Rice: carbon footprint per kg
Live factor value
2.01 kgCO2e per kg
Source: Agribalyse (ADEME/INRAE, France), 3.1 (revision 1). Factor set agribalyse-3.1-r1.
Rice carries a far higher footprint than the wheat and potatoes it competes with on a plate — the live figure is below, well over twice what a kilogram of baguette costs in the same database. The reason is water rather than land: flooded paddies are anaerobic, and the bacteria that thrive in waterlogged soil produce methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent over twenty years than the carbon dioxide that dominates most crop footprints.
That makes rice unusual among plant foods. Almost everything else on this side of the table is low-carbon because plants are low-carbon; rice is the case where the growing method, not the plant, sets the number. It still sits well below the meats, but it is the everyday staple where the choice between one carbohydrate and another actually moves a shopping basket.
Worked example
A 1 kg bag of rice: 1 × 2.01 = 2 kgCO2e.
Measure your own with the free food calculator.
Frequently asked questions
- Why does rice emit methane when other crops don't?
- Paddy fields are deliberately flooded, and the waterlogged soil goes anaerobic. Micro-organisms in those conditions produce methane, which conventional dryland crops never generate in meaningful quantities.
- Is brown rice different from white rice?
- Agribalyse publishes both. The difference comes from milling rather than from the field, so it is small next to the paddy methane that dominates either figure.