How green is your feast?

The relatively low carbon output of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner

By Culinate staff

November 25, 2009

Turns out, all the turkey feasting typical of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner may not lead to as much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere as you might think.

Using the fun-to-play-with Low Carbon Calculator from Bon Appetit Management Company, you’ll learn that 4 ounces of turkey has a relatively low carbon-emissions equivalent (CO2E) of 613 (as compared with a whopping 7,641 for beef tenderloin).

And surprise: if vegetarian is your menu preference, the CO2E of tofu curry — which could be extrapolated to the arguably classic Tofurkey — comes in at 1,295. So maybe it’s better to stick with vegetables, which, according to the calculator, have very low counts.

More good news for those who love turkey leftovers: According to food-waste expert Jon Bloom and others, minimizing food waste is an effective way to minimize carbon emissions.