry Meat | 59.7 |
| 10 | Groundnuts | 44.5 |
| 11 | Milk | 43.7 |
| 12 | Fish (farmed) | 41.1 |
| 13 | Peas | 36.4 |
| 14 | Eggs | 30.6 |
| 15 | Wheat & Rye | 18.8 |
Both are far above every other food shown. Lamb, for example, requires more than four times as much land per pound as cheese, the third-ranked food. A major reason is that ruminant livestock can require extensive pasture in addition to land used to grow animal feed.
Many livestock products also tend to have larger carbon footprints than other food types.
Cheese and Chocolate Have Large Footprints
Cheese ranks third at 428.6 square feet per pound, reflecting the land requirements of dairy production and the amount of milk needed to produce cheese.
Dark chocolate follows at 336.7 square feet per pound, putting it ahead of beef sourced from dairy herds.
Cocoa production can have a substantial land footprint because yields per hectare are relatively low compared with many staple crops. Coffee also ranks relatively high at 105.6 square feet per pound.
Staple Crops Use Far Less Land
At the other end of the ranking, wheat and rye require just 18.8 square feet of land per pound.
Peas require 36.4 square feet per pound, while groundnuts require 44.5 square feet.
Poultry and pork also use considerably less land than beef or lamb, though their footprints remain larger than those of several plant-based foods in the ranking.
Learn More on the Voronoi App 
If you enjoyed today’s post, check out this graphic showing the foods that generate the most CO2 emissions on Voronoi.
